Podcast

April 15, 2019 The Garden as a World Unto Itself, William Kent, Allan Cunningham, George Harrison Shull, Francis Hallé, Alexander Garden, Francis Quarles, The Atlas of Poetic Botany, The Garden Budget, and Sphagnum Moss

William Kent wrote: “A garden is to be a world unto itself, it had better make room for the darker shades of feeling as well as the sunny ones.” I’ve usually thought about my garden as my happy place. It’s a natural mood changer for me. But I remember one time when I was out in the garden with feelings of a definite darker shade. I was very pregnant with John, and I was wearing a hideous, striped, maternity tank…

April 12, 2019 Plant Tags, Licorice, Zina Pitcher, John J. Audobon, Thomas Nuttal, William Kent, Dr. Edward G. Voss, and Peter White

I was looking at the cute brass plant labels on the Target website the other day – I was trying to find the link to that adorable garden tote I was telling you about, and I thought about the evolution of a gardener when it comes to using plant tags. First, you start out needing the labels – is that dill? What does basil look like again? Then you label only the newcomers or the look-alike parsley or cilantro –…

April 11, 2019 Yearlong Care of the Garden, Luther Burbank , Yogi Yogananda, Elsie Elizabeth Esterhuysen, John Paulus Lotsy, Ogden Nash, Barbara Kingsolver, Mary Treat, A New Garden Tote, and the Clark Botanic Garden

How much do you care for your garden? Do your time and attention stay pretty constant throughout the season? If not, why not? What would your garden look like in August if you loved it then as much as you do now? What do you need to do to sustain a high level of care for your garden all season long? Fewer tomato or pepper plants? More raised beds? Getting regular garden time committed on the calendar? Removing high maintenance…

April 10, 2018 Mary Hiester Reid, George Reid, Onteora, Duncan Sutherland Macorquodale, Mary Reynolds, Pruning Grapevines, and the First Arbor Day

Just when you thought you had winter beat… You thought wrong. Surprise. Unpredictable weather. Dicey temperatures. Gardeners need resilience. If Spring’s arrival is dashing your hope, start to look for the survivors in your garden. In your neighborhood. In your city. On your social media feed. Every Spring – no matter the conditions, there are successes. Hardy Daffodils. Forsythia. Lungwort. Snowdrops. Magnolias. Look for the plants that survive and thrive despite the challenges of Spring. Plant more of those plants.…

April 9, 2019 Phebe Lankester, James Sowerby, Joseph Trimble Rothrock, Asa Gray, Louis Agassiz, Gardeners Question Time, Charles Baudelaire, Katie Daisy, the Toronto Archives, and Joseph Sauriol

Today’s thought is exactly that: How we think when we garden. Emerson wrote: Blame me not, laborious band, For the idle flowers I brought; Every aster in my hand Comes back laden with a thought. How wonderful our gardens are for thinking. Creatively. Therapeutically. Soulfully. Every bloom can be a vessel for an idea, a hurt, a solution. I had a fight with my daughter the other day. We were getting nowhere. Exasperated and just plain tired, I had her…