When you think of pollinators, bees are probably first to come to mind. But there are a lot of different creatures who provide this important service. A pollinator is any animal, most often and insect, that carries pollen from the male to the female parts of flowers for reproduction. This process of moving pollen is usually done while creature is feeding and flying from plant to plant.

Do you grow ginger lilies? When I moved to NC 18 years ago I worked as an estate gardener at a 100 acre paradise, Montrose Gardens in Hillsborough, NC. This is where I and had my first encounter with the amazing Hedychium coronarium. The heavy fragrance was instantly put into my scent memory to mark the start of September.

Sometimes it take a decade for a good idea to strike you. But once it happens, there is no holding us back! That was exactly the case with this front garden make-over. Planted back in 2011, I had long dreamt of creating a pathway that extended from the front door to greet visitors in the driveway.

Only in 2020 would people get into a virtual argument over hornworms. But alas, that is EXACTLY what I found myself facing yesterday, after I posted a short video on Instagram regarding my hand removal of hornworms from tobacco and tomato plants. So, just what is all the fuss about????

If you are anything like me, you have probably been seeking refuge from reality in your garden the past two months. Everyday, when I step outside into my “playground” I reflect with gratitude for the many blessings in my life. Even so, it can be hard to not be impacted by the reality our world is facing. As I have said before, I have no answers, but I sincerely hope that these short-and-sweet blog posts can bring you some peace and joy and maybe inspire you to go outside and create something new. Hope springs eternal, especially in the garden.

Thank you Washington Gardener for this fun review of Gardening with Grains!

The truth is you do not need to know much to successfully grow grains- I certainly didn’t. Until I started researching for this book, I did not know the difference between a seed and a cereal grain, let alone how legumes fit in. So just what is a grain? It is a fair question to ask in this twenty-first century, anti-carbohydrate world. I would venture to say very people would correctly define a grain without first consulting google.

Its my favorite time of year!! All of my garlic plants are trying to flower and it is my job to pluck their scapes off to ensure that the plant puts ALL of its energy into creating a large garlic bulb to harvest soon! Tonight I experimented making a foodscape fresh Cheesy Cauliflower, Garlic Scape, Potato au gratin dish. IT WAS DELICIOUS AND EASY TO MAKE. This is bound to a regular meal for us, especially as we are harvesting all the ingredients right from our yard!!
I hope this recipe will inspire you to go out and harvest from you home garden and make a delicious dinner!

In the spirit of all thinks book related, I wanted to share a few of my favorite gardening guides with you. There are an endless selection of fantastic reads from recent publications to classics, and in this blog I have assembled a tiny portion of garden related books that I have found to be enjoyable, practical resources.

A few weeks ago we had a brainstorm. The mission “How can we help our neighbors?” The ideas started from simple things like sidewalk chalking cheerful messages to dropping off a roll of toilet paper to every house. Then the brilliant kids, Abby (10), Aidan (13) and Callie (5) came up with a brilliant idea… LETS CREATE FOODSCAPES FOR NEIGHBORS.