Last night ‘The Illusionist’ put me to sleep. But I bolted up when the orange tree fruited without flowering. I imagined nearly a half-dozen people across the world shaking their heads in displeasure. Years ago Anne Raver wrote a nice article about movies that screw up garden-related details.I long for the old days (“when movies […]
George Sessions Perry Walls Rise Up — Most hobo tales are weighed down by sorrow and angst, but not this one. A little known, hard to find gem that tells of three Texas dust-bowl drifters who find trouble yet remain “pure of heart”. Jimmy, their leader, is unforgettable. Perry later wrote the novel, Hold Autumn In Your Hand, which became the movie, ‘The Southerners’, about a poor farmer…
Several years ago I tried to find our town’s trash dump. Turns out there is no such thing. I called the Bucks County commissioner’s office. None in the county. I searched on the internet. What a mess! The nearest place I could take some exceptional “trash”—non-essentials of deceased relatives that I wished to throw out in a ritual manner—was over 25 miles away in New Jersey. Too tired to drive…
From 1977 to 1979 I rented a small apartment on the 2100 block of North Kimball Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. This neighborhood, Logan Square, was a mile or so south of Albany Park, an easy city walk from one of the greatest concentrations of ethnic Poles in the world. Only Warsaw has more Poles than the city of Chicago. Their language, manner and food are everywhere.Poles move around, and are…
When I discovered that Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’ had been thriving for the last 5 years in my garden, but had been listed by Burpee and other nurseries nationwide as either an “annual” or a perennial hardy only in zones 7 to 11, I was really surprised. I remember seeing it listed as a […]
It’s not a coincidence that people between the ages of 40 and 70 years comprise 90% of gardeners. Gardening takes—and gives—time. Time spent, invested, and enjoyed. Like a house, a garden is meant to be inhabited. Hours savored, not minutes; weeks satisfied, not days; years fulfilled, not months. To garden is to live. The origin of the word, “season”, is “the time to sow seeds”, from which the meaning led…
Jean Shepherd In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash — Tender and brilliantly funny stories of growing up in the Midwest in the early 50s. Seinfeld was asked who was his greatest influence and, without hesitation, he replied, “Jean Shepherd”. The follow-up, Wanda Hickey’s Night Of Golden Memories And Other Disasters, is also excellent. […]
Speech to Garden Writers Convention, March 6, 2006 Good Morning. It is a pleasure and privilege to speak to you. Mr. Evison will be a hard act to follow. I especially appreciated, sir, the idea of pruning a plant while upside down. Never heard that one. It is a great image to take away from this lecture. So I hope I can be as imaginative as he. I am going…
