Many gentle souls still practice the delicate daily art of rapport with their fellow human beings, despite some whose approach to life is aimed more at "winning" some aggressive marketing campaign. Although a lot of movies today rely on computer-generated robots in...
landscaping
‘A Man Named Pearl’: Pearl Fryar’s topiary garden
We watched a warm and inspiring movie last night. A Man Named Pearl (trailer above) is a 2006 documentary film by Scott Galloway and Brent Pierson centered on one astonishing yard on the outskirts of Bishopville, South Carolina. The owner, Pearl Fryar, was born in...
Forsythia pruning: Bush renewal produces more blooms
Here's our forsythia bush this afternoon. Okay, it may not be breathtaking to you — but it is to us because we know how it looked last year, and the year before that. Last summer, we did a "renewal pruning" on this shrub. This forsythia...
Backyard gardening: Playing in the dirt
It will yield you brambles and thistles, as you eat the produce of the land. By the sweat of your face will you earn your food, until you return to the ground. as you were taken from it. — Genesis 3:18-19, The New Jerusalem Bible We've been spending a lot of time on...
Yew shrubs: Toxic taxus, poisonous plants?
ews. We had them at all three of my parents' houses when I was growing up, and there they were again when we were buying our own house — two big ones along the foundation in the back, and some smaller ones at the foundation in front. I had always...
Creeping Charlie (ground ivy, Glechoma hederacea)
"Every minute I stay in this room I get weaker. And every minute Charlie squats in the bush he gets stronger." — Capt. Benjamin L. Willard in Apocalypse Now (1979) When we moved here at the end of last August, the drought had baked the lawn pretty well, and it...
landscaping
‘The Kids Are All Right’ (2010 movie)
Many gentle souls still practice the delicate daily art of rapport with their fellow human beings, despite some whose approach to life is aimed more at "winning" some aggressive marketing campaign. Although a lot of movies today rely on computer-generated robots in...
‘A Man Named Pearl’: Pearl Fryar’s topiary garden
We watched a warm and inspiring movie last night. A Man Named Pearl (trailer above) is a 2006 documentary film by Scott Galloway and Brent Pierson centered on one astonishing yard on the outskirts of Bishopville, South Carolina. The owner, Pearl Fryar, was born in...
Forsythia pruning: Bush renewal produces more blooms
Here's our forsythia bush this afternoon. Okay, it may not be breathtaking to you — but it is to us because we know how it looked last year, and the year before that. Last summer, we did a "renewal pruning" on this shrub. This forsythia...
Backyard gardening: Playing in the dirt
It will yield you brambles and thistles, as you eat the produce of the land. By the sweat of your face will you earn your food, until you return to the ground. as you were taken from it. — Genesis 3:18-19, The New Jerusalem Bible We've been spending a lot of time on...
Yew shrubs: Toxic taxus, poisonous plants?
ews. We had them at all three of my parents' houses when I was growing up, and there they were again when we were buying our own house — two big ones along the foundation in the back, and some smaller ones at the foundation in front. I had always...
Creeping Charlie (ground ivy, Glechoma hederacea)
"Every minute I stay in this room I get weaker. And every minute Charlie squats in the bush he gets stronger." — Capt. Benjamin L. Willard in Apocalypse Now (1979) When we moved here at the end of last August, the drought had baked the lawn pretty well, and it...