Bird Raccoon Bath Some years ago I bought a bird bath and followed all the rules for getting the most bird visitors – like placing a perfectly shaped pan at ground level, and adding stones and a solar-powered fountain. Sadly, it attracted nothing but raccoons. And the fountain? It sprayed so vigorously, the bath was … Read more
Abra Lee is unearthing the American history of Black ornamental gardening—one story at a time. The White Lion landed near Hampton, Virginia, in 1619. On board were an estimated 20 Africans. Among them were mothers, artists, farmers and businesspeople. All were enslaved. By 1860, there were nearly four million slaves powering the U.S. economy. Black … Read more
Rose and I recently went out for our first movie in a long time. We picked a good one. “Gardens are good for the soul…They make you feel like your city or community care about you,” Lynden Miller, says at the outset of Beatrix Farrand’s American Landscapes. Miller, an award-winning public garden designer, is featured … Read more
On 9/11 I was searching for garden-worthy Chinese plants in the western Chinese province of Sichuan. I was in good company: five American plant hunters, a photojournalist, a retired doctor, a lawyer, plus a half dozen Chinese guides, drivers, and a botanist. Homestead on the other side of the river near Baoxing We had just … Read more
The Potential Sale of River Farm and the Struggle for Control of AHS When the American Horticultural Society put its Alexandria, VA headquarters on the Potomac River – the historic 26-acre River Farm – on the market for $32.9 million, that got the attention of seemingly everyone in Northern Virginia, including legislators and Virginia’s Attorney … Read more
Climate change makes my head hurt. Remedies seem insufficient and technological breakthroughs uncertain. While governments squabble, students at Berea College are re-thinking the planet’s future and working together. This year U.S. News and World Reports, in its annual college review, selected Berea College the #2 innovative college in the U.S. It’s no surprise. Berea, in … Read more
To my now-surprise, I had no idea who Ron Finley was, despite Marianne saying that HGTV should hire him (not Martha). Or Allen quoting him and describing him as “the community activist and guerrilla gardener from South Los Angeles.” I’ll blame my ignorance on living 3,000 miles away. But then my nephew, a writer for … Read more
Entrance to the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in the National Arboretum in November of 2021. The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum opened in 1976 with a gift of 53 priceless bonsai trees from Japan to commemorate the U.S. Bicentennial. Some bonsai were several hundred years old and one had even survived the bombing of … Read more
Robin Lane Fox, classical scholar, gardener, equestrian and journalist, has been near the front of the cavalry charge of garden writers in Great Britain for over 50 years. In a film, he even rode near the lead when Alexander the Great defeated Darius in Persia. No other living garden writer compares. I recently enjoyed … Read more
On December 11, Win Dunwell drove a half-hour to his workplace of 40 years. He knew the tornado that ripped apart Mayfield, Kentucky, had made a direct hit on his research station a mile outside of Princeton. Win pulled up, saw the ruins, and realized his library of somewhere close to 1200 gardening books, … Read more