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Category Archives: Gardening
Katsura or Kudzu
The Katsura tree, native to Japan and China, has been cropping up at nurseries the past few years, and I took a liking to it two years ago, and brought home a five foot high clump for a spot along … Continue reading
The architecture of death
Autumn is upon us and things are falling apart, falling out and falling down, as cells shut down in falling temperatures and thinning sunlight. The ashes, maples, cottonwoods and redbud are now stark skeletons in our backyard and the birches … Continue reading
Last light on the green fuse
A late afternoon sun on an autumn sedum is a reminder that these forms and colors are fleeting. This is one of the last bloomers in the garden, and on a sunny afternoon is a magnet for various bees and … Continue reading
Autumn Affirmation
Intrepid? Resourceful? Resilient? Or just a genetic predisposition? This sweet pea continues to grow and bloom into the third week of October. The same plant that was hitting its stride in mid-August (see second photo). All around it are the … Continue reading
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Falling into autumn
If spring is about hope, promise, potential; then what do we drape autumn with? Plans gone awry? Promises unfulfilled? Expenditures in vain? Treelines are on a slow trim from yellow to gold and soon burnt sienna, while a few cold … Continue reading
Summer rising
Meteorological autumn has arrived, which means mums and bundles of dried cornstalks at the garden centers. But nature isn’t calling it quits. Cloverbush, boltonia and asters are blooming, as are sweet autumn clematis, butterfly bush, rubeckia and sedums. Then there … Continue reading
Nature and fractals
In William Paul Young’s The Shack, the protagonist Mckenzie Allen Philips is given a tour of the garden surrounding the shack by the Spirit, who goes by Sarayu. It is a vibrant, complex patchwork of color and texture, a random … Continue reading
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Tagged fractal, garden, Holy Spirit, insight, meaning, nature, Shack, Young
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Bounty
A foot of rain over the past month translates to lots of green, dappled with yellows, whites, pinks, and purples. Most everything is bigger, lusher, more vigorous, including the interlopers like bindweed, thistle, queen anne lace, ragweed, and purple clover. … Continue reading
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Live and Let Die
If gardening is about making tough decisions–and I believe it is–then a garden is more like a courtroom than a veranda. What stays, what goes; which deserves the front and which the back; what is the best ratio of color … Continue reading
Migration
Gardening can be the most rewarding and most frustrating activity in the catalog of vocation or avocation. And the most instructive. On non-toxic, fertile ground, you never know what will appear next. Consider this image: the assumption is the black … Continue reading
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