Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
The front bank. I have an awkward garden, an awkward property actually. I have a house on the east side of the road. In front of the house is a bank at about a 75° downward slope. That is, it’s more like a cliff than a slope. At its highest, it is about eight feet… Continue reading A Xeriscape in Vermont
The cicadas began singing their strange song this week. Summer gets down to business when the cicadas come out. The days are getting shorter, but the heat is intensifying. Planting is over for a few weeks and the main activity in the garden is keeping the rampant growth in check. The weeds are taking over.… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 7 July 2021
The Dog Days are upon us. For me, this name evokes childhood afternoons spent with my collie, Toby, reading under the fig tree, swimming in river pot-holes, and generally doing as little as possible. I have never loved summer best. I’ve never liked heat. Nor did Toby. We invented all sorts of escapes. Mind you,… Continue reading Dog Days of Summer
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
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
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
the gardener i’ve got my trowel and my trencher she said i’m off to sow so saying, a-sowing she went with words hidden up her sleeves an idea or two tucked into her hatband and the rows await pull out weedy fallacy cut back dead superstition cultivate and amend and then drop the seed in… Continue reading Dandelion Break
The winds are howling out there tonight. Which reminds me of one of my favorite tales from my personal gardening mythos. It will be the twenty-year anniversary of a most remarkable shed raising this spring. Spring, that is, in other parts of the northern hemisphere. For New Mexico, where this story takes place, the season… Continue reading A Shed Raising
The birds are busy in the backyard. They’re awake at dawn, debating the latest household design fashions and hipster watering holes. Possibly a few duels among the cardinals. The doves are sighing in frustration because they prefer to sleep in. The wren is just permanently enraged. But he sounds lovely — as long as you… Continue reading Eggs!
(Or Eat the Damn Deer) Deer droppings This week the garden finally thawed out. I can see the grass and soil and the lower trunks of trees again for the first time in months. And right along with that, I see enough deer droppings to cover an acre in an inch-thick layer. I know this… Continue reading New England Ecology
