Some of the wisest people I know spend much of their time with their hands in dirt. All those hours spent among earthworms must help them draw profound insights. I’m new at gardening and I’m not so profound to begin with, but I did have one insight the other day. Steve and I spent Saturday […]

It’s been a long, hot summer. Friends in Europe and Asia have been wilting along with us in the States. (Except for Northern California, that is.) And this is the summer I’m trying my hand at gardening, for the first time ever. Before now, I’ve only grown plants inside the safety and shelter of a […]

While I was initially afraid that moving to the South would mean taking a few steps backward in an environmentally-friendly lifestyle, only to be pleasantly surprised when a recycling business started up in our new town the week we moved in, that doesn’t mean that recycling has become a normal part of life here yet. It’ll take some […]

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I respond to gardening just like I do with everything else.  I love watching the different colors and shapes unfold as new blooms appear every few weeks, planning how to introduce more riotous color in our backyard. But actually getting dirty and doing the work in this hot, muggy weather . . . […]

As I write this, I’m looking out at our front yard. Each week, new flowers bloom in places where we had no idea bulbs slept underground all winter. It’s so much fun to see the green stalks pop up, often in unexpected places. But even then, I don’t know what color the flowers will be; […]