Category: garden

  • The garden in a time of uncertainty

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    This has been one of the strangest gardening seasons I have had. We have had a long, slow beginning to the growing season with glimpses of sun, but then lots of rain and cool temperatures. The plants are enjoying all the water after last year’s droughty summer–everything is quite green and lush. The weedy plants are thriving; the trees are glistening and lush. The roses are luxurious. The gardens, however, took some serious losses after a very early snowfall in November, a series of snow/rain/thaw/refreeze events throughout the winter, and a slow awakening into spring. I lost a lot of…

  • On Coming Home: an update

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    These past few years have been rough ones. So many people I know have made major life transitions, lost dear ones, confronted the realities of chronic illness, moved into the unknown. On the larger scale, we are living in a world that is stressed and wounded because of the ways that we humans have exploited the Earth for all of her precious gifts. I write this during one of many intense Nor’easters that have left people without power and damaged so many trees in our region. It is a reminder that we are living in a time of transition for…

  • Summer in the Garden

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    I realized the other day that I hadn’t posted since June. It’s summer in Maine, and the last thing that I want to do on a beautiful day is sit inside, so I thought that in lieu of a long blog post, I’d instead share some photographs that illustrate the summer so far. While it’s far from over, things are starting to shift. I’m preparing for fall classes, watching the bee balm fade and the plants start to lose some of their luster. It’s a beautiful, rich, bittersweet time of year–especially here, where we spend so much of our time…

  • Announcing: Walk Your Edge–A Six-Month Journey of Earth Connection

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    One Saturday per month * May – October 2015 (May 2, June 20, July 18, August 1, September 12, October 31) 10am-6pm meeting in Portland ME fee $600 : sliding scale work-trade & time dollars are options; payment plan available Many of us have been working for years to make big changes in our hearts and minds and in the larger society. As our society’s systems of racism, misogyny, homo-trans- and xenophobia and the destruction of our home the Earth are exposed and visible to us all of the time, it may feel like our work is simply too big.…

  • Honoring our ancestors

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    Outside tonight, a cold rain is falling, and we are likely to get our first hard freeze of the season. It seems fitting, given that we are moving rapidly from the upward, outward energy of summer to the inward, downward energy of winter. It is a time of reflection and conserving our energy. It is a time when the veils between the worlds of life and death are thin, when our ancestors are accessible to share their wisdom with us. It is a time of honoring the passage of time and the movement between living and dying. It is also…

  • Some medicinal plants for the permaculture garden

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    In preparation for tomorrow’s talk, and as a way to ease my anxiety about teaching (see my earlier post), I thought I’d use a mode of communication that feels more comfortable to explore a few of the plants that we’ll be discussing tomorrow morning.  There are so many spectacular medicinal plants that have multiple functions in the landscape and offer us incredible gifts of food and medicine–not to mention joy, but we only have a little over an hour, so we’re focusing on nine plants: Elecampane, Thyme, Raspberry, Garlic, Lady’s Mantle, Black Cohosh, Catnip, Rose, and Bee Balm.  We had…