It’s that time of year—the time to reflect and be thankful. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of the year, because it’s a chance to remember everything wonderful about my garden this year, the flowers and the herbs. Especially as the seasons do their job and transform the garden before me.  READ MORE 

Alexa Huber: Since childhood, Alexa Huber has helped with her family’s ever-expanding garden in Central Illinois. Although she has harvested various crops, her favorite things to pick are tame blackberries and cherry tomatoes. Murr Brewster: Murr Brewster is a retired mail carrier and writer from Portland, Oregon, where she's never without a machete during blackberry season.  READ MORE 

“My family,” says my mom, Elizabeth. “Desserts,” says my Aunt Anne. “The breeze,” says my father, Lee, with eleven green beans in his hand. “Air conditioning,” says my youngest sister, Jean, as she gets up to bring water to the group. “The last bucket of beans,” I mumble while swapping out a full five-gallon bucket for an empty one.  READ MORE 

Psst, get this. My friend Linda? She’s got spotty dotty. She told me herself. In fact, she says she has it all over the place. “Oooooohhhh-oh-oh-oh,” I breathed (with that little shudder at the end) when she told me. I didn’t tell a soul. You wouldn’t, right? Well, OK, I did tell my friend Margo.   READ MORE 

Fairview, North Carolina, is close enough to the nearest real city—Asheville—to be within easy driving range, yet far enough away to still feel a bit like the country. There’s an unfortunate side effect from being so country-close.   READ MORE 

Lavender is an herb with magical properties. The tiny flowers, growing plentifully on the straight, dark, up-reaching stalks, hold a secret inside—and release it into the air as a gift to anyone close enough to breathe it in. The secret? The scent of lavender soothes the soul and calms the restless human heart.  READ MORE 

My dad was a rural soul, despite a closet full of suits and a house in a Birmingham, Alabama, suburb. This notion first presented itself to me one night when I ate supper at a kindergarten friend’s house and made a puzzling discovery: her family ate beans from tin cans!  READ MORE 

I must admit I was rather taken back by it all my first day. I was just looking for a job as my last one was wearing on my nerves. I liked gardening and thought, what the heck, let’s give it a shot. A quick Google search later, I found myself driving down the gravel driveway of an industrial greenhouse.  READ MORE 

When I was young, I worked for my brother-in-law one Summer digging ditches. Bill was a plumbing contractor and—like most, if not all, construction men I’ve met—Bill had a well-muscled physique to go along with his macho attitude. He could do one-armed push-ups and pull-ups easier than most of us can do with both arms—and with someone helping.  READ MORE 

The potted geranium was one step away from the trash bin at Bob Cliff’s Garden Center. She had been displayed on a spacious outdoor table in Spring, along with many others of her kind.  READ MORE