Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
I was honored to discover last week that my book, A Therapist’s Garden, was listed as a finalist for the 2023 Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards. Even sweeter, it was chosen in two categories—general non-fiction and Health/Medicine/Fitness/Dieting. Writing A Therapist’s Garden has been such a great experience as I have been able […]
It is slim pickings in the vegetable garden. After a few frosts we have a couple of crops left: sorrel, herbs, leeks, greens and radishes. The greens will last through Christmas, hopefully, but the radishes are fewer in number. Juana asked me to pull a couple the other day for a dish she was preparing. […]
One of the last things I remove from the garden in Fall are asparagus leaves. They look more like ferns but that would be to confuse them with their ornamental relative. They tower over the neighboring rhubarb and strawberry plants in one of my many perennial beds. This morning in the early sun, they glisten […]
The witch hazel at @annsplaceinc looks even more spectacular than normal as its background is mostly empty of greenery. Its feathery, mid-to-late Autumn butter yellow flowers stand out in their color and unusualness. Witch hazels are an unusual example of co-evolution as they are pollinated by the winter moth, which can raise its body temperature […]
Though the American chestnut tree is but a faint memory and presence, its Chinese counterpart has mostly taken its place in the landscape (for now). Working last week at McKeon farm in Ridgefield, one of my fellow commissioners sent me a picture of harvested chestnuts from a tree at the far end of its orchard. […]
The first frost is expected in the next few days. With that event, more leaves will fall and the tender perennials with shrivel. But some of the plants I tend come into their own as others fade with the season. This year’s Japanese beautyberry is the most spectacular of the group as its long, pendulous […]
Though most of our harvests are past, we are still working the soil. It is now time to plant garlic. I enlist Juana and Olivia to help me today. It is a bright crisp day with only a few clouds painting the sky and a slight breeze rustling the trees. The trees are still holding […]
Juana and I take the opportunity to harvest saffron from the crocuses. It has been a miserable few days with rain and a chill keeping both of us close to the warm, yellow and red fire blazing in the stove. Still, we both are happy waking to clear skies this morning progressing to a sunny, […]
We had an opportunity to visit a local prairie, a special and vanishing ecosystem. They differ from meadows in that they don’t favor the growth of trees and have many more wildflowers and grasses. We have see a few monarch butterflies making their migration toward Mexico, but it is late in the season given the […]
Dodging the rain in the Northeast, we find ourselves in hot and steamy Des Moines for the Iowa Quilt Show. One of Juana’s bucket list items is to attend this exhibition of hundreds of quilts, and the fact that our niece, Lucy, lives nearby makes it so much easier to make the journey. Entering the […]