All Stories
Outside Voice: Is it wrong to wish for a smaller garden?
At this time when more and more people are being squished into smaller and smaller spaces, is it wrong for me to (occasionally) long for a smaller garden?
Outside Voice: The complex and fragile community of the experimental garden
I also am anxious to plant seeds from a single, elegant okra pod sent to a gardenless colleague from somewhere in the Deep South. But the seeds will have to...
Outside Voice: When you can’t see the flowers for the hay, breathe deep
The hay that has sprouted as the result of my pollinator-friendly cultivation practices is out of control -- so much so that if my town allowed it, I would adopt...
Outside Voice: The blossoms are ready, but where are the bees?
All we need now is for the bees to do their work, and that's got me worried.
Outside Voice: There’s magic in seed saving, and not just from the flowers and food
I'm always grateful for the gift of seeds. There is something marvelous about getting a fist full of vague promise.
Outside Voice: Best-planned gardens still a study in patience and persistence
It's easy to get busy in the spring, but the sorry weather earlier this week forced a reflective discipline.
Outside Voice: What’s lost in translation of the language of flowers
I've come to understand, mostly through this job, that garden is a kind of Esperanto.
Outside Voice: Egg shells just as good the second time around
This week I finally committed to sticking some seeds in soil. But it wasn't fear of a bad harvest that got me going. It was my chickens.
Outside Voice: Look closely. There is beauty even in the most tangled thicket.
I breathed and remembered that even in the stickiest moments, beautiful things are happening all around me.
Outside Voice: It would be easy to hang on to the gloom but for the tender shoots pushing toward the sun
The last nine months in the experimental garden have been tough.