And the Time Sundials Tell

And the Time Sundials Tell

by John Ciardi And the time sundials tell May be minutes and hours. But it may just as well Be seconds and sparkles, or seasons and flowers. No, I don’t think of time as just minutes and hours. Time can be heartbeats, or bird songs, or miles, Or waves on a beach, or ants in…

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Locked Into its Roots

A Seed To Be Planted

by John Ciardi Every word has a history. Every word has an image locked into its roots.     Note: Today is the birthday of the poet John Ciardi who was born on this day in 1916.  As featured onThe Daily Gardener podcast: Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of…

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A Seed to be Planted

John Ciardi

by John Ciardi A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.         Note: Today is the birthday of the poet John Ciardi who was…

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Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Flowers in the Dirt And on this day in 1989, Paul McCartney’s album flowers in the dirt became the number one album in England.    Flowers in the Dirt brought McCartney some of the best reviews he had seen in years.       This post was featured onThe Daily Gardener podcast: helping gardeners find…

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Stephen Endlicher

Stephen Endlicher

Genera Plantarum On this day in 1804 at the botanist Stephen Endlicher was born in Pressburg, Hungry.   Endlicher devised a major system of plant classification. He explained it in his groundbreaking book Genera Plantarum.   Endlicher donated his herbarium of 30,000 specimens to the Vienna Museum of Natural History and in 1840 he was appointed…

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Thomas Blanchard

Thomas Blanchard

Nature Meets New Inventions  It was on this day in 1788, that the self-taught tinkerer Thomas Blanchard was born.    At the tender age of 13, Blanchard created a mechanical way to pare apples with a wire gauge.           This post was featured onThe Daily Gardener podcast: helping gardeners find their…

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Queen Elizabeth

Queen Elizabeth

Silver Jubilee And today in 1977, her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, celebrated her Silver Jubilee by planting a Cedrus Atlantica Glauca on the east lawn.   The tree is regarded as the most striking in appearance of all the blue conifers.         This post was featured onThe Daily Gardener podcast: helping gardeners find…

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Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted

A Rise to Power  It was on this day in 1872 that the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was nominated in absentia as Vice President of the United States.   Banker James McKim and philanthropist Robert Minturn, (who was instrumental in the creation of New York’s Central Park), proposed a ticket featuring Olmsted as…

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Cyrus McCormick

Cyrus McCormick

The Father of Modern Agriculture  It was on this day in 1834 that the American inventor and businessman, Cyrus McCormick, patented the reaping machine. McCormick’s thresher changed agriculture forever; replacing the manual cutting of crops – which is why he’s considered The Father of Modern Agriculture. McCormick’s company would go on to become the International Harvester…

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Abraham Mignon

Abraham Mignon

Nature’s Artist It’s the birthday of Abraham Mignon who was born on this day in 1640. Mignon was a Dutch Golden age painter and he created vibrant paintings of fruit, birds, and his specialty: flowers. When Mignon was just nine years old, he was placed under the care of Jacob Merrill – a still-life painter…

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Green Summer

Green Summer

by Alice M. Swaim No farther than my fingertips, No weightier than a rose, The essence of green summer slips Into a waiting pose.  The tilted bowl of heaven Has spilled its blue and gold Among the vines and grasses Where autumn is foretold.  Skylarks trill the melody, Crickets cry it over; Summer hides her…

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Isabella Abbott

Isabella Abbott

First Lady of Limu And It was on this day a hundred years ago that Isabella Abbott was born.   She was the first native Hawaiian woman to earn a Ph.D. in science.  Abbott became known as the “First Lady of Limu” or seaweed. When she was a little girl, she spent hours gathering seaweed…

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Meriwether Lewis

Meriwether Lewis

The Expedition of The Missouri RIver  It was on this day in 1803 that President Thomas Jefferson sent a formal letter to his private secretary and aide, Meriwether Lewis.   Lewis was a captain in the first United States infantry. Jefferson wrote him to request that he might lead an expedition of the Missouri River.…

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John Bartram

John Bartram

Garden Letters  It was on this day in 1757 that the botanist John Bartram letter to Philip Miller.   Miller was the chief Gardner at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1722 until his death. He corresponded with botanists from all over the world, including John Bartram. Miller even trained William Forsyth after whom Forsythia is…

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