Blog
Boon
Etymologically speaking, the title of this post may or may not be related to the subject of this post – the heirloom gladiolus 'Boone', named for the North Carolina town where it was rediscovered. Boon in the sense of a gift or an unexpected benefit comes from the Old Norse. The name Boone – the town was named after famed frontiersmen Daniel Boone – comes from either the French locale Bohun, or from the Norman word "bon," for good, or from the Dutch word "boene", or bean, denoting someo...
Square Foot Gardening
Today was the last day of a nine week, summer gardening series for children, called "Let's Get Growing!".
As I watched the children proudly gather their harvest of eggplants, chives, cucumbers and flowers, and race off to meet their parents, I heard shouts of "See you in the fall!". With a smile on my face, I took a moment to reflect back on the start of this new and wonderful Gardening and Nutrition program. Two children showed up for the first in th...
Resilient
On a lovely morning this past April, Dylan Shapiro and I were trying to move some trees that were destined for the hillside above Reeves-Reed Arboretum's fabled Primrose Path. I had rented a miniature walk-behind tractor called a Dingo, and after we loaded the first Avondale cercis onto the bucket, I realized that the Dingo was seriously overmatched. The tree and its substantial rootball weighed at least 300 pounds, probably more, and the Dingo teetered precariously as we crossed the root-rid...
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