An embarrassment of vegetables
Though a heat wave is abating, the early signs of fall are in the air. A few leaves are beginning to turn and the sun has started to set over the hill much earlier than has been typical for the past few months. In another few weeks, the back yard will be in the shade […]
Catching up
It’s been over two months since I last blogged and it hasn’t been for lack garden tasks. It seemed that whenever I sat down to write, something came up. In the last few months I have run a number of therapy classes on pounding flowers, carnivorous plants, fall salad seedlings, flavored vinegars and invasive plants. […]
Therapy on hold
It’s been too long since I have last posted, which has been due to a combination of events out of my control. The first, and perhaps most relevant, is that I am between horticultural therapy programs. I am no longer working at Green Chimneys as a volunteer, as my mentor has moved on to other […]
Cutting flowers, exposing memories
Part of the practice of horticultural therapy is to help clients work through or at least realize their challenges. Before you can begin to do that, particularly for emotional or social issues, you must first gain the trust of your client. In working with the children at Green Chimneys I have found that one of […]
Going home to New Jersey
Working at Green Chimneys is full of paradoxes. One of the biggest ones that I don’t understand is the rationale behind the rule that staff are not allowed to discuss the entire life cycle of animals, particularly when they die. On a farm, life and death is common. Animals get sick and die, chickens that […]
Stalling out
We have started to settle into a new regime with new digs between a donkey and a camel. The stalls are rather spacious though the smell of dung lingers until acclimation sets in. Tables are set up and we have started to decorate. Our berths now are dedicated to “Man-O-Melon” and “Peabiscuit,” our vegan view […]
Charlotte Rose Monday
Perhaps it is fitting that my granddaughter Charlotte Rose was born last Monday, which was Rosenmontag (Rose Monday). This day before the beginning of Lent is the highlight of the German celebration of carnival very similar to the Mardi Gras celebration held in New Orleans (and other cities in the U.S.) on Fat Tuesday. For […]
Flower power
As most aspects of the garden wind down, cleaning old beds and pulling dead or soon to die plants takes priority this time of year. It has always seemed bittersweet to liberate plants from the soil right after or even during their peak. That was the case a little over a month ago at Green […]
Getting and giving back
For a variety of reasons, I wasn’t able to spend that much time this summer at Green Chimneys so it’s been good to return on a regular basis and work with a new crop of children. Of my old charges, only one is a repeat, which is bittersweet as I miss my former students while […]
Planting time
The counterbalancing forces of the old and new hit hard when returning to school in September. On the old side, there is the garden, which is in the final throes of harvest and for many is ready to be put to bed for the remainder of the year. On the new side are the seedlings—students—that […]