My two sons-in-law have been repeatedly coerced by their wives to sit through an annual Christmas tradition, the watching of The Little Troll Prince. The movie, a 1987 animated Christmas television special produced by Hanna-Barbera is a classic in many households though I believe sales and distribution have ended. I won’t spoil the plot, but […]
Garden Lessons for 2020
As I rested in the shade after a morning of hard work I considered some of the lessons my garden has taught me during the upheaval we call 2020. I gave thanks for the privilege of having a piece of soil and the health to till and plant it. I reminded myself that I must […]
Third Chances in the Garden
The plant sitting in the display at the garden shop beckons. I don’t yet have one of those in my garden, and besides it is the only one of its kind left to purchase. Other gardeners wiser and earlier than me must have snapped up its siblings. I have to have it, and if I […]
Change Your Clothes
My zone 7 garden is in the oven now. Temperature and humidity are rising with a long string of 90+ degree days. Yesterday I installed rabbit fencing, tended the compost bins, and spread mulch over part of the garden. After two hours I looked as though Shawn had turned the hose on me, and I […]
Reclaiming Fallow Ground
Much of gardening is about improving the presentation. We remove some plants while adding others. We amend the soil and mix in a heaping dose of pruning and trimming. And all the parts of our labor combine to give us the confident feeling that the end is an improvement over the beginning. Garden satisfaction comes […]
To Cut Or Not To Cut
The large maple tree which has adorned our front yard for the past thirty-three years is no more. After much discussion and with heavy hearts we called in the tree crew to remove it. That tree was gone in minutes as a chain saw ripped through the trunk so that a crane could lift the […]