OUR THIRD MONTH IN (MONKEY) BUSINESS over here has been a big one, as you doubtless know. The New York Times has honored us, and then, as if on cue, so has “new” media: our empowering and astonishing blogging platform called WordPress just called us “beautifully designed.” I kind of thought that gardeners would like me when I came back out of my long dormancy, but to have the geeks like me, too…well, I am one pretty happy person today. Thanks to the more than 25,000 of you who have paid a visit (and go tell WordPress thanks, too, won’t you, for all they’ve done to make me possible?). And thanks to everyone else “here” who has helped.
our 3-month blog-aversary!
fruit you definitely don’t eat
declaring it ‘throw in the trowel week’

I SAT NEARLY PARALYZED yesterday, trying to sort a design problem as the day slipped away without inspiration’s arrival. I’ve felt vaguely this way for days, frankly. It wasn’t until this morning that I remembered I always get like this at this time of the season, and that I’ve written about it before. Reading this essay from my archive helped: [Read more...]
a cartoon that slays me (by andre jordan)
OK, SO I HAVE A TWISTED SIDE. No big surprise to most of you, probably. And that being the case, I have some off-color favorites in various realms…including illustration. My all-time love is Andre Jordan from the UK (don’t know him personally, but he replied to my cold-call email saying it’s OK I post this).
what’s cooking in your pots?
weeping kousa: does it stay, or go?
space-saving tip: vines up a shrub
MAYBE YOU ALREADY DO THIS, BUT JUST IN CASE: Buy extra vines of airy texture and short to medium stature (like 6 to 10 feet tall, not the 30-footers), and train them up some shrubs. Small-flowered clematis are great for this, like the one just starting to open (above) in my Corylopsis or winter-hazel.
enough about me (let’s talk about me!)
ENOUGH ABOUT ME…well, maybe one last thing. And then I will put a sock in it for awhile (maybe). A young blogger who was among those to inspire me to start on this path honored me yesterday with a profile. It has the bits The Times didn’t tell you, and since I seem to be outing myself with full force this week, why not show you this one, too?
remember, nothing lasts (part 2)

REMEMBER, NOTHING LASTS. I have mentioned this before, and probably will not shut up about it anytime soon (unless forces bigger than me silence me for good). Taking my instruction from the tradition of Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan, a reverence for the ephemeral nature of things, I mark each major passing in the garden, each fallen hero, and not just each arriving bloom. Recently it was the giant rhodie out back who said farewell for at least another year. To make its point, it drops its lavender flowers in the garden pool beneath, creating a serendipitous color play with the midribs of the Japanese painted ferns at the water’s edge. Nothing lasts, which makes it all the more precious, no?














