Happy May 1! Today is a national holiday in France and much like a Federal holiday in the US, government offices are closed as well as the museums, most stores and many cafes. It is France’s version of Labor Day, so there will likely be […]
All posts filed under: gardening

Oh Happy Day
Erin Benzakein’s book, Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden has just been released and it is glorious in every way. Happy day indeed. If you are a flower farmer, or an enthusiastic amateur that wants to squeeze as many flowers as possible into your garden […]

Winter Gardening
It’s that awkward time of year when winter is still hanging about (although we’ve had a particularly wimpy winter this year) and spring isn’t quite ready to settle in. It’s too soon (and often still too uncomfortable) to be out in the garden, but that […]

Eating My Words
I always said, firmly, that I was not going to ‘get into’ orchids because, even from a distance I could see the dangerous rabbit hole that would lead to an orchid addiction. Well, I slipped. I held out for a long time but in […]

Here I Am
Its been awhile, hasn’t it? I’m going to give this blogging thing another try, but no promises. Also, if you’re here for travel stories and photos, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. Except for the occasional day or overnight trip (you’ve been warned Carol!), I won’t […]

Garden Update
While I’ve been traveling here and there, a lot has also been going on at home, specifically in my little garden so it’s time for an update. New fence. My fence, which was in place when I bought my house, had to be at least […]

Allen Centennial Garden
This past weekend I made my annual Spring Trip to Madison, Wisconsin to visit my friend Carol. I’ve been going for several years now and Carol and I have a list of favorite places – restaurants, coffee shops, plant nurseries, gardens. The list is so […]

Signs of Spring
After the relatively mild winter we just went through, I thought we might be in for an early, warm (and quick to finish) spring, but so far, spring has proceeded as usual with whiplash weather (yesterday alternated between sunny skies and pelting sleet and back […]

Sleep Tight
Finally – finally! – the garden has been put to bed for the season. This is by far the latest I’ve ever worked to finish, but between my schedule and the weather fall chores bled into early December. Just two weeks ago we had […]

Divide and Conquer
Fall garden duties got underway here today when I tackled dividing the iris in the cutting garden. This is kind of a big job that needs to be done every 3-4 years; these iris spread rapidly and quickly become overcrowded and vulnerable to rot and […]

Reliable
The word reliable doesn’t usually conjure up exciting or glamorous images. Instead, you might think “stodgy” or “forgettable”, something (or someone) that’s always there and thus doesn’t require a lot of attention. However, the dictionary definition of reliable is “consistently good in quality and performance; […]

Keeping It Real
I share of lot of (what I think are) pretty pictures of my garden, both here on the blog and on Instagram. If that is all you ever saw of the garden, you might think I live in some kind of Eden, blessed by gentle […]