Creating a natural garden

As my gardening companion and I prepare to leave a garden (really a low-maintenance native plant-dominated landscape) that we've created over the last 22 years, it's interesting to reflect on the changes that we've made -- all to the good, certainly, from the perspective of being good stewards of our...

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Hmm, snow....

 Waking up to a lovely snowy scene is not what I usually expect to see in late February, but that's what I saw out the windows this morning.  Cool-season greens and window boxes will still have to wait for warmer weath...

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A warmer day (and vegetable musings)

Finally, the last bit of accumulated ice has melted and it was a "normal" temperature day, with highs ~ 58°F.I'm itching to plant cool-season greens - I've missed having homegrown greens (kale, collards, mustard, etc.) over the last two winters, even though I've felt we've eaten nothing but homegrown greens in years past.So, we're enjoying broccoli, collards, red cabbage, and kale from the grocery...

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Brown thrashers and cardinals

Even if the weather doesn't seem like spring, and is unusual for late February, plants and animals mark and take notice of lengthening days.The male cardinals are singing now, the robins are flocking, and a brown thrasher is pronouncing loudly (very early in the morning) that his territory consists of the hollies outside the kitchen door.  (We've had thrashers nesting there for years).We've had...

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Winter: a good time to remove invasive plants

Wedelia or creeping oxeye daisy (Sphagneticola trilobata): a beautiful invader. Less lawn...When we moved into our house here in North Florida, we let several areas of lawn grow out. I've written about this several times. See From lawn to woods: a retrospective, for what has happened out front.Here's...

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Global weirding

I wrote a piece ~ seven years ago about what North American gardeners (and botanists) thought about climate change for The Public Garden (at that time, the journal of the American Association of Public Gardens and Arboreta --AABGA, now APGA). It didn't end up being published, probably because it was too telling. American botanical gardens are in denial about what they need to do around conservation...

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Icicles!

This morning, icicles hung from the curled-up rhododendron leaves in front of the house and ice weighted down the hemlock branches.The dogwood beyond the porch was coated with ice, too, with a silvery shimmer in the dull wintry light. Outside my study window, the ice on the Carolina jessamine is...

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