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
Young artists Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe met on a New York City street in 1967. They were newcomers to town—short on cash, hopeful and passionate about art. Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith—Flowers, Poetry, and Light opened last month at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in downtown Sarasota, Florida. Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe … Read more
Be quick about it if you want access to Great Grow Along, which starts tomorrow, March 11, with a welcome “happy hour” featuring Marcus Bridgewater (Garden Marcus). Then, the ambitious ten-day virtual festival is off and running, with Small Space Saturday, Sustainability Sunday, Make It Monday (DIY), Transformation Tuesday, Garden for Wildlife Wednesday, and more, … Read more
It was serendipitous. For a few weeks in mid-spring, my garden is the tidiest it has ever looked, thanks to an application of mulch/compost that gets put down at the beginning of every gardening season. All the winter detritus magically vanishes, leaving spring bulbs, spring-flowering perennials, and the fresh green emerging foliage of summer perennials, … Read more
There have been FLO parties in Buffalo, New York City, Boston, Baltimore, Atlanta, and more the past few weeks. My hometown joined the fun. Louisville celebrated Frederick Law Olmsted’s (FLO) bicentennial on April 26th. Olmsted, in 1891, visited a rolling pasture and woodland, bisected by Beargrass Creek, that became the 337-acre Cherokee Park. FLO’s … Read more
I was reminded of Christopher Lloyd ‘s fondness for unpretentious nurseries on a beautiful drive to Lexington, Kentucky, last week. My destination was the 121-year-old Michler’s Florist, Greenhouses & Garden Design. “The Michler family opened their namesake florist and nursery in 1901, and it quickly became Lexington’s go-to for flora.” –Washington Post I know … Read more