A few days ago I reminisced about visiting my older son Daniel while he was studying in Russia. That first post was about the few days we spent in Moscow. This is a follow-up about the second and final leg of the journey in St. Petersburg. Let me start with a bit of advice for …
In these post-Thanksgiving days, I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic about past experiences shared with our kids. One such that involved myself and our older son Daniel was when I visited him in Russia just about three years ago. He was spending the fall semester studying at St. Petersburg University, and we all decided that …
The Ostrich Bed is what I call the area that is immediately in front of our living room windows. The windows face North towards the street. When we moved to this house ten years ago, this part of the yard was simply a foundation planting of tormented Japanese Yews (Taxus cuspidata). The yews were suffering …
And now for something completely different: a movie review. Judy and I took the very unusual step (unusual for us these days) of going out to see A Royal Affair at an actual movie theater. Our son Daniel joined us, though his girlfriend was out-of-town attending a family wedding. I thought the movie was definitely …
So I’ve been taking a class called “Soil Basics” at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The instructor is Ellen Phillips, who has many years experience as a soil scientist in the US and overseas. (She’s an excellent teacher, and I recommend the class for those of you in the area.) As part of the class we …
Since I started writing Garden in a City back in January, I’ve found that I like garden blogging much more than I expected. Among the things I like are all the ways that this virtual community finds to express appreciation as well as increase mutual awareness. For example, I like the various collegial awards that …
My garden is an a sort of transition period between summer and fall. Many of the perennial summer flowers now have seedheads instead of blooms, while the fall flowers have either just begun to flower or are on the verge. Most of the asters, in particular, are dotted with blue and purple, a prelude to …
My good friends Jean and Jim have asked for my help figuring out what to do with the side yard to the south of their home. Right now this area has a U-shaped flower bed. The northern arm of the U lies along the house, and receives lots of sun. It is mostly empty, though …
Speaking for myself, I’ve always found that having to choose plants for a garden project causes acute agony. The moment I pick one plant, a sneaking suspicion that another option would be far better begins to grow in my mind. I obsessively review the plant descriptions, searching for hidden meanings. Then I decide to switch …
I’ve been meaning to post a few more photos as a follow up to GBBD, but things have been very busy and I just got back from an overnight work trip. In addition to flowers, the seed heads on the grasses are ripening. I have three switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) ‘Northwind’ in the front bed along …
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