Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
It has been a toasty and dry summer on the East Coast, with nary a drop of rain from the sky to my yard in weeks. Thunderstorms roll through on a regular basis but it seems as if an invisible umbrella extends over my property as they hint of but never deliver water. Unlike last […]
Though too few in number, we have experienced some spectacular sunsets. A few days ago, one particular sunset displayed for us constant changes in color and luminance. Every moment a new set of colors and shades emerged. Pinks, blues, reds, oranges. In the front of the horizon, behind us, on the side. It was one […]
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 […]
Now that we have been in Florida for a week, my wife and I have thoroughly thawed out and started to brown up. In driving from the Northern portion of the state to the Florida Keys, the changes in vegetation were much more subtle than what we experienced on the earlier parts of our drive […]
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 […]
It seems as if Mother Nature wants we Northeasterners to no longer think of gardening as she continues to drop the white stuff our way. We shouldn’t feel singled out, however, as many areas of the U.S. have been dumped on earlier than is characteristic. After breakfast I went outside in a light rain to […]
We went to get our Christmas tree this past weekend but before we left we got a two-inch blast of snow that left a clear coat of white over the garden and the rest of the yard. So before the snow arrived I took one last tour of the garden to see if there had […]
As a gardener, there are many things that can be done to ensure that whatever we plant grows well. We can recondition the soil with compost, manure and other enhancements; we can plant items best suited to the environment; and we can tend to our gardens faithfully. But the one thing we can’t do is […]