Posts Tagged ‘stewardship’
Snowflakes or Snowdrops Bulbs that Outlast Us and Pretty Things Up for Folks that Come Later
I imagine he wore a fedora. One passed on or left accidentally by some traveler. His wife, the cook, the kitchen manager asked him to do it. Her kitchen, 100 yards from the house, revolved around a roaring fire. Like other outbuildings on the farm, it’s a practical, white, box of a building designed to…
Read MoreMoths & Me. Lured In By An Ancient Cycle of Milk & Wine Lily Variation
When two individuals of the same plant species cross-pollinate, the seeds and resulting plants vary in size, flower color, petal shape, and even vigor. That variation among individuals, good for people and animals too, ensures adaptability and continuity of the species. Variations bring flexibility and strengths. Over hundreds of millions of years, some plants…
Read MoreThe Greatest Show
Silver-haired and with a brand new knee, Momma peers into a draped diorama of shrunken heads, leaning in to listen to a much pierced young man, with gauge opening in his ears big enough you could pass a cupcake through, a handlebar mustache, and a Baltimore accent — which is oddly akin to our own. …
Read MoreTransition from Turf to Meadow Using Spring Annuals as First Step
When I first met with the owners of Blue Poppy Farm, we stood surrounded by endless turf. They said, “We ride the horses into the woods around here and it’s so beautiful out there. ” Can you make this look more like that?” The transition will take years. The long term goal includes Sandhills meadow…
Read MoreTiny Passion for Passiflora lutea
Tiny lime green flowers on this slender, summer growing perennial vine make me smile. Sure it’s kind of weedy. It scrambles over shrubs and comes everywhere around here. But it’s a lovely olive green leaf with silver mottling. And it has a strong root system. I don’t know how you’d get rid of it if…
Read MoreThe Earliest of Flower Gardens
There’s a patch of paper whites and snow drops in our pasture that’s older than I am. Just behind the little shed that’s been pony shed, goat shed and now donkey shed. Those are the kinds of bulbs I want in my gardens. From a practical stand point, because they come back, they thrive and…
Read MoreA New Years Resoilution
In this year, when we walk let’s walk with big, amazing steps. Considering every every cell and bone and where each foot falls. Connect to the life below each step. Feel the the tiny creatures in their universe below ground. When we garden this year, let’s weed, kneel, dig, spray in ways that make them…
Read MoreYou’re making me blanch…Etioliation
Etiolation: You know when you leave a bucket on the grass and all the grass under it goes sort of pale green and white? That is etioliation. It’s a plant response to trying to grow in low light. If the pale stems ever find sun, they’ll to turn green. (That is de-etiloation) We eat a…
Read MoreSeptember is Still Summer
Late summer here extends into September and October. Plants love it. This is the best time of year for gardens in the south. I like to garden visit now, everything is full and flowing, purple and orange, dripping with the weight of summer growth and buzzing with moths and the energy of life. Here are…
Read MoreTrends in Foodscaping
“Over the past decades, our plant pallet changed in ways other than you might expect. Plant explorers and breeders bring new plants into nurseries. They, as well as garden designers, decorators and all sorts of cultural leaders, become the tastemakers, slowly changing which plants we can get hold of…..One slow, huge change, tracks our shift…
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