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Pennywort: A Plant Whose Time Has Come
It's official: my back yard looks like hell. The trees and shrubs are bare, the berries have been eaten, the perennials have died back. All that is left is pennywort. Acres and acres of...
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Still Life Lessons for the Garden
The North Carolina Museum of Art's current exhibition, Still Life Masterpieces: A Visual Feast from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, got me thinking about the myriad connections between art and...
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Fun with Botanical Latin
A few weeks ago I received a gift of garden books, including an unassuming but incredibly useful pamphlet for the Latin-impaired. Entitled New Pronouncing Dictionary of Plant Names, it's an A to Z...
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Ode on a Cable Box
Behold the cable box. What, you might ask, is it doing on my lawn? The cable-box-as-lawn-ornament is ubiquitous in what real estate agents like to call "newer" neighborhoods. Ours is a baby...
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The Return of the Extra-Late-Blooming Kniphofia Rooperi
I am sure all of you been wondering what has become of my extra-late-blooming kniphofia rooperi. When we last left this aberrant specimen, it was the week after Thanksgiving, and the plant was doing...
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Winter Daphne: When Bad Plants Happen to Good People
My winter daphne started blooming last week. It's a bit early (it usually blooms in February), but it has been a model of steadiness and dependability, filling the garden with its glorious aroma every...
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Dry Shade Gardening in the Valley of Death
Adjacent to my driveway, ending where my neighbor's holly bushes begin, is a little strip of land that I have dubbed the Valley of Death. A few years ago, Ron and I had the harebrained idea of turning...
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Raspberry Dazzle, or why I stopped buying the latest and greatest
Have you noticed how complicated it has become to buy yogurt? What used to be a fairly straightforward decision is now a positively Herculean task. In the old days, all you had to do was choose...
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Cary Homes and Gardens
My adopted town of Cary, North Carolina has many advantages. Compared to New York, life here is stress-free; the traffic is manageable, the taxes are not bad, and there are Indian and Asian markets if...
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The Peaceable Kingdom
Scabiosa "Butterfly Blue." (Photo courtesy of Mostbeautifulflower.com) This is Scabiosa. It's pretty - not my personal favorite, but pretty. The butterflies and bees like it, so I have it in my...
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The Owl Checks In
So just who is reading my blog? Yesterday I found out. Come here often? Apparently this barred owl read my last post about the bountiful food supply in my backyard "Peaceable Kingdom": he showed up in...
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Frilly and Fabulous: Double Early Tulips
"Foxtrot" double early tulips in various stages of color development. All photos by Ron. Success at last! Maybe not Martha Stewart success, but success by my standards. I grade myself on a curve.My...
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Unusual Weather, As Usual
Unusual weather we're having, ain't it? In North Carolina, spring has been unusually late in arriving, as winter temperatures stuck around a lot longer than usual. March was unusually cold. Last...
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Peace, Love, and CompostNow
Forgive me Earth for I have sinned. It's been, actually, never since I had a compost pile in my back yard. I love to garden. I love to cook. I love fresh fruits and vegetables. Yet I have been...
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The Pollen is Falling, the Flowers are Blooming. April is Here.
The pollen is here. One week ago, the greenish-yellow powder began coating everything, from my deck to my brain. Consequently, I have been in a pollen-induced fog for the past week, which makes it...
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Lavender in North Carolina? Mais Oui.
Last week, I bought another lavender. Of course I didn't need; I already have two rather enormous specimens and have no room for more. And yet, after a trip to the Farmers Market to purchase basil...
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Peonies or Alaska? It's a Tough Call.
It would be unseemly at best and ungrateful at worst to complain about anything related to my upcoming trip to Alaska. Nevertheless. All buds, no blooms, and the clock is ticking. My "Festiva Maxima"...
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Louisiana Iris "Black Gamecock," or How I Turned My Soggy Mess of a Back Yard...
Louisiana Iris "Black Gamecock," the hero of our story today. Ron took the pictures. Once upon a time, there was a nondescript yard with an unfortunate tendency to flood. It was not a nice place at...
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My Extremely Complicated Relationship with Verbena bonariensis
A few years ago, when the official word came down from Garden Command Central, I ran out and bought some Verbena bonariensis. It's done amazingly well in my garden. The bees love it. The butterflies...
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A Daylily for Juneteenth
Since Juneteenth is being celebrated across the country this weekend, I thought now would be an opportune time to highlight the daylily named in its honor. Behold Hemerocallis 'June Teenth,' which has...
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