On Gardening

To paraphrase Alexander Chalmers "The three grand essentials of happiness are: Something to do, something to love, and something to hope for” and for me my garden hits all three marks. 

With the holidays over, are you noticing gardening thoughts creeping into your consciousness?

With all do respect to those like my fellow garden blogger, the English Gardener, I prefer to leave the growing of vegetables to the experts. Aside from a rosemary or a few basil plants I prefer to focus my gardening time on ornamentals. And yet nothing temps me more than a tomato picked at the peak of ripeness or a potato so fresh that it juices when you slice it. And this is why I've been frequenting local farmer's markets since I first encountered them in the early 90's.

Between now and January 20th you can recycle your holiday tree by dropping it off at any of twenty-three Chicago parks.

We live in an urban forest and traversing a tree-lined street with its leafy canopy can be quite calming. But if one of those trees is dead, its bare branches bleached white as bone, it can be quite jarring.

In Japan a term often used for the ranking of 3 items is matsu take ume. The Japanese may speak this using the Chinese pronunciation sho chiku bai. It doesn't matter what you're grouping or by what means: oldest to youngest for three daughters; highest to lowest for Kendo swordsmanship; largest to smallest for bento lunch boxes.

Wouldn’t it be heart lifting during these winter months to gaze out your window, into your garden and see a little green? Maybe a focal point or two? Or a precursor of spring? 

There are any number of ways to add interest to your garden in winter and I present here one of my favorites: suihan sanyou or literally “three friends in winter”. And those friends are bamboo, pine and plum. "