Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. The same can also be said for dandelions except you make muffins. The lawn is chock full of dandelion flowers and I have enlisted Juana and Olivia to be my helpers to harvest the makings of dandelion muffins. Olivia is more interested in dropping the spent blossoms […]
Our average daily harvest.
With the beginning of May and a full moon comes the time to harvest sweet woodruff and make May wine. This concoction originated in Germany (Maiwein) and has been used for hundreds of years to treat a variety of ailments. Juana and I make it every year because it is so delish. The recipe is […]
May is when my greenhouse is bursting as all my inside seedlings need to start the hardening off process as well as be transplanted. In addition, I stopped at @gilbertiesorganics for my yearly pickup of herbs for @annsplaceinc. So between the two, I need to keep the space extra tidy to make room. Gilberties, like […]
Olivia has picked out a couple of pansy plants she wants us to pot up in a window box. I’m not sure where they will wind up but I am sure we will have fun figuring that out.
I consider myself fortunate to have been announced a finalist of the Eric Hoffer Book Award for my book, A Therapist’s Garden. This contest awards books in small, academic and independent presses. Over this past year, I have received much encouragement and kindness concerning my book, which recounts my 20 plus years working in horticultural […]
Water and heat. Those two elements have caused an explosion of simultaneous blooms on bushes and trees alike. Everything is alive at once. The redbud is full of lovely and tasty flowers. We have already started to harvest some blooms with their green-bean like taste as a topping for salads. Its neighbor, a crabapple, is […]
Right now pansies and violas are pretty much all you can find at garden centers and they are the best plants for flower pounding. This exercise takes a flower and through the use of brute force (and a hammer) transfers the image of a flower to paper or cloth. We are back to in-person, unmasked […]
Spring salads from the garden are the tastiest as the long wait between fresh harvests is finally over. Though I have tons of claytonia, I can finally mix it up with other plants both cultivated and wild. From the garden, I harvest a few leaves of claytonia and butter crunch butterhead lettuce. For a bit […]
It’s an early spargel season (or asparagus to those who don’t speak German). The last two weeks in the garden have been more than hectic as the temperatures turned a barren canopy and grounds into late Spring lushness. We have been eating greens from the garden for over a month as the claytonia explodes. Even […]