My favorite style of gardening, the one that suits the Appletree Garden, is a solid mix of annuals and perennials with some shrubs thrown in for backbone. Ideally, not a bit of soil or even mulch, in sight. And my inspiration, I think, came from hiking with my parents in various national parks. One meadow I remember in particular was in Grand Teton National Park, mixed wildflowers two to three feet thick. If you ever get tired of life, sit for a while in a meadow or garden

Yes, there are plants that overwhelm others and plants that are too ugly to tolerate but just because a stray seedling shows up in your vegetable garden is no reason to panic. I've noticed that, quite often, plants grow better if they're surrounded or even crowded by other plants. Their leaves shade the ground, reducing evaporation. The roots bring up water from deeper in the soil so moisture leaves more evenly. There's no problem with water running off the surface of the

Bare ground is an invitation to a disaster, weeds sprouting almost instantly, soil drying faster than you can water it and forming a water-repelling crust, the soil itself losing humus and microorganisms. Mulch is a halfway step toward healthy soil covered with plants, but an essential one whenever you clear ground. Remember, however, that all mulches eventually start growing weeds and will need to be replaced. Even bark on top of black plastic will eventually become a nurse

The Japanese go out of their way to appreciate cherry blossoms, the brief beauty so similar to much of our lives. Goodness gone so quickly. Moments of joy that pass into memories. What we love in this world will, eventually, disappear as well. Does the ephemeral have enough value to be embraced? Everything ends. Fact. We love, we need to love. Fact. How do we live with loss and grief a constant possibility? One option is to be safe, love less, hurt less. Unfortunately, that m

My first botany class was taxonomy, the identification of plants, and we often put flowers under a dissecting microscope, a device with a large but low-magnification lens, about 25x, and lots of space beneath for the leaves and flowers we looked examined. Wonder! Beauty! The closer we looked, but more details, the more amazing a flower looked. I fell in love with the miniature, the single leaf of a moss, the hairs on the throat of a blossom, the stamens and so much more. Natu

Everyone wants to save water, except possibly those who live at the edge of a bog. Here are a few tips: Drench the soil completely whenever you water, then let it dry out until only the deepest roots are hydrated. That encourages even deeper rooting. Of course, you have to dig a bit to find out how deep your water's gone and even after years of experience I find myself overly optimistic. New plants need lots of water, even if they've been billed as drought-tolerant. The roots

only experiments. — Janet Kilburn Phillips