Thoughtful musings on various topics by interesting people at Blithewold
Filling in the gaps
Last week I had the great pleasure of speaking with the author/photographer of some of my all-time favorite garden books. Ken Druse, who wrote Planthropology and Making More Plants among about a bazillion others, called … Read more.
A perfect partnership
Ever since Dick, our vegetable gardener extraordinaire, first joined his wife Mary in the Blithewold gardens, we’ve had more produce than we know what to do with. (Dick orders the vegetable seeds, starts them, plants … Read more.
Days of whine and roses
Sometimes I still feel like a backseat whiner. I should know better than to complain out loud because as a kid, whenever I asked, “are we there yet?”, my Mom would only reply cryptically, “10 … Read more.
Happy National Public Gardens Day!
If I had been less distracted by tulips and planting gardens this week I might have remembered to promote an excellent event that has brought all sorts of people who had never before heard of … Read more.
Hopes and dreams
Along with taking a good look back at last year’s successes and failures (I’ll get to those later maybe) we gardeners take this time to look forward and dream a little. (Incidentally, we are probably … Read more.
Fuel for the fire
I know I’ve said it before but it’s good to get out. Yesterday Gail, Julie (our education coordinator) and I went to the Perennial Plant Conference at UCONN in Storrs, CT and came back jazzed … Read more.
Tools on trial
Every year Gail and I take it upon ourselves to try a few new tools. We want to stay on the cutting edge, so to speak, of what’s handy, so to speak. We have not … Read more.
Collecting leaves
I remember walking to school in the fall with a beach-comber’s lurch looking for the most beautiful leaf. When I found it, I memorized it and then kept looking for a more perfect one. I … Read more.
On the coir bandwagon
When Fred (Blithewold’s dir. of hort.) suggested that Gail and I start making our own potting soil, we were totally game. We had already started looking into alternatives to our peat based mixes and were … Read more.