Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
It’s a cool, cloudy day for Ted and me as we start our 8-day ride in the Laurentians. The trail officially starts in St. Jerome and we will bike to a B&B in Mont Blanc, nearly 50 miles away, today. A giant arch signifies the start and we stretch our bicycle legs as we make […]
Ted and I have hit the road again with our bikes for our annual Le Tour de Geezers. It is hard to believe but this will be our seventh bike adventure together in eight years. We return to Canada where we road and ate our weights in seafood through Prince Edward Island. But this is […]
Living in a house for over 30 years gives perspective to change. We used to have a trio of healthy sugar maples in the front yard and now we have just one showing signs of decay. But unlike the other ones that rotted out at the main trunk, this one is dying from the top. […]
After a cool and cloudy May, June has exploded with growth and harvests. For most of May, asparagus, greens and rhubarb were the only things we were pulling from the grounds. But with a shot of heat, rain, and sun, my other plants are catching up. The most anticipated (at least among my grandchildren) is […]
Though I have retired from Ann’s Place, I still have my hands in the horticultural therapy loam. I will be teaching an on-line course on Tuesday, May 7, 10-12 am, eastern time, on the topic of horticultural therapy as well as therapeutic horticulture. It is being sponsored by UConn’s Master Gardener Classes. In it I […]
In many ways, Spring is appropriately named. Its pent-up anticipation prior to the arrival of the equinox is akin to that of a child, Christmas morning, held back, unable to run to the tree to open his or her gifts. There are a few signs: snowdrop and muscari bulbs emerging, the slight greening of willows, […]
For the last few days, our feeders have been bombarded by countless goldfinches. They perch on a small dogwood in the back like so many Christmas ornaments waiting their turn at one of the feeders we have scattered around the property. This morning their numbers seemed to increase with a dusting of snow that added […]
It’s another year where we will start serving up Spring salads from the garden. I had pre-seeded both cold frames last Fall. Both had been doing well though December delivering delicious salad greens. But by mid-January a combination of extended temperatures in the teens and a rodent invasion basically stopped the harvests. Leaving for Florida, […]
Returning home after five weeks in warmer climes, we didn’t know what to expect. It appeared that we missed only one major snow storm. So we were pleasantly surprised on what we discovered. The hellebores, aptly named Lenten Roses, have started to bloom reminding me to remove their desiccated leaves from last year. Not too […]
The winds have changed this past week from north to south. And with this change comes new visitors to the beach. The most obvious are the lines of sea detritus washing up with each successive tide. A mash up of grasses and seaweed lines the beach as would an intricate necklace around the neck of […]