I sometimes go catatonic while standing over an appealing plant I haven’t seen before. Looking like Mr. Pitiful, shoulders slumped, my eyes are fixed on the prize in front of me. I am silently pleading mercy. Gardeners will often rescue me if they’ve got enough time and plants to spare, especially if there is an interesting story to go along with...

Guest post by Tim Calkins They’re everywhere, whirling blades showering off the maples in every gust of wind, the next crop of trees on the move.  The first of the horde appeared on the pathways in mid-April, delivered by yesterday’s gusts.  They struck me as unusually pink, since those I typically see in my garden are of course from the nearby trees,...

Maybe the snail sex scene went too far? I have another report from campus, this time about a wildlife documentary assigned to my “Ecomedia” class. I’m happy to report no mass killing or gruesome hunt scenes (filmmakers sure do like action) but simply insect life in meadows and ponds somewhere in France, with incredible close-ups, slow motion, and...

Salal (Gaulthera shallon) is an often scruffy Northwest native. A few years ago, I didn’t care at all for native plants. I thought they were ugly and boring, and I didn’t understand why any gardener would want to plant them, when there are so many other, prettier plants we can grow from all over the world. I live in Portland, Oregon—Zone 9a. Our...

Many years ago I wrote an article entitled “Beans or Beach?” – bemoaning the difficulty that serious gardeners have in leaving their gardens like normal people and taking vacations.  “If it is a year that we have decided to visit our family in California the question is always “when”?  Seedlings are started in February, the Cold Frame Shuffle is scheduled...

A column I recently wrote about foraging seemed filled with garden-related corollaries. In order to write it, I contacted a couple of longtime foragers and followed them through the mud, brambles and creek beds of a local park as they pointed out various edible plants and fungi. It was an exciting expedition. This is ramp season, as I am sure many...