Blog
Camas Over Bluebells
In Heather’s kitchen, around plates of rice crackers and hummus, homemade chocolates and Best Day NA beer, the talk turned to Spanish bluebells. I held my tongue and listened, nodding along with Shannon’s heartache after digging and digging last year only to see just as many return this spring. Ryan would … more
A Recipe For Your Garden—How to Design A Plant Community
An abbreviated version of this essay first appeared in the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon‘s Quarterly. Thank you to their editors for input and improvements. Your guests are arriving at six this evening to enjoy a home cooked meal. These are dear friends. You hope to offer them a memorable … more
Red-flowering Waterfall
Bent at an unflattering angle to get the blooms backgrounded by the falls, I heard Alder call from the trail above. His long legs and distance runner’s lungs were constantly carrying him two or three switchbacks ahead of me. Plus, I had to keep stopping to admire the flowers. Last spring … more
Coast Silk-Tassel
The only ice I welcome is silk-tasseled icicles falling, a shrubby catkin chandelier, spike-inflorescence waterfall of pollen-laden drips. Watch me sneeze and persist jostling, releasing more fine grains to the winds. No ice in the garden, a frost-light winter, an ice-heavy, ice-weary country. No ice in the garden, only Garrya elliptica, … more
Buds of Mahonia Blossom
Buds of mahonia blossom, fetal curl at the center of sword fern, infolding, downturning hellebore, furred clasp of magnolia sepals, camellia’s embryonic swell— while the garden slumbers, I burrow under blankets, knees pulled to chest, arms tight-wrapped, like a December bud, sleeping—becoming. The earth is a pregnant mother, gestating through the … more
Each Twig a Perch—Prairiefire Crabapple
Hung with sparkling white lights, the old Japanese maple presided over the garden as matriarch. Her limbs cast shade on the patio in the late afternoon. Her plum-colored leaves smoldered a romantic mood. Then, one day, we noticed die back. One limb gone, followed the next year by the entire tree. A … more
Lawn-Free Garden Design
This essay was originally written for and published in the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon Quarterly Magazine. Thanks to their editors for the improvements. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ It was green, at least there was that, but the chore of pushing the reel mower over its expanse had become unbearable. Even when her kids were … more
September is Read in Asters
There’s a field I walk weekly with my friend Jamie and our two reactive dogs. It’s filled with a succession of wildflowers. There’s something blooming nearly every month of the year. The dogs notice the shift in smells, their noses ever curious. Jamie and I are more visual, noting the … more
Goldenwave of July – Coreopsis tinctoria
1. Is it a coincidence that July is full of yellow flowers? The golden sun is hot and high, saturating the days with radiance. Wildflowers and garden blooms respond in kind, echoing the open-hearted hue. Sticky-budded blooms of tarweed and gumweed open this month in the wild fields. Their resin reminds … more
Garden the Rainbow – All Belong
When my mom tells me that my favorite thing to draw as a little girl was rainbows, it sounds right. I do love color. All of it. Still. Looking at photos of past Junes to choose a plant of the month, I was confronted with an array of rainbow colors. This … more