I try to make varied and wide-ranging suggestions, but my own interests seem to have an overwhelming sway on my daughters choices…of science fair projects. Last year she tested the effects of various types of ice-melt on perennials (someday, I swear I will get around to sharing those rather interesting results with you) and this […]

I have always thought that viewing a private garden as part of a guided tour is awkward at best, regimented at worst.

If I had closer neighbors, I am pretty sure they’d be looking out their bedroom windows into my garden and thinking I’d lost my mind. I’ve been using my snow blower to make winter paths in the grass.  Is that weird? It is just that if I make a path, I am more likely to […]

Flowering shrub ideas for the cutting garden.

Jen is back with another celebration….this one from the recent chinese new year traditions. Any opportunity that presents itself for renewal or rebirth of any kind, I am so there.  After many decades of living here on Earth, there is the never-ending needless clutter that begs to be cleared out, so many unnecessary things that […]

When my wife and I first started dating 16 years ago, she revealed to me at some point that her dream car would always be a fire engine red, Saab convertible. She has held onto that dream all of these years even through four kids, four cats, two dogs, and one husband. She has driven […]

I’m finally starting to believe that eventually these piles of snow will recede – we have a long way to go here in New England, but every day of runoff-wet roads lifts my winter weary spirits.  I’ve even started to plan for new plantings. I’m hoping to add interest and variation to my garden-fresh bouquets and […]

The old Germanic tradition of the Easter tree has made its way into modern American custom. These trees have not achieved the popularity of that other holiday tree but you know the look-colored eggs, ribbon, & branches. The 19th century Pennsylvanian Dutch adorned their homes with such a tree, most commonly a sassafras sapling that […]

You how google has that tool where based on web searches they can pretty accurately predict flu outbreaks? I’ve got one of those too….it is the site. Now that it has happened every year for the last 4 years I feel like I can trust what is happening… Right around this time of year (though […]