Green Perspectives

Collection Notes

Gardening, at its most basic, is the act of coaxing life from the earth. You dig, you plant, you water, you wait. Straightforward enough. But anyone who has ever actually tried it knows that gardening is not merely a tidy hobby of sowing and reaping. Rather, gardening is like a long-running improvisational play—equal parts comedy, tragedy, history, and farce—one in which the gardener holds the dual roles of stage manager and bewildered understudy. READ MORE

Stories

Boys, Poinsettias, and Tomatoes

My poinsettia is cheerily blooming at last, its tissue-paper white and red contrasting nicely with the green June grass. So what if it’s 80° in the shade, and there are geraniums (also red and white) in full bloom next to it? READ MORE

Elisabeth Woodburn

"Why don't you go and see Elisabeth Woodburn?," my husband used to say whenever I needed cheering. When I did, it always worked. She died on this past November 18, and gardeners and garden-book lovers all over the world will mourn her. READ MORE

Daughter of Beauty, Lover of Flies

The attic bedroom of our old farmhouse is where we hide magic: the tiny Christmas trees that appeared by the beds on Christmas morning; the tiny cannabis plants, years later, hidden in the same place (but this time from me); the Venus Fly Trap, for my youngest's tenth birthday. READ MORE

Hummingbirds at Teatime

Being English and a gardener has certain drawbacks, especially if one is tall and thinnish-and wears a sun hat and skirt, rather than a baseball cap and shorts. People expect an expertise I cannot live up to. READ MORE

Fallen Apples

My brother's birthday is in the autumn. He celebrates it with first visits to the beach, anticipation of summer, delight in spring. The children, he tells me, are looking forward to the long, hot holidays and their traditional Christmas barbecue. READ MORE

Plants Behind Glass

Bringing the garden inside is not a new idea. In the little city courtyards of Pompeii, frescoes enlarged the space with painted trees, flowers, and birds. In the Arabian deserts, nomadic tribes would remind themselves of oasis gardens by spreading ornate carpets, patterned and quartered like oriental gardens, on the hot, sandy floors of tents. READ MORE

Ghostly Passion

I'm not the first person who fell in love with a tree. Xerxes (according to John Evelyn) halted his army of 170,000 soldiers because he had been smitten by a plane, or sycamore, tree. He even covered it with "gold, gems, necklaces, scarfs and brace lets, and infinite riches," which he took from his concubines and other "great persons." READ MORE

Romance of the Rose

Roses have been a part of gardening history as far back as we have records. In ancient China, Babylon, India, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Europe, we know they were grown not only for their medicinal properties but also for their beauty. In many a legend a rose was the pivotal signal of great change. In my life, too, roses changed my destiny. READ MORE

Carrots: The Root of Health

My eldest stepson came into my life like a whirlwind. He was a wild and beautiful child, never still, always dirty, charming and provocative. He regarded me, with just suspicion, as someone who had diverted the attentions of his father, so he gave me a hard time. READ MORE

Rare Courage

A little boy I once knew was passionately devoted to his toy penguin and could not be parted from it. On a long journey, he was holding the penguin out of the car window when it was discovered that somewhere, perhaps miles back, its body had fallen off, leaving the child lovingly grasping one flipper. READ MORE

Passengers

I found my bicycle in a flea market. It isn't the racing kind on which you bend double and whizz as fast as you can, helped by a multiplicity of gears. READ MORE

“English Flies”

A garden without sounds is to me as much a deprivation of the senses as a garden without scents. My ideal garden has a perpetual music of trickling water, the grating croak of frogs at dusk, a vibrating of katydids and grasshoppers, and, because I'm English, a nightingale singing, too. READ MORE

Horticulture Haute Couture

The catalogues are spread around, and we are planning the garden. This year there isn't much space for new plants, and last year I didn't sow all the seeds I'd ordered. READ MORE

Are Gardeners Good?

There is an assumption amongst gardeners that Spring was really created either by us or (at the least) for us. Others might have a vague appreciation of it-they do ordinary things like falling in love, cleaning their houses, getting new wardrobes-but unless you're out there digging and raking, sniffing the soil, frantically planting and admiring, you're not really in tune with it all. READ MORE

As Natural As Dyeing

One year my children came home from summer camp excited about tie-dyeing. Although I was, of course, delighted that they had learned a craft and wanted to spend their time creatively, by the time it was all over my feelings were mixed. It's one thing to have happy children make lovely things in a large space far away from home. READ MORE

Autumn Chores

When I lived in Italy, all the women vigorously Spring-cleaned their houses before Easter. When the houses were spanking clean, the priest would come to them and bless them. Of course, since he had always come to our house, I asked him to continue doing so. READ MORE

A Vine Old Time

One year, the pergola over our terrace in Italy was particularly heavy with grapes and I decided to try my hand at winemaking. Since we had no bathroom, we did most of our bathing in a large plastic tub, which I filled with the harvested grapes and then the children and I took off our shoes and socks and began tramping. READ MORE

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