Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
One of my granddaughter Charlotte’s favorite videos now is the wonderful E.B.White story, Charlotte’s Web, which tells the story of how the smart spider Charlotte keeps Wilbur the pig off the dinner plate. One of the major characters of the tale is Templeton, a lazy and eventually corpulent rat who gathers words for Charlotte to […]
Well not really. Back in the Nutmeg State after nearly a month in Florida I am typing between shoveling expeditions as we are in the midst of yet another Nor’easter. Apparently after I left for warmer climes, Connecticut like much of the country, had been hit by wave after wave of bad weather. In the […]
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 […]
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 […]
It was strange to see woolly bear caterpillars in late July. These inaccurate prognosticators of winter usually make their appearances in late August or early September as a first brush with cooler winds reminds us that fall is just around the corner. But this buggy memento of changing weather was not the only hint that […]
August is the time of year where I can kick back a bit and survey the garden without guilt. The rapid planting and weeding of spring is long since over and the clean up and pruning of fall has yet to come. It is too hot to split wood (at least that is what I […]
In the Northeast we seem to be caught in a perpetual shower. The days are gray with light peaking through irregularly never long enough to dry a single plant. We have not had a sunny day for the last 10 days nor are we forecasted to have one for the next 10. I continue to […]
The earth turns up new treasures with each season. After the final melt, Juana has me scour the hills looking for new stones that she can direct me to add to a wall or a garden outline. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular today, but after a foot of rain over the last few […]
As I went to harvest some rhubarb the other day, I noticed a few slugs making their way up a stalk to start chomping on a leaf. There are few creatures that will eat a rhubarb leaf as its inclusion of oxalic acid often makes its ingestion toxic. But slugs don’t seem to care as […]
Today’s downpour courteous Tropical Storm Andrea is yet another example of the unexpected typical weather patterns we have had this year. Over the past week the temperatures have varied from the low 40s to the mid 90s. We went from no rain for 10 days to 6 inches in one. It continues to amaze me […]