The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York—most often associated with yoga and alternative philosophies — decided to apply mindfulness to a very practical matter. The Omega Center for Sustainable Living (OCSL ) opened in 2009. At the heart of the OCSL is the Eco Machine ™, designed by John Todd Ecological Design. This water reclamation […]
The trees are abandoning their leaves, the perennials are giving up on their leaves and stems and I’m dumping out my pots of annuals. And all the abandoned plant debris from the yard, garden or greenhouse ends up in the compost. I’m amazed every March to find a bounty of compost in bins that started […]
Colin Cabot was standing at the edge of a steep ravine in the gardens of Les Quatre Vents (The Four Winds). A swaying Nepalese-style rope bridge hung in a downward arc between the ravine’s precipitous banks. “Who wants to go first?” Colin was leading forty of us garden writers and photographers on a private tour […]
Meadowbrook, a 25 acre-estate in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, was designed and created by the floral artist, J. Liddon Pennock, Jr. Mr. Pennock grew up in Philadelphia, where his family had operated a florist shop for over 100 years. He attended Cornell University, but was called home to help save the family business in 1933. That business […]
Now is the time I have to steel myself against the autumn gardener’s worst enemy: complacency. We’re having lovely weather at the beginning of October, with clear blue skies, low humidity and days in the upper 70s or low 80s. Though most flowers except the toad lilies, the last anemones, turtlehead and a few unwary […]
Summer’s ending. Tomatoes are still on the vine, but they take longer to ripen now, as the days grow shorter. I’ve pinched off the blossoms so my plants can concentrate on ripening the fruits they already have and not setting new ones. Basil still puts on new leaves but not with the abundance of July […]
America’s first horticultural library, a major breakthrough in plant science, and the founding of an important American cultural institution—all these and more occurred in the same spot, what was once a bucolic farm in North Philadelphia. The neighborhood has changed, but I was fortunate recently to participate in a day-long tour of Philadelphia sites that […]
When you grow your own fruit, vegetables and greenhouse crops you fully understand the time and effort that is invested into every mouthful. The Grow Your Own fanatic is not going to waste a morsel; every tomato, bean and cucumber will be devoured with relish, or simply pickled, jammed or chutneyed, or just eaten fresh […]
There are so many tasks for a gardener to be getting on with in the summer that it can be perfectly understandable if a couple of things are overlooked in favour of more exciting considerations – such as choosing which plants to maintain throughout the summer period. At this time of year, some of you […]
If you are looking for a plant that will offer great soil coverage for a relatively long period of time, then the forget-me-not could be a fantastic choice. Their binomial name is myosotis – and this comes from the Greek word for 'mouse's ear', so named after the shape and soft texture of the plant's leaves. […]
One of the biggest decisions a gardener has to make can often come before he or she has even started to do any work – what plants to grow. This goes double for those who are taking advantage of the controlled environment offered by a greenhouse, as this makes it possible to grow species that […]
