So we did less sightseeing and more hanging around during our last trip to LA. This was partly because Judy was under the weather for a couple of days, and partly because everybody was feeling lazier than usual. Shockingly, we didn’t visit a single garden. In this post I’ve got a collection of photos from …
Back around the turn of the 20th Century, a developer named Abbott Kinney and his partners bought the land which is now Venice, California. Their idea was to create a beach resort for day trippers from Los Angeles, a sort of Coney Island West. Just one problem: the land was mostly a swamp (they didn’t …
This is not a book about how to garden. Instead, it tells the stories of 133 genera of plants, from both before and after they got mixed up with people and their gardens. It contains a diverting mixture of science, legend, and horticultural history.
I was in need of a morale boost a couple of weeks ago, and soon the answer came to me: Amaryllis bulbs. Something I could order immediately, plant indoors, and enjoy while the garden was still a frozen wasteland. It was a little late to order Amaryllis – most varieties were sold out – but …
So of all the gardens we saw in the Minneapolis area, this one was absolutely my favorite. It is nestled among the fields and woods of rural northwest Wisconsin, about 40 minutes from the Twin Cities. Here plants and sculpture are combined so bewitchingly that you feel you have entered into a sort of dream.
You know that book, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe? How the child heroes open the door of the wardrobe and find an entire world inside? The garden of Lee and Jerry Shannon is kind of like that. From the street, their place doesn’t look too unusual. The house they bought nearly 50 years …
On the day before Halloween, Judy and I decided to walk around the neighborhood to check out whatever autumn color was close at hand. There are some nice parks and forest preserves that are not too far away but we just didn’t feel like driving.
The name Aster comes from the Greek word for star. At this time of year, it feels like the Asters are exploding into a sort of floral supernova.
September is a transitional month. Summer fades away as fall creeps in. Let’s see what’s in bloom at the mid-point of this ninth month of the year.
Book Review: Beaks, Bones, and Bird Song, by Roger J. Lederer If you are interested in birds but don’t have much of a science background, this book is a fun and fascinating read. The author establishes first that birds face daunting odds in their struggle to survive and reproduce. Only about 10% of songbirds make …
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