No one ever called me a nimble-fingered crafts maker. My prospects dimmed as a ten-year-old Cub Scout when our Den mother taught us how to make ashtrays. My parents, appreciative smokers, kept my folded metal art piece for years. My mother pretended it was museum worthy. No one dared soil it with cigarette butts, but … Read more
I’m here to recommend a fascinating article about bonsai in the New Yorker – “The Beautiful, Brutal World of Bonsai” – featuring an American who undergoes a “brutal” six-year apprenticeship to a Japanese bonsai master, and his life and work back in the U.S. The apprentice is Ryan Neil, pictured above in a glamour shot … Read more
By now I’m betting you’ve all seen this view of Oprah Winfrey’s garden, the set of her famous interviews with Harry and Meghan. But look at another shot of Oprah’s garden for her sit-down with Quinta Brunson. (Love her!) Call me picky or worse, but are those fake plants we see, especially near the camera? … Read more
Watching a seed cotyledon (sprout) pop through the soil is heaven on earth. I am especially interested in flower and tree seeds, but Rose and I collect a few seeds from our small vegetable garden, as well. We are indebted to seed savants. The Sower, Jean-Francois Millet “He who plants and he who waters … Read more
What is a gardener? Many years ago Charles would refuse to ‘own’ his part of the garden because he declared that he couldn’t properly claim to be a gardener. He appeared to be giving the term considerable status. Then recently a friend sent me a card with this image on it. I realise I am … Read more
The first Desert Fathers were contemplative Christians holed up in Egyptian caves during the first couple of centuries A.D. (There were also Desert Mothers, of course.) I played Desert Father, stepfather, and grandfather— for five days in mid-February near Joshua Tree, California, surrounded by massive, uplifted, pre-Cambrian, monzogranite rocks and teddy-bear chollas. I was in … Read more
Many of you no doubt have grown tired of atmospheric rivers, Nor’easter blizzards, and bomb cyclones with “sting jets” like a “scorpion’s tail descending from the sky.” I would be happy, from my perch in Kentucky, for a clean break from devastating winds and floods. On the other hand, I challenge anyone to tell … Read more
Mike Hayman was rummaging around in Louisville last month when he found a photo he’d taken of Louise “Weesie” Smith in her Birmingham, Alabama, garden on April 15, 2015. The striking photo he sent me was of Weesie standing beneath beside an arbor covered with blooms of a Chinese fringe tree (Chionanthus retusus). Mike, his … Read more
A portrait of John Sales by Charles Hawes. I have just heard that John Sales died in December. This is very sad news to me, but may mean less in America. John was the Head of Gardens for the National Trust for many years, and you can read one of his obituaries here.. What was … Read more
Ah, April. Almost time to begin visiting other gardeners’ dreams come to life. Minding your manners when visiting another’s garden should come naturally to gardeners. After all, garden etiquette is mostly common sense and since we are gardeners, we understand our host and their unstated considerations. But, just in case one or two (four … Read more