Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
As we drive through Eastern Pennsylvania toward Pittsburgh, I wonder how we should refer to our journey. Will it be: Erik and Ted’s Excellent AdventureBrokeback Mountain BikeRocky Road Horror Picture ShowDeliverance (from breakdowns and bad weather)Geezers on Wheels I’m inclined to go with the first reference as with the classic slacker movie, “Bill and Ted’s […]
GroHappy has been dedicated to the pursuit of gardening and how horticultural therapy can positively influence people. But for the next few weeks postings will be more frequent and the topic will be different as the focus of this blog will pivot to bicycle touring as my friend Ted and I stretch our 60-year-old legs […]
When my father planted tomatoes, he told me that the best time for them to go into the ground was when, "the size of an oak leaf is the size of a squirrel's paw." At best this is an approximation as it is difficult to have a squirrel hold still to compare its paw with […]
Different seasons stimulate different senses. The Spring shocks the sight into recognizing colors that could only be imaged a few months prior. Early May is the apex of that stimulation with the simultaneous flowering of trees, shrubs and bushes. We get some teasers of color in early Spring with different colored crocuses or the blue […]
May is the first month when the garden begins to become more reliable for food. There have been years where the cold frame has provided early March greens, and sometimes dormant carrots and leeks that have been left in the soil after last Fall’s harvest can be pulled as a unfrozen treat. But newly grown […]
“Isn’t the Spanish moss lovely? I just love the ways it hangs from the trees,” said Nancy, looking upward. We were at Lake Seminole park, a short 15 minute drive from where she lives in St. Petersburg, FL. This morning when I came to visit her I suggested that we have a picnic to take […]
The poor man’s (or woman’s) privet hedge is forsythia. Like our richer and more aristocratic English counterparts, many of us define our boarders with this fast growing and often leggy bush that can (without proper care) become like an ungroomed, gangly adolescent child. We put up with it, however, as its emergence this time of […]
When I first start planting vegetables, it is in the comfort and warmth of my kitchen as early March is too cold to start seedlings outside. I retrieve dusty plastic trays from my greenhouse and wash them, mindful of any pathogens that could be remaining from the prior year. Sometimes Charlotte helps me start the […]
Early April often comes at you with a slow comforting joy then a fast jolt. The snowdrops and crocuses have decided correctly or incorrectly that the snow is past and are flush with leaves and blooms. Daffodils are pushing upward with visible progress each day. Tulips are more tentative as is a cautious child peeking […]
In a typical winter, late March is when we often get our final melt in Connecticut. There are false starts where a few snow drops will make an appearance and daffodils start to poke their heads through a veneer of snow. But invariably a late winter blast burys any hope of an early Spring. After […]