Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
It has been nearly 11 months since the installation of a new septic field “altered” my yard necessitating a rethinking and landscaping of a good chunk of our property. Remarkably it has emerged more lovely than we could have expected. New beds now holding blueberry and blackberry bushes are maturing, the asters and flowering quinces […]
As I ranted before, I had a disagreement with one of our friendly groundhogs. He thought it was fine to eat through my gate and garden whereas I thought differently. There was no way to stop it from entering my grounds because for every hole I filled with rocks and dirt, another was dug. Unless […]
Each time I place either a seed or a plant into the ground, it is with the hope that something wonderful will happen. Or at the very least I will get a response in the affirmative. For me seeds continue to be a mystery as when you plant a plant (rather than a seed) all […]
Even though it seemed early, the lower stalks of my garlic were turning brown with the tips in full shrivel. I shouldn’t have been surprised as a few weeks ago had we started to cut garlic scapes that would be added to salads and stir-fry dishes. With a very delicate flavor and texture, their inclusion […]
While most of the tourists in Washington D.C. go to places like the Air & Space or Holocaust Museums, we spent much of our spare time last weekend at the National Arboretum and Botanic Garden. As the weather was hot and thick with humidity, the opportunity to spend some reflective time walking among tropical trees, […]
It is the end of perhaps the most harsh February that I have had the displeasure to experience in recent memory. The worst was the winter of 1996 where nearly 120 inches of snow dropped in the Danbury, CT, region. But this winter is right up there with relentless blizzards coming one after another. Now […]
We fled the North nearly three weeks ago to embrace the warmth of the South, in particular the Florida Keys, but like many snowbirds have discovered that we need to crowd together to stay warm rather than luxuriate alone in a humid, warm climate. Don’t get me wrong, mid-60 degree temperatures (during the day) beats […]
While it is snowing today and recoating the ground with a clean white blanket, earlier this week we were treated to one of the typical albeit unpredictable thaws that often occurs in late January or early February. A southern storm moved up the coast doubling the temperature to a balmy 55 degrees and dumped three […]
I was hoping that this winter would be milder so that I could get some greens from the garden, but with night time temperatures in the single digits and the beds as hard as rock, nothing is growing. Technically, little grows in the winter garden as it is merely a refrigerator for certain plants holding […]
Santa and relatives were very good to me this year as I received a surfeit of books and tools for the garden. One of the books, Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart, was a real eye opener as I never realized how dangerous and deadly are many of the plants that reside in our garden. I […]