Unearthed Words
This Month's
Unearthed Words
Unearthed Words
The Archives
All the words shared on The Daily Gardener podcast.
What is a Weed?
by Donald Culross Peattie What is a weed? I’ve heard it said that there are 60 definitions. For me, a weed is a plant out of place. Donald Culross Peattie was born on this day in Chicago in 1898. Peattie was regarded as the most-read nature writer in America during…
Mad-Mad
by Donald Culross Peattie I have often started off on a walk in the state called mad-mad in the sense of sore-headed, or mad with tedium or confusion; I have set forth dull, null, and even thoroughly discouraged. But I never came back in such a frame of mind, and I never met a human…
All the Great Naturalists
by Donald Culross Peattie All the great naturalists have been habitual walkers, for no laboratory, no book, car, train, or plane takes the place of honest footwork for this calling, be it amateurs or professionals. Donald Culross Peattie was born on this day in Chicago in 1898. Peattie was regarded as…
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…
He Fell Forward Like a Cut Flower
by James Matthew Barrie The unhappy Hook was as impotent as he was damp, and he fell forward like a cut flower. Notes: Today is the anniversary of the death of the author of Peter Pan, James Matthew Barrie. Barrie was inspired by Kensington Gardens. In 1912, he commissioned Sir George Frampton to…
All Children, Except One, Grow Up
by James Matthew Barrie All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this: One day when she was two years old, she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must…
A Fallen Leaf
by James Matthew Barrie There is almost nothing that has such a keen sense of fun as a fallen leaf. Notes: Today is the anniversary of the death of the author of Peter Pan, James Matthew Barrie. Barrie was inspired by Kensington Gardens. In 1912, he commissioned Sir George Frampton to build…
The Herbaceous Peony is the Very Epitome of June
by Vita Sackville-West It always seemed to me that the herbaceous peony is the very epitome of June. Larger than any rose, it has something of the cabbage rose’s voluminous quality; and when it finally drops from the vase, it sheds its petticoats with a bump on the table, all in an intact heap, much…
A Piece of Our Heart
by Joanne Shaw A piece of our heart is in all our gardens. Note: This is a quote from my friend and fellow podcaster, Joanne Shaw, who said this one year ago. As featured onThe Daily Gardener podcast: Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of all. Joanne…
Summer Has Two Beginnings
by Emily Dickinson Summer has two Beginnings — Beginning once in June — Beginning in October Affectingly again — Without, perhaps, the Riot But graphicker for Grace — As finer is a going Than a remaining Face — Departing then — forever — Forever — until May — Forever is deciduous Except to those…
The Secret Garden
by Gilbert Keith Chesterton The garden was large and elaborate, and there were many exits from the house into the garden. But there was no exit from the garden into the world outside; all-round it ran a tall, smooth, unscalable wall with special spikes at the top; no bad garden, perhaps, for a man to…
Our Rose Tree
by William Butler Yeats ‘O words are lightly spoken,’ Said Pearse to Connolly, ‘Maybe a breath of politic words Has withered our Rose Tree; Or maybe but a wind that blows Across the bitter sea.’ ‘It needs to be but watered,’ James Connolly replied, ‘To make the green come out again And spread on every…
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