The Mysterious Garden Muse

Three bookcases of garden books, countless other bookcases of books I've read, and one bookcases plus several stacks (like the one shown here) of books that are waiting to be read! I read fast, but obviously not fast enough!

We've been talking about pansies on the Garden Book Club board at BN.com, so I dug out this article that I wrote about five years ago.  The information still applies:               Pansies are sometimes considered an old-time flower favorite because they have been around for years and they never really go away.   Kids like them because of their friendly flower “faces,” while garden lovers favor them because they will bloom even when winter’s chill is in the air.   Whether they are planted in a solid mass of a single color, or a vibrant mix of many-colored flowers, pansies are a welcome sight in early spring, when bulbs are about the only other flowers in bloom.   Landscape contractors like pansies because they can plant them in beds, borders and even baskets and they will look good for weeks at a time, during the transition from spring to summer.             Pansies and violets are often confused, but generally speaking, pansies are annuals and violets are perennials.   Both ...

Happy New Year Glitter Pictures

On the Lighter Side: GNO MORE GNOMES! By now the many stories of garden gnome thievery have evolved into urban legend. American Nurseryman magazine reported in the October 1, 1995 issue that garden gnomes were becoming a hot item among thieves. It is not hard to see the humorous side, as described in the article: “At one village near Devon (England), a local man was fined about $238 after 30 garden gnomes were found in his living room. According to crime reports, the statues were arranged in a half circle in front of the television. Some held fishing rods and sported cigarettes in their mouths.” On August 8, 1997, Brian Harmer of the New Zealand News reported: “A gnome lineup will be held at Timaru police station today. Police executed a search warrant on a house after routine enquiries overnight. Thirty-eight stolen garden gnomes ranging in size were recovered. Police say that the explanation was that the occupants wanted to improve their backyard.” Think this is stretching i...

I've been thinking about muses a lot lately. I have a gnome that I consider my garden muse. I'll post his picture here. I don't have a name for him, so feel free to post suggestions for a name!

Part 1 of a series (originally published in The Landscape Contractor magazine) To the 21st century visitor, Chicago may appear to be a landscape of steel and chrome, edged by water and suburban sprawl and dotted with green swathes of parkland. It is easy to imagine that the city, currently the third most populous in the United States with nearly 3 million people, has always looked this way. Common sense may tell us that the city has come a long way, but it would take a mighty stretch of the imagination to envision what this region was really like in the distant past. Go back to the earth’s Silurian Period, about 400 million years ago, when much of North America was under water and coral reefs were forming in masses that nearly reached across the continent. Experts in plate tectonics are convinced that the changes to this region were bigger than previously imagined – many experts now subscribe to the theory of “continental drift”. These scientists believe that most of the earth’s moder...

I apologize for being so remiss about updating this blog! No excuse, except to say it's been a very hectic year and I've been out of town a lot. I was in Chicago and Ann Arbor recently, where I got enough snow and ice to last me awhile. It's freezing in Cincinnati but we haven't had too much snow, unlike a lot of the country. Here are some pictures from my recent travels! Merry Christmas, and best wishes to all you who celebrate other holidays, too!

Bringing Matt home: Clermont County, Ohio