If I could add a hyacinth scent button here so you would be utter overwhelmed with the smell of these multi-hued flowers, then you would be getting some sense of how the NW Flower and Garden Show creates a multi-sensory world where you can live and forget the rest of the world for a few […]

I love the fact that as a seasoned gardener I still get surprised by things….I mean really surprised, to the point of almost mirthful laughter.  I recall being astonished a few years ago to discover the shovel-headed flatworm (Bipalium sp.) in my school garden.   Not exactly cute, but remarkable nonetheless, though the creature did drop […]

Something in me loves Italy, and I know that’s not just a personal peculiarity.  I think as a more northerly North American, steeped in cultural origins that are Northern European, there is both subconscious and conscious attraction to the sunnier climes and their cultures.  To a French Canadian raised in New Hampshire, Italy resonates, practically drips, […]

Ah, what finer pleasure than a lineup of English cukes, skins glinting in the morning sunlight.  This morning I picked some really beautiful cukes, and, folks, I am proud to say that I have discovered a second way to grow really straight cukes, you know the kind you just want to shrink wrap and bring […]

Sun’s comin’ up. Time to get to work. Breakfast…an afterthought. Summer is always a time of early-to-rise (but perversely late to bed!) and out of the house, off to work before the day’s heat really sets in.  I like to strike an early, vigorous blow at the day’s task list, and there’s nothing like the cool morning […]

Our bodies are weak and puny, and that is why humans, since the beginnings of our self-consciousness, I think, have been fascinated with animals and their wondrous powers.  Their claws, talons, beaks, antlers, wings, hooves, eyes, noses, fins, tails, etc. are awesome tools given them by nature and their powers of flight, sight, agility, scent, […]

Gotta give you three great lettuces that I’m loving, and you’re going to love that there’s still time to plant all of them for both late summer and fall production. First is Italienischer, which, as I understand it, is the English-pronounced German word for an Italian.  That alone makes it intriguing, but its performance in the garden […]

Many years ago I grew an amazing, red-and-green-mottled leaf chicory called Variegata di Castelfranco  (the Variegata meaning variegated, meaning mottled, meaning multi-colored in patches or streaks).  It was a brilliant performer over the winter, but its bitterness definitely needed tempering by winter’s cold.  Now Johnny’s Selected Seeds has released a similar all-season chicory called Bel Fiore (http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-9021-bel-fiore.aspx) […]

So you thought one post on the disgusting, yet strangely fascinating, slime mold was going to be enough, but, no, I couldn’t resist an update. Is it wrong that I wanted to photograph this? Shortly after I took the first set of images, I observed the slime mold morph, changing from a tawny-colored, dog-vomit-like form […]