Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
Penstemon in the herb bed. It is Midsummer and as promised here is another list of essential plants for the ecological garden, my Language of Flowers. This list has more lore and fewer entries as I decided to break the growing season into three sections rather than two. Too many plants bloom after May to… Continue reading The Midsummer Garden
It’s the Strawberry Moon. Strawberries ripen around the summer solstice. So with just a modestly sized strawberry patch, you can pick a pint or two a day this time of year. Strawberries are so easy to grow, so productive, so magical. And there is nothing for sale in the supermarket that comes close to a… Continue reading Strawberry Shortcake
Moving house is hard on a body. It’s hard on the planet’s body as well as mine, maybe more so. I have never seen statistics on this sort of thing, other than a passing reference claiming divorced couples create over twice the waste they generated when married — which I sincerely believe is true. I… Continue reading Putting Down Roots
I planted apple trees today. They arrived a couple weeks before we were to move. I had ordered them last summer and forgotten about them entirely. However, I had no intention of putting them in the ground that would soon be yet another past garden. Not least because I didn’t have time to do that.… Continue reading How To Start Over
As you are reading this, I’m moving into the first home I’ve bought. Consequentially, I’m thinking quite a bit about what home means. What it means to me, what it means in the abstract, what it means for our collective culture. Picket fence and all! Many of the common ideas about home in Euro-western culture… Continue reading Becoming Home
As it is the last day of April and the day before Beltaine, I thought it good to give a reference list of flowers to fill your garden with love. I have an ever-growing list of essential flowers and herbs — annuals, perennials and a very few small shrubs. These are the plants that feed… Continue reading My Language of Flowers
I'm moving this week. I may have time for a few poems. Maybe. We'll see.
Here’s me awake in the dark of the morning again. Quiet today. Not even a breath. Always leading into summer, there’s this rush and then a hush, grabbing fistfuls of life and then squatting behind the shed to gobble it up. Maybe don’t want to go back there right now. As it’s hush time. But… Continue reading Morning Hush
Herbs and sweet peas April is planting month up north. There is still a chance of frost, perhaps even snow; but it’s safe to plant peas, leeks, carrots, cabbages and other brassicas, many greens, and the cool-season herbs like dill, calendula and cilantro. Keep the row cover handy, but take advantage of the moist soil… Continue reading The Needful Garden
A pair of poems from the spring garden. spring expectation is a blanket on my garden soil time it is to make room for new life prune, compost the dead for the earth is pregnant time it is to prepare for expectations mine is a northern soul bred and refined in the seasons of swelling… Continue reading April Garden Poetry
