Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
My wife Juana has always said that we need to share our crops with our animal and avian friends. I agree with her to a degree though I point out to her that the definition of the word share, a part of a whole, esp. a portion allotted or assigned to a member of a […]
One of my favorite summer pleasures is al fresco dining. Sitting outside, particularly early in the morning with my newspaper and coffee is an elemental pleasure. On Sunday mornings it is even more sublime as the din of autos, delivery trucks, landscapers, etc. are eliminated leaving me just the birds and the simple rustle of […]
August is the time of year when it seems almost unnecessary to go to the supermarket as our garden produces more food than we can consume. We are awash in berries, greens, beans, tomatoes and cuks. It sometimes gets a little repetitive. “More beans?,” says Juana as I bring in enough for us every evening. […]
As bleak as the winter and spring have been in the garden, the summer appears to be making up for it. We have long since cut down and dug up all the dead plants, the roses and butterfly bushes, letting the existing perennials and opportunistic annuals take their place. A few, like the fig tree […]
With Spring at my front door, I have always looked forward to an early harvest of wintered-over greens that I had planted in the fall. Kale, Swiss Chard, spinach, Miner’s Lettuce, mustard and the like have been ready for the picking and sampling. Tender sprouts of sorrel are ready to taste and enjoy. These late […]
After a long absence, I’ve returned to giving classes at Ann’s Place. It hasn’t been from lack of desire or planning but from a combination of illness, vacation and bad weather that has kept me away for two-and-a-half months. I decide to start out with an easy exercise in making vanilla but as it takes […]
Before the frost, I took stock of my garden and started to bed down and clean up the soil. We have had an unusually warm and dry fall and yet to have a frost by the end of October. But such luck was about to run out as the forecast predicted an evening in the […]
The other day Juana, Charlotte and I walked into town to visit the local Farmer’s Market. It was an usually warm day that was counterbalanced by the falling leaves and the colors of fall. There were only a few stands with produce but they were thoroughly stocked. We were expecting the fall crops of peppers, […]
We came back from a two-week tropical in the land of mangos, papayas and tropical fish to falling leaves, colder temperatures and a lower, less intense sun. While the warmth of the past week or so has been welcome, it is but a last gasp tease of what we had will no longer be. A […]
You can never tell how well (or badly) a horticultural therapy will be received. My last session on growing an early kitchen spring garden maxed out with a baker’s dozen of clients who crammed around the table. It appeared that some just came not expecting what to get out of the day, but the idea […]