Don Quixote was just fine until he began reading books. I think gardening books were what got me. At night I’d pore over lush photographs of gardens from New England  …

Rich lemony-yellow mums were my mother’s favorite. In this first Autumn after her death, when I see them, I crave her presence. I hunger for the soft warmth of her  …

According to Kermit the Frog, it’s not easy being green. His sad point was that—being green—you blend, wallflower-like, into the background and everybody passes you by. Green means ignored,  …

I am a goof. Being 73 may have something to do with it, but un-fortunately, I think I’ve been rather unorganized most of my life. Take the other day. I  …

The old fast food-joint was a great place until it burned down. At first, the gossip in the Scottish town was about how it happened. Was it arson or just  …

The first time I got interested in growing something I was 7 or 8. I saw my mom break a leaf off her philodendron and put it in water  …

Late every Summer, the grasshoppers appear in the horseradish. Temperatures start dropping fast here in upstate New York after these guys show up: anything that won’t stand up to a  …

She has been nearly dead for a while now. I am surprised that she has lived this long. But since we are friends and I can’t take any more grief  …

Earlier this week, my husband, Kim, showed up outside carrying our new pole pruner. A while back, he had promised to help me cut back some overgrown branches of a  …

Last Fall my sister and I decided to travel to South Carolina to visit her son and his family. I drove from western Arkansas to her home near Springfield, Missouri,  …