Eyes made their first appearance, like so many humanoid features, in the oceans. As marine life forms rose from the profound depths, they encountered light. Many responded to this new selection pressure by evolving light detecting sensors. It is theoretically likely that many did not. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, some silent movie […]
I’ve noticed color more this year than in others, due mainly to its absence in our large, fruited vegetable garden, where I focused much attention. On the other hand, the Happiness Garden—our .71 acre of meadow perennial heaven at Fordhook Farm—has never been more luminous, shining in the sun. “Ganz lustig!” as my grandmother used […]
Over dinner recently with Heronswood’s brilliant new plant collector, Simon Crawford, I learned that what we regard as soil resulted from plant life, not the other way around. While not quite as simple as that, it’s true that plants created land, as in “land, ho!” or “this is good earth—our crops will grow here”, etc. […]
We are reinventing our company. Since 2006 we have been transforming from a small but extremely diverse regional mail order nursery into a larger and more broadly assorted national research and production company with several nurseries, test gardens and a greater online presence. One of our perduring services is a close personal contact with customers. […]
Norman Borlaug died recently (12 September 2009) at the age of 95. Borlaug began life as an Iowa farm boy, was trained as a plant pathologist at the University of Minnesota, and went on to direct some of the most important plant breeding efforts of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize […]
After giving a speech to 600 garden writers in North Carolina last week, I returned in a state of uncertainty—had anyone heard the underlying message? It was too cerebral, I think, to read a speech to a bunch of pumped up enthusiasts who wanted to chat about the gorgeous Sarah Duke Gardens that surrounded us. […]
(The following is the speech I gave to The Garden Writers Association last night at their annual convention in Raleigh, North Carolina. Despite the familiar first sentence and a few other tropes, it’s a new piece. Enjoy!) 2009 has been one extraordinary year in the history of American gardening. As if on cue, a […]
On this, my 200th blog, I get to say whatever I want in a top ten list, in no special order. 1. My favorite artist is the sculptor Steve Tobin. 2. Recent problems with literacy are due, in part, to textbook font sizes having become smaller over the last 50 […]
They don’t make Labor Day like they used to. The shifting forms and meanings of labor have rendered Labor Day our most nebulous national holiday. For example, in gardening—a leisure activity—Labor Day is incorrectly considered the close of the season. For holiday-goers, it marks the end of summer—despite schools regularly starting weeks before the first […]
2009 has been one extraordinary year in the history of American gardening. As if on cue, a panoply of developing trends all pointed towards the garden, opening the gates to the most dramatic resurgence in American gardening since the Great Depression. First and foremost, the current economic slump has proven an effective recruiting tool for […]
