How do we learn to garden? Those of us who write about the subject do our best to give useful information, just as favorite authors have done for us. We hope our pages end up dog-eared and mud-smeared, sharing shelf space not with Dickens and Proust but with pruners, and twine. Even then, we help …
Vegetable fashions may come and go, but Jerusalem artichokes have been grown on this continent for a very long time. Native American gardeners were tending this nutritious crop well before it caught the eye of Sir Walter Raleigh, who brought it back to England, and the explorer Samuel de Champlain, who introduced it to France. …
BROOKLIN — At the seasonal Brooklin residence where Annie Smith works as estate gardener, she grows sky-high sunflowers and lush, oversized blooms in tidy rows. Dahlias, zinnias, cosmos, lilies, foxgloves, bachelor buttons, sweet peas — both annual and an unscented perennial variety — are just a few of the flowers found. “I think this is …
Summer days are lawn days, with the hum of mowers in the neighborhood, the scent of grass newly cut, the sight of grounds cloaked in emerald velvet (or blotchy burlap if the owners are lax and the weather dry). For the environmentally minded, these are also days of lawn guilt. Even if we practice sustainable …
I’ve never had any trouble believing that spinach made Popeye strong. Imagine what powers he might have had if it he’d eaten garden spinach instead of canned. A well grown spinach patch is beautiful: rows of lush, dark green leaves waiting to be picked and tossed in a hearty salad, or sautéed just long enough …
It isn’t summer in Maine without fresh, vibrant bouquets of flowers scattered throughout your house or camp. How about a slim glass of pungent sweet peas for a bathroom countertop? Or for the kitchen, a bouquet of juicy, coral poppies with a few sprigs of herbs tucked among them? Maybe a tight cluster of bright …
Summer is by no means over and plans are already underway for next year’s garden. I’m not the one making them, though. It will be many months before the new seed catalogs arrive, and what with weeding and watering I haven’t had a chance to come up with a scheme for next year. The garden …
Say what you will about beastly, dry, hot weather, it has one virtue. The weeds don’t like it either. Their glorious season is spring, when the moist earth favors their agenda. In summer it’s not hard to dispatch them while they’re small by skimming just below the soil surface with a sharp hoe. Do this …
Every now and then an obscure plant creeps quietly into my life, and makes a home for itself in my garden. After a while I wonder what I ever did without it. Anise hyssop was just such a revelation. About 25 years ago, a nurserywoman in Gaylordsville, Conn., named Kathleen Nelson, who had introduced me …
In the official language of botany, a plant is “armed” if it packs certain defensive gear. A cactus uses sharp spines — which are modified leaves — to protect itself from creatures seeking the water inside its stems. A lemon tree guards its fruit with thorns, which are modified branches. Bramble fruits such as raspberries …
