Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
The weather this fall has been frenetic. Snow, heat, drenching rain, drought. We have seen it all. Or so I thought. Last week in a middle of a stretch of Indian summer we were invaded by Mexican bean beetles. Thousands. I don’t know much about its life cycle but I think the snow and cold […]
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 […]
The wonderful thing about a garden is that you never really know what will grow and when. We can pretend that we know that if we plant a lettuce seed and follow the directions that it will sprout within a week. But sometimes that doesn’t happen for a variety reasons (poor soil, old seed, not […]
Leaving one’s garden as it is coming into its own is a bittersweet event filled with mixed emotions. I now pack for a lengthy and hopefully exotic stay on a beach in Kauai. After spending the last half year in dormancy and now bursting out in full bloom, my garden calls out with the most […]
I know how Noah must have felt. The Northeast has had a spring that makes the Northwest look like the Sahara Desert as we have had fewer days of sun than I have fingers. Most folks I talk with hate this weather and its associated gloom and dampness. Few plants are coming out with the […]