Love stinks
/If you — or your dopey dog — have ever been skunk-shot you won’t soon forget it. Be especially careful for the next month while skunks are looking for love.
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If you — or your dopey dog — have ever been skunk-shot you won’t soon forget it. Be especially careful for the next month while skunks are looking for love.
Read MoreIt’s Valentine’s Day and more bouquets will be changing hands today than on any other holiday. Don’t settle for the same old, same old when you could be sending secret messages in the language of flowers.
Read MoreIn honor of the just-celebrated Chinese New Year, my thoughts turned to the many plants that have made their way here from the Middle Kingdom. I knew little about the paulownia until I was asked to identify a strange leaf.
Read MoreGive me a beach where the sun is warm and the shade comes courtesy of a rustling palm. You can grow palms here as over-sized patio specimens with a great backstory. How many other plants once figured in a political scandal and inspired an indelible figure of speech?
Read MoreIn few places are art and nature more deftly entwined than in Claude Monet’s gardens at Giverny. Located about 45 miles from Paris, the gardens are familiar from the artist’s Impressionist works, which are known worldwide.
Read MoreIf dreary winter weather gets you down, consider a trip to a warmer, gentler season. It doesn’t take plane tickets to bask in abundant living color at one of the area’s outstanding glass houses. Road trip!
Read MoreJanuary is sort of a slow month. To liven it up, I like to give amaryllis bulbs away at Christmas and then challenge my friends to a race. Who will get the first bloom? Gentlemen and gentlewomen, start your engines…
Read MoreThe highly anticipated arrival of spring gardening catalogs is underway. This is the stuff of which dreams are made. Browsing through their pages, every mad scheme is possible…
Read MoreWe’re about to plunge into a brand new year. Are you ready? Consider a few ancient methods for paving the road ahead with good luck.
Read MoreChristmas brings out our inner child, innocent of cynicism and giddy with anticipation. Try for a moment to recapture that open-hearted embrace of things magical and mysterious. It will do you some good, I promise. (Photo, Maggie/Flickr)
Read MoreThese short days and long, dark nights draw us into ourselves. But next week we arrive at the winter solstice, fulcrum of the season, and the balance tips once again toward the light. Rejoice!
Read MoreI’m declaring today Throw Away Your Old Poinsettia Day. Yes — you. Ditch that pathetic plant you’ve neglected all year. A new and glorious holiday plant awaits adoption.
Read MoreWreaths have a long history as a symbol of hospitality and celebration. They are also easy to customize to suit your house color, room decor or flights of fancy. This is folk art, folks, so enjoy.
Read MoreGratitude for our blessings is the finest impulse of today — or any day. May Thanksgiving reflect the best of family, friendship and feasting. And by the way, thanks to you, dear readers, for joining me here through the year.
Read MoreThere’s frost on the hills and the forecast is calling for the season’s first snowfall. Yes, the cold months are upon us but it’s not all bad news. Everybody needs a little downtime.
Read MoreEver think about replacing that lawn with a wildflower meadow? “Look before you leap” is always good advice. The gritty reality is a bit different than the lyrical ideal.
Read MoreThe growing season is winding down but it’s not over ‘til it’s over. If you take care of garden chores now you’ll be securely tucked away when the snow flies — and ready for new adventures next spring.
Read MoreSince Halloween is coming, it’s timely to consider some of the evil-doers of the plant kingdom. Many are defending themselves against predators. Others are just plain toxic for no known evolutionary reason.
Read MoreApples are woven into the early history of the young American nation. Johnny Appleseed ring a bell? Orchards are open now for the fall harvest. Bet you can’t eat just one.
Read MoreHalloween will be here before you know it. The essential decoration is, of course, the jack-o-lantern. Turn an ordinary cucurbit into a spooky masterwork. It’s easy with stencils, the greatest cheat going for the artistically inept.
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