The Ancestor Connection My love of gardening comes from my parents and before that my grandparents. There is definitely an ancestor connection to caring for green things. And this year I can’t look at my tiny espaliered apple tree without thinking of my father. My dad tended apple and pear trees for as long as … Read more
Whimsy is this week’s mindfulness focus, inspired by Beebalm (Monarda didyma), now flowering in my garden. Whimsy includes playfulness and amusement. And Beebalm certainly has those characteristics. The flower tops “… resemble unkempt mopheads,” according to the Missouri Plant Finder website. I have always thought they looked like Dr. Seuss characters, little creatures with tufts on their … Read more
Owning Our Story – this week’s mindful focus, inspired by amaranth Every plant has a story. Amaranth is ancient. It came back into our modern awareness about twenty years ago as a healthy, high protein, grain-like choice. I will get to the story in a moment, but one reason I’ve been thinking of amaranth is … Read more
If you drive through my neighborhood in mid-summer, you will see wild morning glories in almost every yard. But here is the thing, they are not morning glories at all. They are bindweed flowers (Convolvulus arvensis} masquerading as morning glories. And the name bindweed tells you most of what you need to … Read more
My Sunday post is coming out very late in the day because I have been hanging out in the garden. Finally, I am done traveling. And the weather cooperated, making it a great gardening weekend. I also have a new planting area in my yard, created when we moved a fence out to … Read more
Everything Changes When I started gardening many moons ago, it was impossible to get organic produce at local stores. I also had a house full of children. Growing plants we could make meals with was a top priority. However, all of that has changed. Drifting Toward Easy My work schedule is hectic, there aren’t … Read more
The mindfulness focus this week is circle of influence…contemplating the reach of our actions and what if anything we can do to change the world. Sadly this is not inspired by the garden, but instead by the ongoing gun violence in this country. It is easy to be overwhelmed by … Read more
Children’s books often perfectly capture the human experience. In the Frog and Toad story The Garden, Toad admires Frog’s garden and then plants some seeds of his own. Toad waters the garden and then begins to obsess about when the seeds will come up. He paces, worries, sings, and shouts at the seeds, which … Read more
Spring is Coming I know it is super cold in much of the country, but there are sure signs of spring if we are paying attention. The minutes of sunlight are increasing each day and seed catalogs are arriving in the mail. If you are not a gardener, it might be hard to understand … Read more
Arguing With Winter I am not a fan of winter or the darkness that accompanies it. The sun sets in Denver just after 4:30 PM this week, making for a very long night. And although the weather can be balmy here when the sun is up, temperatures can plummet twenty degrees after … Read more
