Learning my mom’s love of plants has been a lifelong process. My mother is a teacher. She has worked at a small elementary school in southwest Calgary for over twenty years teaching music and whatever grade they can slot her into. For my entire childhood, […]

Is this a garden story? My brother ate a bug from the garden, then he went to the hill in the backyard and tried to fly.   My mother laughed her head off. Author: Susan Medalie Featured Image Photo Credit: CC0 Public Domain. See more […]

My wife, when she fell ill, was advised by the physicians to chew on gooseberries in order to gain some vital energies.  She kept salted gooseberries in a bottle and chewed on them occasionally. There is something very special about this fruit; may be it […]

My father, Michele, was born in a small town in Italy called Bitetto, about 20 miles from Bari. He eventually bought a house in Canarsie, Brooklyn, that had a plot of land where he could do some gardening. He loved gardening and planted a lot […]

[English Translation below] Mon grand-père Paul vivait à Haute-Rivoire, un petit village dans les monts du Lyonnais. A chaque fois que j’allais les voir, lui et ma grand-mère ces dernières années, je repartais avec un sac plein de légumes de son potager : des choux […]

  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, […]

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 […]

  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 […]

“A Genealogy, Mostly Plants” By Pamela Banting I was born and raised in a place that takes its name from its trees. The name of the village in central northwestern Manitoba is the direct translation of the Swampy Cree name for the area, Wuskwi Sipihk, […]