Book Review: How to Keep Your Plants Alive
Karen Meyers How to Keep your Plants Alive, by Kit Carlson and Aaron Carlson, is a brief guide to successful houseplant gardening. After discussing the basics of growing plants indoors from light…
Meadow Garden: Medium-Height, Native, Flowering Perennials for Moderate to Dry Soil in Full Sun
The following list of plants are 12-30″ tall and do well in average to lean soil. Most are native to the central part of the US and can grow in…
Plants for a Mary Garden: Italian Daisy (Aster amellus) “Our Lady’s Birthday Flower”
Italian aster is known as “Our Lady’s Birthday Flower” because of its later summer bloom about the time of Mary’s birth. The Bible does not provide information on Mary’s infancy…
Book Review: Tiny + Wide
In his book, Tiny + Wild, author and landscape designer Graham Laird Gardner provides a guide for turning a small part of a yard into a mini-meadow. The area can…
Meadow Garden: Tall Native Flowering Perennials for Moderate to Dry Soil in Full Sun
The plants in the following list are 30″ or more tall and will stand out among the majority of the plants in a meadow garden. They are suitable for lean…
Plants for a Mary Garden: Wood Anemone (Anemone nemerosa) “Candlemas Caps”
The name “Candlemas Caps” reflects both the timing of the wood anemone’s blooming and the of the shape of the flowers. The term “caps” probably refers to the shape of…
Book Review: Rekha’s Kitchen Garden
Rekha Mistry’s book, Rekhas’s Kitchen Garden, is a guide to growing vegetables, herbs, and fruits. It follows the author’s activities as she plants, maintains, and harvests her garden for a…
Plants for a Mary Garden: Great Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) “Our Lady’s Candle”
It is unlikely that Mary was familiar with candles as we know them because oil lamps were the usual source of artificial light in her time. By the late 4th…
Book Review: Bee & Flea and the Puddle Problem
Bee & Flea and the Puddle Problem by Anna Humphrey is a delightful chapter book in a series about two insect investigators, Bee and Flea. Written for children ages 6-9…
Plants for a Mary Garden: Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) “Mary’s Heart”
Hearts have traditionally been associated with the love, compassion, and sorrow of the Virgin Mary. The unique shape of bleeding heart’s flower which resembles a heart with a droplet falling…