Blooms and Biceps: The Joyful Workout of Gardening

National Garden Exercise Day

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. June 6, 2022 On this day, dear readers, we celebrate National Garden Exercise Day, a delightful occasion that marries the pleasures of horticulture with the virtues of physical exertion. As one who has…

Read More

Charles Lathrop Pack and the 1918 War Garden Battle Against Baseball

Charles Lathrop-Pack

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. March 30, 1918 Dearest reader, On this day, the Oregon Daily Journal of Portland offered readers more than just their usual scoop: a sharp rebuke aimed squarely at baseball club owners planning to…

Read More

Clarence Elliott and the Legacy of Six Hills

Clarence Elliott

The Founder of Six Hills November 3, 1881    Today is the birthday of the English garden writer, plant explorer, renowned nurseryman, alpine specialist, and a founding member of the Alpine Garden Society, Clarence Elliott. Clarence had a remarkable career, and he cast an enormous shadow from his legendary nursery in Stevenage called Six Hills.…

Read More

Whispers of Summer Gardens: Voices on Labor, Love, and Life in the Earth

Lilies and delphinium in the summer garden.

Today’s Garden Words were featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of all. Lilies and delphinium in the summer garden. July 8, 2020 July is a month that tests the gardener’s endurance—when the afternoons…

Read More

Bones of the Land: Wyeth’s Solitude and Hirshfield’s Garden Task

Bones of the winter landscape.

Today’s Garden Words were featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of all. Bones of the winter landscape. November 20, 2019 On this day, as autumn deepens and the garden sheds its lush disguises,…

Read More

The Night Gardener: How Edward Budding Revolutionized Our Lawns

Lawn ready to be mowed

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. August 22, 1830 My dearest garden comrades, on this most auspicious day in horticultural history, a revolution sprouted from the ingenious mind of one Edward Beard Budding – the very first lawn mower…

Read More

Iron Revolution: When Charles Newbold’s Plow Changed Gardening Forever

Charles Newbold thumbnail image

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. June 26, 1797 On this day, our agricultural history was forever altered when one Charles Newbold, a man of considerable foresight and iron determination, patented the first cast-iron plow. Yes, dear readers, while…

Read More