Kristin Green's Blog: trench manicure, page 7
June 25, 2014
The gardener is OUT
Outside, that is. And I’m finding it harder than almost ever to come in and sit in front of the computer. — Unless it’s to crash out on the couch and watch Sherlock. I won’t bother apologizing because I’ve gone much longer than this between posts. PlusI can only imagine that you’re out in your […]
June 15, 2014
Down to earth – growing like a weed
(Originally published June 12, 2014 in East Bay/South Coast Life.) I’m pretty sure it was Christopher Lloyd of Great Dixter who, in one of his many books or articles, dared us to keep our gardens blooming into summer and fall. “Spring is easy,” I think he said. I agree! Or thought I did. On the […]
June 2, 2014
Down to earth – bring out your dead
(Originally published May 28, 2014 in East Bay/South Coast life) Looking around my May garden I’m reminded of the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which Eric Idle walks through a plague infested village collecting a cartful of corpses. “Bring out your dead!”, he shouts. I wouldn’t blame you for questioning my […]
May 26, 2014
My mess
The only thing better thana weekend in the garden is a long weekend in the garden. Especially if it’s spring (or in this case the unofficial start of summer) and the weather is sunny and mildandserendipitouslyshowery.These last three days were the bestfor plant shopping and plant planting. The best for rearranging the furniture—and by that […]
May 18, 2014
Down to earth — May vagabond
(Originally published May 14, 2014 in East Bay/South Coast Life.) One of my favorite garden writers, the late great Janet Gillespie, Westport author and columnist for the New Bedford Standard Times, said of May, “in the garden seeds are coming up, weeds are proliferating, new plants arrive to be tended to and there are a […]
May 11, 2014
Too much of a good thing
I loved money plant (a.k.a honesty, a.k.aLunaria annua)as a kid because it brought out the big spender in thrifty little me. But because it alwaysplanted itself (with my help?)underneath the foundation shrubberies, I grew up thinkingof it as a weed. So ingrained was that prejudice that I came perilouslyclose to eradicating it from Squeezins. I’m […]
May 4, 2014
Down to earth – time to get a move on
One recent sunny Saturday I awoke to a garden that suddenly looked less like a debris field and more like a place where green things might grow. Perennials are poking out from beneath the mulch made of winter’s stems and twigs. My tulips are up and opening, and the honesty (Lunaria annua) has budded […]
April 27, 2014
The shad must be running
Every time my serviceberry (a.k.a shadbush, a.k.a Amelanchier × ‘Autumn Brilliance’) comes into bloom I wonder why it isn’t a more commonly planted tree. Why did everyone plant those dreadful Bradford pears instead? Is it because serviceberry grows slowly? (That would be a point in itsfavor if instant gratification weren’t so highly valued by landscrapers […]
April 20, 2014
Down to earth — why my houseplants hate me
(Originally published on April 16, 2014 in East Bay/South Coast Life under the headline“Don’t abandon indoor plants”) It’s not often that I imagine my plants quoting dead poets. Or living ones for that matter. But I can almost hear my indoor collection sigh, “April is the cruellest month.” Suddenly, right when they need me the […]
April 13, 2014
Spring cure
Driving home today with a flat of blue and orange pansies in the wayback I thought about how dependent I have becomeon their funny monkey faces to cure my spring blues. (Is it just me or do you feel overwhelmed to the point of inertiaby the potential of spring?) Almost as soon as the nurseries […]
