All Purls. No Swine.
In my Autumn garden I was fain To mourn among my scattered roses; Alas for that last rosebud which uncloses To Autumn’s languid sun and rain When all the world is on the wane! Which has not felt the sweet constraint of June, Nor heard the nightingale in tune Broad-faced asters by my garden walk,… Continue reading An October Garden
The headline from a featured article in today's Telegraph: Garden of weeds takes home gold at Royal Horticultural Society Show. I am crying with joy. Speechless with pride. Overcome with emotion. And--at last--sure of my gardening (if nothing else) prowess. (Those of you who are vehement defenders of your Homeowner Association's right to regulate to… Continue reading Oh, My Very Goshness! I’m Trendsetting Again!
Thirty-five years ago, Mr. Right and I sold our house in one of Pittsburgh’s lowest-rent districts, moved ourselves into a tent in a field in Washington County, PA, where our prospective new home was nothing more than a hole in the ground, and started to build. I’m sure the neighbors thought we were nuts. Nevertheless,… Continue reading The Snowman Cometh
There surely must be a horticultural corollary to the well-known maxim, generally attributed to Winston Churchill, that “a woman’s skirt should be long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting.” And it has to do with “ground covers,” those low-growing, fast-spreading plants that (one hopes) form an attractive carpet, especially in… Continue reading Covering New Ground
https://youtu.be/8iwBM_YB1sE David Austin, PBUH (this is the US link; it's originally a UK firm) says that they've been shipped at exactly the right time for planting in my plant hardiness "zone." (My zone number is somewhere between 6A and 6B--worst case indicating that the temperatures in the winter might go down to about -25F, or… Continue reading I’m So Excited–My New Roses Will Be Delivered Tomorrow!
I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. What is the best way to handle disagreements? Between friends? Between foes? William Blake, eccentric and brilliant man, early Romantic Poet, Biblical scholar, anti-establishmentarian, advocate for the Free Love movement (who once asked his devoted wife Catherine if it would be alright… Continue reading Occasional Quote of the Day: A Poison Tree
Let’s start with the Book of Ecclesiastes. First off, that photo to the right? It has nothing to do with the subject of this post. But before I dig in (so to speak) I’d like to get something off my chest, something which I’m generally not all that moved by or all that privy to,… Continue reading Hot . . . Umm . . . Stuff: Adventures in Shoveling Out the Barn