A beautiful spring day

Finally, a day worthy of real spring.  Clear blue sky. Temps in the mid-70°s. Redbuds in flower and dogwoods well along.I planted sprouted fingerling potatoes this afternoon -- the woodchuck shouldn't like the above-ground parts, I hope, even though s/he seems to have snagged my collards already.I...

Read More

Early flowering bulbs

In spite of a early spring dusting of snow this morning, and a howling wind, it was lovely to see hyacinths and grape hyacinths on my walk in the mountains this morning. a Wikipedia image of grape hyacinths:  they're everywhere in our historic neighborhoodIt felt wintry, but the visible signs...

Read More

Native woodland gardens

It was nice this morning to share thoughts about creating native woodland gardens  with an OLLI class (check out OLLI programs if you're in the US -- a great lifelong learning initiative). It's been a lovely journey to transform lawn to woodland habitat over the last two decades, and we now...

Read More

Spring is here

In spite of a nasty cold northerly wind today, bringing yet more freezing temperatures, spring is definitely here in the Carolinas.  It's welcome, for sure.  It's been a long cold winter for us; we're not familiar with the deep freeze (and snowy weather) that we've experienced this year.But spring is still evident everywhere -- flowering redbuds and oaks, fruiting maples, flowering blueberries,...

Read More

The magic of gardens

I have a friend who lost her house in a fire almost two months ago.  Everything was lost, and the house is currently being "gutted" and rebuilt.  She thought she'd never return, as she lost so much, including dear animal companions.What has endured, though, is her garden.  The daffodils are flowering, the self-sowing poppies will be back, and spring is there.How renewing a story is...

Read More

The last gasp of winter?

We have a chilly week ahead in the Piedmont (of South Carolina).  On Tuesday, the low is predicted to be 28°F --variable depending on the weather site consulted.Traditionally, our last frost date here is April 15th, so we shouldn't be surprised.But, it's been so darn wintry this year, I've been celebrating signs of spring big-time, from the daffodils, snowdrops, leucojum, forsythia, flowering...

Read More

Harvest-directed cooking

I love this time of year because so much of what we eat comes from the garden. It's harvest-directed cooking.A dinner salad from the garden includes a rogue blooming onion*, Swiss chard, 3 types of lettuce from the chef's mix blend, romaine, curly parsley, carrots, sugar-snap peas, come-again broccoli,...

Read More