Author Archives: Liza
How do the French do it?
French gardens are a lot like French women: chic and elegant and pulled together in a way that makes the average American gardener want to just throw in the spade. I’ve made something of a study of the French garden … Continue reading
Do you share my sense of wanderlust?
Perhaps it’s because I grew up in a small, close-knit community, but something in me periodically needs to break free, sail away, explore the wider world. In the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “Questions of Travel” she writes: “What childishness … Continue reading
Are green thumbs inherited?
I think there must be a gardening gene, yet to be discovered in some secret strand of our DNA. My paternal grandmother created one of the most beautiful and extensive rose gardens I’ve ever seen (and I’m a devoted rosarian) … Continue reading
How does your garden grow?
For me, few things are more satisfying than digging into the earth, uprooting weeds, pruning back shrubs, and planting bulbs. It’s also a beautiful way to commemorate someone you love. We have neighbors in the Berkshires who plant a fruit … Continue reading
On hearing secret harmonies…
Though the observation is hardly original, I’ve come to understand firsthand that, at its heart, gardening is the urge to add order and context to the landscape, to somehow harness and humanize the wild. In that sense, Mother Nature herself … Continue reading
The healing power of gardening
Because gardening is such a solitary practice and in many ways repetitive, it can easily serve as a form of meditation. When you’re going through a difficult time — or have a serious problem to work through — there’s nothing … Continue reading