The Little Bulbs: A Tale of Two Gardens by Elizabeth Lawrence is what inspired my interest in snowdrops, but it took many years before I actually got any planted. This is partly because I was confused by their blooming time. In Elizabeth Lawrence's southern gardens they bloomed on Candlemas Day (February 2) and sometimes "more than once known them to take advantage of an 'amazing interlude' of mild weather in January to slip out of the half frozen…
When Michael Pollan's book Second Nature came out in 1991 I remember spending a lot of time reading out bits to my husband with disgusted exclamations - Can you believe he says this?!Of course, all these years later, I don't remember the particulars except how my view of the suburban lawn is so different from his. Still, since all this time has gone by, I wanted to reread Second Nature, and see in what ways the world in…
My Friend Elsa Though I haven’t read Dear Friend and Gardener I have my own great garden friend. When I moved to my Massachusetts hilltop, I found that one of our area’s most famous perennial gardeners, Elsa Bakalar, lived on a neighboring hilltop. She was a generation older, British, much more knowledgeable about flower gardens, and way more opinionated than I was about anything but happy to befriend a novice. She is a born teacher, and even now…