There’s something about growing edible plants: they make a gardener feel useful. I’m especially fond of herbs, as they’re an easy way to that satisfaction. Nearly a decade ago, I […]
Farm & Garden
What would it look like to grow, harvest, and protect our bounty?
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ON THE LANDSCAPE
Ruled by the Low Angle of Autumn’s Light
The animal inside us knows to welcome winter’s stillness
Every year, around the middle of November, I feel sad. It is a gentle sort of sadness. It doesn’t inspire tears. It is not sharp or stinging. It is a […]
GARDEN PLOT
Planting Garlic Is a Down Payment on Spring
Each clove will give you two crops come summer
The early morning air is crisp and clear. As I head out to the kitchen garden, brisk winds following on the heels of a faraway tropical storm carry swirls of […]
SEASIDE GARDENER
The Other Mums
Lesser-known hardy chrysanthemums loll romantically in autumn beds
Depending on whom you ask, chrysanthemums are either beloved symbols of autumn or one of those plants that are so commonplace that they’ve become boring. I’m reminded of Maggie Smith’s […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
The Imperative of the Pond
Life among the giant puddles that tell the genesis story of this place
I was driving home from the ocean along a winding road, windows open, the air heavy with humidity. The dusk sky of a late summer evening was settling rich and […]
BARNYARD CONFIDENTIAL
What Does a Rooster Mean by Crowing?
Outsize randiness, gallant tidbitting, and other mysteries of the male of the species
When I was a new high-schooler, a boy called Rooster had an unrequited crush on me. I did not understand him. Now a middle-aged backyard chicken farmer, I’m still trying […]
FARMERS
Arin Hirst Wants to Share the Land
A grower who welcomes weeds, seeds, and new ways to feed ourselves
ORLEANS — Arin Hirst calls his greens-growing business “Sketchy Greenhouse,” in honor of the formerly dilapidated state of Putnam Farm in Orleans, where he and his friends hung out when […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
August’s Elegance in a Roadside Weed
Queen Anne’s finery is made of concentric whorls, repeated in perfect miniature
The rains that fell in spring and early summer have stopped by now, and most plants have plateaued in their upward movement. It is August; everything is resting for a […]
SEASIDE GARDENER
The Spare Simplicity of a Gravel Garden
Finding drama in pebbly textures, silvery tones, tough ‘maritimas,’ and chance
A large part of our back yard is a former dog run, which looked fairly bleak when my husband and I first laid eyes on it on a March day […]
FARMERS
The Rais Turn a Borrowed Slope Into Fertile Terraces
Down Home on the Cape’s eccentric end
TRURO — The sun is setting at an angle that casts a cool shade over three stools in the grass in front of a garage-like barn, where piles of produce […]
FARMERS
Chris Murphy Digs ‘the Most Important Job’
A good friend, a rare plot of land, and local markets make his farm possible
Off Hatch Road in Truro, rows of crops spill down a slope and surround farmer Christopher Murphy’s house. There, at Nestwood Farm, Murphy — friends and neighbors know him as […]
BARNYARD CONFIDENTIAL
A Flock Provides Beauty, Bounty, and the Occasional Unsolved Mystery
A freakish egg keeps a poultry farmer’s pride in check
TRURO — A small-flock poultry farmer can be forgiven for priding herself on the beauty, health, and productivity of her flock. At least I hope so, because such hubris has […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
A Rose Among the Washashores
Following the Rosa rugosa’s sweet, spicy, buttery scent to the sea
There are days in early summer when the warm air smells gently sweet, almost peachy, and a little spicy. The scent is buttery soft; there is nothing brash about it. […]
THE SEASIDE GARDENER
The Resilience of Pansies
How one tiny flower stands for both tender sentiments and strength
I never used to pay much attention to pansies. When I first started gardening on the desolate expanse of a New York City tarpaper rooftop, I would plant only the […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
In a Storm and a Book, a Glimpse of Geological Time
Witnessing the sculptural work of waves and wind
The wind blew all night. It rushed in from the northeast, breaking over the peaks and hollows of the Province Lands. It kept me awake with that quality of sound […]
