It’s finally here—2024. Now, I’m not one to usually disparage the previous year—but, boy, am I glad that 2023 is over! Mostly for some personal challenges my family and I faced in 2023 (let’s not go into that here!).  READ MORE 

Kevin Topping: Kevin Topping is a retired sustainability professional whose garden is a place of peace for all creatures. Ginger Webb: Ginger lives with her husband, Ben, on a rocky hilltop where raspberries thrive but groundhogs don’t. Gardening is challenging for Ginger on a granite slab, but it’s impossible for a groundhog to raise a family there.  READ MORE 

“Oh look! They are so cute” my wife, Marcie, whispered. “Two of them still have their spots. Their Momma must be really close.” Marcie gazed at the deer grazing where our garden meets the woods—and smiled.  READ MORE 

Not too long ago, I happened to drive by the old Navy base at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, where my dad had been stationed when I was in my teens. The base was now decommissioned, and the land and buildings were being transferred to civilian hands.  READ MORE 

Once upon a time, in a quaint little town nestled between rolling hills and a meandering river, the residents lived simple lives. They were content, but their culinary repertoire was limited to the vegetables they could grow in their gardens.  READ MORE 

If ever there is a day here in San Jose meant for curling up with a garden catalog and a Spring frame of mind, this is it. The temperatures have dropped, the wind is blowing, and cold rain spatters a prelude to another frigid deluge.  READ MORE 

I’d been feeling a little blue, and losing the lucky frog didn’t help. It happened when I cleaned out the bird bath. The lucky frog sits on a broken paver in the middle of the bird bath, and I’d set it down or dropped it somewhere when I scrubbed the green slime from inside the bath, switching out the paver for a fresh stone for the birds to perch on.  READ MORE 

The first week of January is, of course, New Year’s resolution time. So, on a sunny afternoon, I always resolutely bundle up, step outside, and have a talk with my garden. I want to make sure it’s learned from last year’s mistakes and made some plans to improve.  READ MORE 

Funny story. Funny as in strange, odd, other-worldly. Would you like to hear it? Several months ago, my children and I were traveling a stretch of deserted mountain road. Not the best time of year, what with the snow and all, but we had just been to visit my husband’s grave.  READ MORE 

If I were an azalea, I would have required intensive plant care—pruning, repotting, fertilizing. Perhaps even a mumbled prayer to the garden gods. My problem was a recent stress-acquired insomnia. Rather, the result was the sleeplessness.  READ MORE 

January 15 is the anniversary of Boston’s Great Molasses Flood of 1919. Just after lunchtime on that fatal day, a five-story-high storage tank in Boston’s North End, filled to bursting with 2.5 million gallons of molasses, popped its seams.  READ MORE