Planting Blessings – Lessons from Childhood

Little girl tasting her first iced lolly in her nana's garden

Born in Ballymena, 30 miles north of Belfast, my Nana never lost her Irish brogue, even after moving to England as a young woman. By today's standards she didn't have much. She left school at 11 to look after her siblings "just as we were starting to learn long-division", married the boy next door, lived…

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Shades of September

  It's an odd time of year. Neither summer nor fall. Cooler but not cold. Perhaps chianti rather than sauvignon blanc but not-quite-ready-for-a-full-Bordeaux type of weather I typically head into the garden to see what is new – newly blooming or in leaf – not newly going into decline! So what is there to get…

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Blanket Flower Beauty

Do you buy perennials or grow them from seed? My Mum was a remarkably thrifty – and patient gardener and grew many perennials such as delphiniums from seed. The first year they would get to be respectable sized plants but if they flowered it wasn't a spectacular show. They would typically take three years to…

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Pretty Enough To Eat

Gone are the days where 'salad' meant a limp lettuce leaf and a dollop of salad cream (in the UK) or ranch dressing (in the USA)! Leaf crops such as spinach, peppery arugula and crunchy kale jostle with a tantalizing blend of colorful lettuce varieties. Harvest some young beet leaves, carrot tops and herbs and you have a…

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Winter Adventure for Children of all Ages

I had the privilege of presenting a workshop at  The Morton Arboretum  recently while I was speaking in the Chicago area. I could see straight away that this was somewhere special; 1700 acres of stately trees and gardens including lakes and natural areas. The casual (cold) visitor might just head straight for the coffee shop…

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