Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
The day long ride from Connecticut to Buffalo is incident free. Now that sounds good from a safety perspective, but is awfully boring. It is a long gray ride where the sun refuses to show itself under a blanket of clouds, fog, rain and mist. Like many drives on interstate highways in this portion of […]
Starting tomorrow, I will be biking the entire length of the Erie Canal with my buddy Ted. This 400-mile trip will be our fourth long-distance sojourn together. We start from Buffalo tomorrow and with luck, the wind at our backs and minimal mishaps will arrive in Albany on the following Tuesday. I will continue posting […]
The final strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) harvest of Sunday was also the first of our blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum). I have been spying them from a distance looking for when an entire berry rather than just one side becomes blue. Our birds have been cross with me as their attempts to penetrate the defensive veil encasing […]
Two days ago the annual Summer Solstice celebration was held at @annsplaceinc. I delayed it for a day because of weather and we were rewarded with a near perfect day. Because of the day change I lost a few clients but the ones who came had a fabulous time. With this celebration, I chat with […]
Today is the Summer Solstice. In pre-historic times, Summer was a joyous time of the year for those indigenous people who lived in the northern latitudes. The snow had disappeared; the ground had thawed out; warm temperatures had returned; flowers were blooming; leaves had returned to the deciduous trees. Some herbs could be harvested, for […]
Last week’s horticultural therapy class on hanging herb baskets at @annsplaceinc went exceeding well with 23 clients signed up both on-site and remotely. The remote option is great for some clients going though cancer treatments who have the will but not the physical strength to make the trek to our center. I am happy to […]
The morning is a rough one for Shannon. A water pipe just burst in the basement and a storage room filled with client records is awash with water. She is stoic in going through dozens of boxes but I can tell she needs a break. “Come on, Shannon. You need some horticultural therapy,” I say […]
The popularity of my sessions at Ann’s Place vary widely. A recent one on how to forage for wild salads had smaller attendance than typical and less participation than normal. Though everyone loves the May wine I offer spiked with sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) and strawberries (Fragaria × ananassa) as well as dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) […]
I needed to mow our lawn this weekend as tall tufts of grass stand high over adjacent dormant patches. Unlike many aficionados of a lawn comprising a monoculture of grass that is as smooth as a championship golf green, my undulating and ankle-spraining turf has countless varieties of plants. And I intend to keep it […]
One of the wonders of the world is how easy Mother Nature has made it to propagate baby plants from existing ones. Anyone with a little bit of curiosity and care can reproduce many baby plants from a single one. Not counting seeds, there are many different ways to propagate a plant where you will […]