A few weeks ago I wrote about an illness that had me unable to garden through the height of the growing season. This experience in being disconnected from the little piece of earth that nurtures me as I nurture it has me thinking again about what it means to be a gardener when you can’t …
Summer fruits and berries have been in abundance these past weeks and the experience of foraging, picking, eating, preparing, and preserving them has conjured up all sorts of memories from my past going right back to early childhood when I discovered a black currant bush and onward to my teens when I did fruit picking …
Our gardens reflect who we are, what we need, and what we like. I am a tinkerer. I like to experiment, mess about, and explore. I am curious. I like insects. I like to grow plants that are useful. I like diversity. My garden is filled to overflowing with a wide range of useful and …
“Maybe this is what gardening is about: slowly opening the door, a controlling hand making tentative gestures to wildness.” – from The Gardener’s Manifesto by Lorraine Johnson Grow Write Guild Prompt #29: Write about wildness. The Grow Write Guild is a creative writing club for people who love to garden. Everyone is welcome to participate! …
Someday I’d like to have the experience of gardening in another climate. While I certainly haven’t experienced everything this climate has to offer a gardener, I think it would be an exciting challenge to try growing somewhere completely different, where I would have the opportunity to see some of my favourite tender plants come into …
Just the other day I wrote about the hit my garden took this year as a result of an unusually harsh winter. As spring progressed, I watched a number of particularly beaten plants closely for signs of life or recovery. As April turned to May and the time for recovery was well passed its due …
I’m a week behind in posting a writing prompt. I came down with some sort of plague that knocked me flat out cold and it seems to have overlapped with the onset of spring seasonal allergies. Through even the worst days when I could barely get up and get dressed, I thought about the garden …
Over the years, I have met all sorts of people as a result of my personal and professional interest in gardening. Some of these experiences have been thrilling and joyful; others were colorful, frightening, a bit odd, or downright nuts. Some of the strangest conversations took place as I tended my former “Guerilla garden” on …
Grow Write Guild Prompt #24: Write about the most inspiring garden you have visited. Further Notes and Questions: Was it a public or private garden? What about it appealed to you? How did you feel there? Describe the parts that you liked best. Did you discover a new plant there? Did you learn something else …
Houseplants are often where many of us nurture a love of cultivating plants, and through winter, they can be an important way to stay connected to the gardener part of ourselves. Grow Write Guild Prompt #23: Write about a houseplant.
Starting from seed is not just an economical way to produce edible crops or access unusual plants and specific varieties. Over the years I have found that it is also a good way to really get to know a specific plant type more intimately and I’ve found myself ordering seed from all types of plants …
Some of us begin working the soil fully consciousness of a desire to become a gardener, while others can spend years growing plants before we awaken to the realization of who we have become. For me it was the latter. I spent years, on and off, collecting houseplants, nurturing cuttings, and messing around with the …