By the time you get this issue, the weather should be cooling a bit and the new greenprints.com website will be live, which means you can go check out all the ways we’re bringing the GreenPrints back-issue archive to life online! We’d love for you to start receiving the free GreenPrints Daily email newsletter by registering on the website.  READ MORE 

Dave Bachmann: “I’m a retired special-ed teacher who taught for 39 years in AZ. I now live and write in CA with my wife Jay and lab Scout.” His work appeared in Issue 129.

Ed Witman: From Toms River, NJ: “I am a retired professor of philosophy and a nongardening husband.” His work appeared in Issue 126.  READ MORE 

I am 68 years old. You could say that I’ve been around. Yet not too long ago, I did something I’ve never done before. I raked the street.  READ MORE 

This is a story about a young boy, his mom, and a cool crisp October afternoon in the early 1950s.   READ MORE 

It all started with a Summer plant sale. But not just any plant sale. A 75-percent off plant sale.  READ MORE 

I was 10 years old when my father died. I was 12 when my mother died. That’s why I learned to hate the smell of flowers. There were so many flowers at both of my parents’ funerals that the smell of them almost gagged me. I would get a whiff here and there of the sweet Spring scent of a flower bouquet and my breath would catch in my throat.  READ MORE 

Years ago my mother was in the hospital, and my sister and I gathered beech leaves to soak in glycerin, so they would keep through Winter. As long as either of us could remember she had done this every Autumn, sometimes mixing them with honesty, or money plant. Both she and my sister have died, but I still have the blue vase she used for these dried bouquets.  READ MORE 

Back when I had a real job, my coworkers loved it when I brought veggies from my garden to share. At least they said they loved it. Unless you think they were just being polite in thanking me for all that free zucchini?  READ MORE 

Birds have always fascinated me. I keep a bird feeder or two (or three) and enjoy seeing who shows up for a meal. The showy cardinals, goldfinches, and blue jays are always a treat, and I listen for mockingbirds, rare in this area but not unknown.  READ MORE 

served as a British soldier for more than two decades. When I was discharged, I was physically fine but—as I realized later—mentally broken. Things I’d blocked out at the time now gave me nightmares, recurring nightmares. But I refused to accept help for another two decades.   READ MORE 

Goodness, the vegetable garden is finally—well almost, if truth be told—put to bed for another year. It is the exact same thing I’ve been doing for years: piling on top of the raised beds scads of mulched leaves, turning that over and leaving it rough, and then piling more leaves on top.  READ MORE 

What do you believe? Individually, most of us know pretty much where we stand on life’s bigger issues—and similarly on life’s smaller, though even on these we may not agree, which is what leads to family ructions over things like toothpaste squeezing and cats on the bed.  READ MORE 

Mom, someone littered in your garden!” roared Lindsay after noticing a beer can near the raspberries she was sampling in my garden. “How rude!”  READ MORE 

Elementary school is supposed to be a special time in our lives. However, as far as I can remember, my most fond memories of elementary school were recess and fire drills. Other than that, I absolutely hated school.  READ MORE 

It was many years ago (Several? Decades? Where are my car keys?! Have Evil, Key-Stealing Squirrels become tired of planting black walnuts in every one of my garden beds and achieved forced entry into the house?) that a much younger me had had good success with many plants—and rationalized that the others were their own fault.  READ MORE 

What makes a true garden cat? I would say one who accompanies the gardener on his or her rounds, helpfully dispatches grasshoppers (but not birds or butterflies), stays within boundaries—and always stops to smell the flowers.   READ MORE 

Chicken Plop Tea Recipe  READ MORE