Kathy’s Garden Writing

I've always loved to garden, and have learned most of what I know from reading garden writers' experiences, as well as from the trial and error experiments of a thirty year span of mucking about in every plot of ground I could call my own. When I retired in 2007 from my work as a psychologist, I decided to share some of my own gardening adventures and know-how with others.  Thus was born a column titled "Green Thumb Therapy", published in the Danville Daily Item.  Writing about my garden helps me "grow" as a gardener, and hopefully as a writer, measured I guess by the pleasure both ventures give to me and others.  I sincerely hope this little selection of writings pleases you, and perhaps inspires a visit to the garden research station we call Skymeadow Farm. 

 

Introductions

 

Spring Tonic

 

Late Night Entertainment

 

Tomatoes for the Public Good

 

Beautiful Chaos

 

Reflections on the Gardening Season

 

Thanksgiving Traditions

 

Gifts from the Garden

 

Flores de Noche Buena

 

The Season of Anticipation

 

The Queen of Houseplants

 

Crazy About Catalogues

 

Leeks, Boutonnieres, Ramps, and Romps

 

Forcing Forsythia

 

Gardening with Climate Change

 

The Saint Patrick’s Day Pea Scam

 

Apple Rebellion

 

Redneck Lupine

 

Make the Ground Say Beans

 

Tomatoes, Your Way

 

Gray-Head Coneflower

 

The Ninebark Revolution

 

The August Garden

 

Colorful Bulbs for Winter Blues

 

Gardener Fatigue

The Great Pumpkin

Please Have Snow and Mistletoe

Winter Reds

Bewitched

Nutrition in the Garden

Solomon’s Seal

Gardening Hygiene and Health

Milkweed: Friend or Foe?

Echinacea Purpurea

The Trombone Squash

Rosemary for Remembrance

Go Native

Backyard Environmentalism

Bluebells Goes Here

The Last Bloom of Autumn

Thanksgiving: A Celebration of Real Food

Winterberry: The Other Holly

An Old Familiar Friend

Purple Foxglove

Edible Gardening Grows in Tough Economic Times

A  WMD May be Lurking in Your Garden

Quaker Ladies

Serviceberry: What’s In A Name?

Big Is Beautiful

Butterfly Weed

The Presidential Politics of Compost