From Pennsylvania to Georgia

My friend and neighbor Catherine grew up in Pennsylvania, where her mother's green thumb was much in evidence. Now a Southerner, Catherine has planted gardens at all the houses where she and her husband have lived over the past 20+ years - often with cuttings, seeds or fully grown plants from her mother's garden. Her collection of Bearded Irises, many of which have their origins in Pennsylvania, including this one, is stunning and without equal in our neighborhood of some 700 homes.

In Winter’s Grip

The old-timers at the farmers’ market had it right last summer, when they said this was going to be an unusually cold winter; it was 24F (-4C) when I got up this morning (“Feels like 15”, the weather report said). Not good.

The best thing about early January in Georgia is that late February is not far away. That’s when the first signs of life emerge in gardens and parks and along the highways and country roads. If the copious rains of the past several weeks have not rotted the bulbs, daffodils will be the first to pop out of the ground. I can hardly wait. In the meantime, I’ll just turn the thermostat up another notch and put on an extra pair of socks.