Apprentice to a Garden: A new urban gardener goes wild by Evelyn Hadden is a collection of essays chronicling the development of Hadden's garden and her growth as a gardener. Evelyn starts out as "the omnipotent landowner," but gradually discovers that she doesn't know enough to be a totalitarian dictator. She begins observing more, and [...]
December 2013
I Bought A Houseplant
December 17, 2013 – Posted in: HelleboresThere's nothing extraordinary about buying a houseplant, except I just got done whining about how I'm sick of caring for houseplants. Go ahead, call me a hypocrite; I'll wait. Now that we've got that over with, let me tell you about this holiday plant. 'HGC Jacob' hellebore is a perennial. This is not really a [...]
Tired of Houseplants!: Garden Bloggers Bloom Day December 2013
December 15, 2013 – Posted in: What's up/bloomingI have nothing blooming for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Oops. I take that back. My African violet is blooming. It puts out flushes of bloom, despite the fact that I don't water it very consistently. I just happened to luck out this month. No Bloom From Thanksgiving or Christmas Cacti At least one of my [...]
Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life: Book Review
December 10, 2013 – Posted in: Book reviewsCount me among the legion of Beatrix Potter's fans. I love the illustrations in her children's books, and just as much--perhaps more--I love the language of those stories. It pleased my childish ear--and still does today--that the "friendly sparrows," overhearing Peter's sobs, "implored him to exert himself." And that Mr. McGregor "came up with a [...]
Mentors in the Garden of Life: Book Review
December 6, 2013 – Posted in: Book reviewsGardening teaches you about life, it's often been said, and Colleen Plimpton, in Mentors in the Garden of Life, makes this connection explicit. Each essay in her memoir pairs an influential person in her life with a plant. I always tried to guess how the plant and the person were tied together, and I was [...]
Recent Comments