I spent my elementary school vacations at my best friend’s home in Los Angeles, California. We grew up in Historic Filipinotown, an enclave home to the city’s first wave of immigrants from the Philippines. Her home had avocado and orange trees, abundant kudzu, and plenty […]

  SOCIAL BOTANY   politics is the authoritative allocation of values in society David Easton   Our nasturtiums, jalapeños, radishes would morph more savory were politics master gardening. Patient curious egos know temperate watering, care with weeds and pests, fertilizers, how best to harvest our […]

  From where I sit, wedged into a corner of the sectional, I notice the plant on the end table, somehow still flowering in the ceramic pot painted by my youngest for Mother’s Day, last month. It’s a plant I can’t identify, nor can I, […]

A Marigold of Mother As far as I recall, my mother has been planting tagetes [marigold] every Summer in Sardinia. On top of the cupboard, there is a little jar full of their seeds. I can picture her reaching for them, early in the morning […]

An Apiary in Hull? After I retired I attended a bee-keeping school and got my first hive the following spring. My apiary is located at the old family home which is four towns away. I live in a condominium on the ocean overlooking the Boston […]

Hypatica nobilis syn. Anemone hepatica En härlig vårdag i april, solen skiner och snön har precis smällt bort. Vi tar oss ut till barndomens blåsipps-backar – dessa som brukar vara blåa av sippor – och mycket riktigt, så även denna vårdag. En yster liten vårbäck slingrar […]

Click to hear Jim’s story   Me: Hi Dad. We’re sitting here in the backyard and I am hoping that you will tell me a story about a plant. Dad: When I was younger my parents used to take my sisters and I up to […]

A TULSI IN THE LOTUS On a visit to Goa, a coastal town in India, I kept seeing tulsi vrindavanas on the streets that I walked. Many of them were lotus-shaped. Tulsi vrindavanas are raised stone, brick or plaster structures, generally placed in the courtyards […]

My daughter developed a decent dose of chicken pox aged 4. Not unwell just a bit sore and itchy…. the poor tolerant child allowed me to experiment. She had baths of oats and just emerged slightly sticky with a warm aroma of ready brek. We […]

  My mother had A garden             She tended it in old deck shoes covered in mud             Supervising her rows in cut offs and a canary bright halter top             The family dog trotted dutifully behind her down the rows of […]