Gardens … what a great subject! Almost all of us have, at one time or another, had a garden. We all have specific memories of each garden during our lifetime. My earliest garden memory was of my mother killing a rattlesnake in her garden. I know, I know, gruesome. When you grow up on the prairie in Colorado, rattlesnakes are […]

When you grow up with a mom (mum) who lived in England, you cannot escape a love for gardening. She caught my dad’s eye when visiting her sister, who married a GI Joe (Uncle Joe, honest). She went on a double date with my dad’s best friend. Six months later, she immigrated here to marry […]

My gardening efforts started when I was a child. I grew up on a 5-acre farm with my parents and six siblings. My mother raised chickens and my father was a carpenter-contractor. He raised cows for beef. Between the chickens and beef, our freezer was always full. We also had a huge garden. We grew […]

A rundown farmhouse, 30 acres of land and a blank slate for a man with a vision. That was 1941. As with any vision, it evolves. So did the landscape at the family homestead. Over time my father, inspired by visits to established gardens and having a strong urge to design, began his labor of […]

There is a place that could be aptly named “Garden of Eden” but in actuality is really “garden of friend”: a friend who comprehends the healing, nourishing properties of nature’s proximity. It is a place that intersects between heaven and earth, a place that invites thought and introspection. It is a “homing” place to birdlife, […]

The transition from a small ranch house in New York to a huge farmhouse in Maine was shockingly easy. Except for the reception on our television. In 1951, televisions were still a luxury in Buckfield, Maine. Because my parents were in their 20s and already watching over a crowd of six children, the ranch house […]

In the world of gardening, I fall into the Death and Destruction Sector. My first plant was a Boston fern, in my dorm room at the University of Maine at Farmington. I watered it. I put it in the sun. I even sang to it. Dead. I think it’s a family thing. My father never […]

I once heard a joke suggesting that people who garden should add “plant manager” to their resumes. As a gardener and an executive manager for much of my career, that little quip tickled me, because of the inherent truth it contains. In fact, many of the skills needed to grow a really great garden are […]

My garden is a modest patch of flowers in a Portland neighborhood lawn. To the dog walkers, runners and parents with strollers who pass our house, it may not look like much. There’s no grand design or prize-winning plants; it’s just a big rectangle with a hodgepodge of bulbs, annuals and perennials that suit my […]

When I was a little girl, my favorite flowers were pansies. I loved their cheerful colors and happy little “faces.” I am still charmed by them. My husband and I have a yearly spring tradition, a “pansy run” to a local nursery. A few years ago my mother moved in with us. We soon learned […]