The Skunk Cabbage

The Skunk Cabbage

by Jack Sanders In much of North America, skunk cabbage has earned the widespread reputation as the first flower of spring. It might be more accurate, however, to call it the first flower of winter. “The skunk cabbage may be found with its round green spear-point an inch or two above the mold in December,”…

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January 27 2021 Predicting the New Year’s 2021 Garden Trends, Lewis Carroll, Terramycin, Skunk Cabbage, Botanical Baking by Juliet Sear, and the Surprise in a Botanist’s Garden: Running Buffalo Clover

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Today we celebrate the writer inspired by the Oxford Botanic Garden – a place he saw every day. We’ll also learn about medicine with roots in the soil in Indiana. We’ll hear a lovely excerpt about a harbinger of spring: Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) We Grow That Garden Library™ with a fantastic book about botanical…

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The Sweet Goodbye of Winter

The Sweet Goodbye of Winter

by John Burroughs A sap run is the sweet goodbye of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of the sun and frost. As featured onThe Daily Gardener podcast: Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of all.

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John Burroughs

John Burroughs

John O’ Birds  Today is the birthday of the Naturalist, poet, and philosopher John Burroughs (books by this author) was born on a dairy farm in Roxbury, outside of Boston on this date in 1837. He was sent to the local school, where his desk was next to that of Erie Railroad Robber Baron, Jay…

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April 3, 2020 Gardening for Resilience, Magnifying Glass for the Garden Tote, Nikolay Rumyantsev, John Burroughs, Kate Brandegee, Graham Stuart Thomas, The Overstory by Richard Powers, and The Wake-Robin by Rebecca Salsbury Palfrey Utter

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Today we celebrate the birthday of a Russian Count who funded an expedition that led to the discovery of the California poppy. We’ll also learn about one of the country’s most beloved naturalists. We celebrate the life of the second woman to be professionally employed as a botanist in the United States. She died 100…

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The Queen Bee Alone Survives

by John Burroughs The queen bee alone survives. You never see her playing the vagabond in the fall. At least I never have. She hunts out a retreat in the ground and passes the winter there, doubtless in a torpid state, as she stores no food against the inclement season. As featured onThe Daily Gardener…

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This Crisp Winter Air

This Crisp Winter Air

by John Burroughs It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it. As featured onThe Daily Gardener podcast: Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of all.

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The Tendinous Part of the Mind

The Tendinous Part of the Mind

by John Burroughs The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to Literature, summer the tissues and blood.  As featured onThe Daily Gardener podcast: Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words…

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Winter Means a Long Sleep

Winter Means a Long Sleep

by John Burroughs To many forms of life of our northern lands, winter means a long sleep; to others, it means what it means to many fortunate human beings – travels in warm climes. To still others, who again have their human prototypes, it means a struggle, more or less fierce, to keep soul and…

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In Winter, the Stars Seem to Have Rekindled Their Fires

In Winter, the Stars Seem to Have Rekindled Their Fires

by John Burroughs In winter, the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity. Summer is more wooing and seductive, more versatile and human, appeals to the affections and the sentiments, and fosters inquiry and the art impulse. Winter…

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What a Severe Yet Master Artist Old Winter is

What a Severe Yet Master Artist Old Winter is

by John Burroughs [W]hat a severe yet master artist old Winter is… No longer the canvas and the pigments, but the marble and the chisel. As featured onThe Daily Gardener podcast: Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of all.

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September 27, 2019 Ina Garten Roasted Tomato Basil Soup, 1843 Chrysanthemums, Joy Morton, James Drummond Dole, John Burroughs, Elizabeth Bowen, Bonaro Overstreet, Hedgemaids and Fairy Candles by Jack Sanders, Your 2020 Garden, and Pick Blackberries before Michaelmas

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What are you doing with all of your tomatoes? If you’re looking for a good recipe, I have a suggestion for you: Ina Garten’s Roasted Tomato Soup. A few years ago, I stumbled on Ina Garten’s recipe for Roasted Tomato Soup – it’s the best-roasted tomato basil soup recipe out there if you ask me!…

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