Beautyberries
Beautyberry is one of my favorite autumn berry bushes (and one of the few to sport fruit this year). Its brightly colored berries persist through the season and are yet another of Nature’s late year bird feeders. Because of my location, I am not able to grow the Native American variety but its Japanese counterpart […]
Forced inactivity
It’s in between seasons and a pending surgery on my knee affords me the opportunity to observe and contemplate more than is typical in the garden. Walking around the property, crutch in arm, I take a close look at a rhododendron that is suffering no doubt to the lack of rain. I will need to […]
Tough Winter ahead
I think this will be a tough Winter for the wildlife that frequents our gardens. The hummingbird feeder needs replenishment more frequently than is typical. Chickadees fight for space on the thistle feeder, which we have just put out for the migrating goldfinches and pine siskins. The goldfinches attack, pecking the Swiss chard, whose leaves […]
A new season
With the first day of autumn comes the changing of the seasonal pictures in our kitchen. A quartet of heads, each representing a different season, gets readjusted. These whimsical portraits were created by Italian master, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who is well known for his use of fruits and vegetables to create distinctive images. Old man autumn […]
Fall flowers
In a few days, Autumn will arrive but new and familiar flowers continue to surprise. The latest additions are autumn crocuses that emerged over the weekend next to the lupines I seeded a year ago. Their unusually large form, emerging from the ground with a white stem transforming into light, blue petals seems so ephemeral. […]
Droplets
After I finish watering the gardens, I grab the compost bucket to feed the pile. Walking by Juana’s kitchen herb patch, I notice on my left the nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) leaves holding droplets of water that look like tiny, shimmering jewels. Only a few can manage this balancing act. Upon closer inspection, they appear more […]
Nature’s spitball
Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) is one of my favorite wild plants this time of year as it has three big things going for it. First, even before it starts flowering, it is wonderful as an antipruritic for poison ivy as well as insect bites. We found an immediate use for it years ago when we were […]
Winter greens
Setting up in the garage for my horticultural therapy classes is getting easier with practice. This one is about growing greens in the Fall and Winter, which excites and puzzles some of my clients. “It’s not that hard to grow greens year round if you know just a little bit about what to plant and […]
Glistening ferns
The asparagus ferns hold onto an unfamiliar friend: water. Drops, lit by the morning sun, cling to their lacy structures not wanting to leave. At seven feet high, the ferns are in their final phases of feeding their crowns buried deep in the soil. I have been stingy this year in watering them, only giving […]
Starting winter greens
It is time to get the winter greens going in the garden. In the middle of August I start two 1020 trays of arugula, hearty greens and winter lettuces that I will transplant by mid-September. Around Labor Day, I start plugs of individual greens, Swiss Chard, kale, Claytonia (miner’s lettuce) and Verte de Cambral (corn […]