When we first moved here, a bridge across the creek was a fantasy, something that might happen someday if I somehow came into a lot of money. But this year, something changed. Actually, probably a lot of things changed, things inside of me as well as external things. But the proximate cause was my desire [...]
Meditations
In Appreciation of Frost
October 27, 2015 – Posted in: MeditationsWe live in a valley, and while we are still waiting for the sun to shine on our house, we see it illuminating the hillside behind us, especially as the sun's angle changes as we approach the winter solstice. The contrast between the sunny autumn foliage and the shadowy frost-coated lawn was striking, and I [...]
Winter Bones: Lilactree Farm Garden Notes No. 1, 2015
January 16, 2015 – Posted in: Lilactree Farm, Meditations, WeatherWhat a dark fall and early winter this has been, cold too, now. Hal Borland was right when he wrote that ‘as the day lengthens, the cold strengthens.’ This morning is a brief reprieve, grey again but calm and mild, impossible to resist taking the camera into the garden.
What Treasures Have Been Stolen by this Winter?
March 31, 2014 – Posted in: Lilactree Farm, Meditations, WeatherSunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ~John Ruskin, quoted in Adam Gopnik, Winter. It is a truth almost universally acknowledged that this has been a bear of a winter, battering to the body [...]
Autumn Mourning
October 4, 2013 – Posted in: Garden chores, Meditations, What's up/bloomingThe weather has been glorious. Perfectly blue skies providing a backdrop as the leaves change to their brilliant autumnal colors. It makes my heart sing--and mourn.Not because winter is coming, per se. I live in a cold climate; winter is supposed to come.But not before I get through my gardening list! Yes, by the time [...]
Garden Epiphanies
April 13, 2013 – Posted in: Design, Garden chores, How-to, MeditationsGardening experience, for the most part, is accrued bit by bit, as decisions are made to do this chore before the other, plants die and we know why--or we don't--and mental notes are made about what is blooming when. But every so often, the gardener has an epiphany, a light bulb moment. These milestones represent [...]
Why I Garden
November 24, 2009 – Posted in: Featured, Flowers on the Brain, MeditationsWhy do I garden? Why does an artist paint? Why does a pianist spend days practicing for an hour long concert? The truth is, I don't know why I garden. I don't know why I have an affinity for plants, a need to see them thrive, a hungering for their beauty. As a child, I [...]
The Juneberry Room
May 3, 2009 – Posted in: Meditations, What's up/bloomingThe Juneberries started blooming a week ago. They have such a short-lived but ethereal beauty that it just about breaks my heart even as it soars. When you have acreage, as we do, you find yourself nicknaming certain parts of your property so you can refer others to it: the secret garden, the duck pond, [...]
Garden Remedies: What’s the Appeal? (Tell us and win a free book)
February 19, 2008 – Posted in: MeditationsAfter reading about some of these so-called remedies in Jeff Gillman's first book, The Truth About Garden Remedies: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why, it's gotten me wondering what it is that makes gardeners try them in the first place. Here are some of my thoughts; see if you can add to them. Fear of [...]
Why aren’t there more young(er) gardeners?
December 14, 2007 – Posted in: Meditations, MiscellaneousNot too long ago I was ruminating on the possible reasons why more older gardeners aren't blogging. Besides all the reasons I mentioned in that post, there was also a more personal reason for thinking about it. Let's face it, this is my future we're looking at. Already my vision is worse than it used [...]
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