Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
One of the fundamental joys of gardening is to build a new bed. Sometimes its creation is part of a long thought out process, often started in the depths of winter, other times an opportunity or inspiration that presents itself in a serendipitous manner. In either case the new bed becomes a joy to start […]
As I mentioned in a prior post, we had planned to replace the pine in front of our house with a fir tree that was planted over a decade ago in memory of my mother-in-law, Stella. Watching men-in-trees remove huge limbs and drop the better part of a 75-foot pine makes for good tree TV […]
As I mentioned in my prior post, I will be growing a new lawn that will be simple to care for. But before the new lawn goes in, the old lawn and plantings of years past must go out. Or be trampled, crushed, mauled, etc. by the Kubota equivalent of WMDs. To preserve as much […]
As I mentioned in a prior post, my approach to lawn care is decidedly low-tech: manual reel mowers, scythes, etc. This slavish desire to follow a Luddite path, however, does not mean that I hate new technology but rather am a firm believer in the credo, “less is more.” Following along those lines, I have […]
Every tree displays its beauty differently. The American Chestnut’s magnificent canopy. The Sugar Maple’s autumn color. The stark bark of a Quaking Aspen or Himalayan white birch. One of my wife’s favorites is the white pine. It is a lovely tree that grows straight and fast with fragrant, long cones and soft fluffy needles. When […]
This summer’s incessant rains have been bad for many crops. Our strawberries matured as either red, flavorless mushy masses or tasteless slug bait. I expect the local crop of peaches to look more like inflated softballs and feel like a Nerf ball than they should when conditions are right. On the other hand, our raspberries […]
One of the anachronisms that I have enjoyed over the years has been a local farm that worked on the honor system. The Hickories is a lovely farm now run by Dina and Rob who sell a wide variety of veg and fruit at their farm stand as well as through a Community Support Agriculture […]
When it comes to gardening I prefer low tech. What this translates to is that I have no electrical or gas-driven tools to help me manage the jungle. An old pair of hedge trimmers quietly snip, snip away at the forsythia. My felcos dead head tulips, day lilies and the odd hosta spike. My scythe […]
To many, a garden evokes the simple and beautiful memories of flowers in front of large cascading green plants while strains of either Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony or Vivaldi’s Four Seasons lingers in the background. And while these visions can be true, they are often counterbalanced by inordinate hours of backbreaking work that are better accompanied […]
The wonderful thing about a garden is that you never really know what will grow and when. We can pretend that we know that if we plant a lettuce seed and follow the directions that it will sprout within a week. But sometimes that doesn’t happen for a variety reasons (poor soil, old seed, not […]