“Looking for inspiration and relaxation? It’s all in your own backyard.”
Report From PIA – February 15
Over the past few days I’ve been preparing my talk for the Sullivan Renaissance winter conference, and I can’t help remembering the last time I spoke in upstate New York. The audience was interested in gardening and the connection between growing plants and cultivating life, but what really captured their [...]
Report From PIA – February 10
As I plan, optimistically, for my 2010 gardens, I remind myself that none of it is a sure thing. The season might be wet and cold again, so the tomatoes will get late blight. Or it could be the hottest, driest summer on record.
My seeds might not sprout, or I [...]
Report From PIA – January 31
I’m at the six-month mark in my commitment to post a Report From PIA every day. It was cold outside today, but the sky was a clear blue and the sun, still low in the sky, lit up every plant that hasn’t gone to ground for the winter. I especially [...]
Report From PIA – January 24
Today I helped my friend repot some houseplants. They were sent in a basket as a gift, and like most such dish gardens, the plants could never live for long in that configuration. This type of collection is usually in a container that doesn’t have any drainage, with the plants [...]
Report From PIA – January 18
I’m about to place my seed orders, and as I look through the catalogs, I come across names of plants that I’ve tried to grow in years past. While I’ve had good success with the majority of my seed sowing, still, there have been many plants that just didn’t germinate. [...]
Report From PIA – January 5
Anyone who’s been gardening for more than three years has experienced failure. I don’t care how many green thumbs a person has, at some point there will be plants that sulk or die. When we garden, we grow catastrophes, fiascos and disappointments along with the successes.
Sometimes things just don’t work [...]
Report From PIA – January 4
Today, I was staring at the heaps of snow on my entry garden, and reminding myself that winter is moving steadily toward spring. Each season, every day, is linked to the previous and to the next.
I remembered a time when I gardened in Columbia County, New York, and was pulling [...]
Report From PIA – November 23
Last week I was weeding up in the cutting garden, and came across a few Smilax rotundifolia shoots as I worked. This plant is commonly known as bull brier, catbrier or greenbrier, and anyone who fights it on their property comes to hate it.
This climbing vine has strong canes that [...]
Report From PIA – November 21
Although still plagued by a heavy-duty head cold that had me feeling totally sorry for myself, I spent a few minutes in the garden today. Most of the time I was keeping my husband company, i.e. watching him work. But before coming into the house to be closer to my [...]
Report From PIA – November 19
You know how you can go for years without being aware of a particular plant, word, product, or person, and suddenly, once you find out about it/him/her, you see this plant, word or name everywhere?
It’s like the time six years ago that my brother-in-law-once-removed, John Korman, asked me if I [...]
