The Quiet

At last, it’s May and the garden is getting into gear. We don’t have much good ground for planting, so we do most of our gardening in big containers — custom-built planter boxes and half-wine barrels. Today we spent many hours preparing both things. After two-and-a-half months in the kitchen, my tomatoes and peppers will…

When I walked into the nursery and said I’d come for a strawberry shortcake, they looked at me like I was nuts. It doesn’t really matter that I had meant to say “raspberry shortcake,” because that doesn’t make sense either — unless you know about this new plant. It’s a thornless, dwarf raspberry developed especially…

This is what it’s like in the February garden. The soiled rag, the oilcloth hanging half off the table, the untrimmed ivy. (The forever untrimmed ivy.) But I love the warm morning light these days, and the towhees that come first thing when I go out to feed the pigeons. They know any seed left…

To those who have not yet learned the secret of true happiness, begin now to study the little things in your own door yard. ~ George Washington Carver Door-yard contentment is something I need to remind myself of, again and again. An enormous sunflower — moth included — has surprised us by volunteering under the…

One of the first things I did when I moved out of my parents’ home and into a place of my own was buy a few house plants. None of those plants survived for long, except one — a very hardy Kentia palm that accompanied me to every successive apartment and house for twenty-five years,…

May in the garden means things are getting bloomy. Back in February (seems like just yesterday), I seeded a couple of beds with native wildflowers to reduce soil depletion. So far it seems to be working. The lupine likes it. The wildflowers have meant surprises for me, because I didn’t know exactly what was in…