Read my latest post at Fiskars on what to do for the garden while you're away. If you visit around their site, you'll find other great articles by many different garden writers. Thanks so much for reading my writing wherever it may be.

Call me jaded, but I am so over traditional gardening books, the ones which state in the most boring language possible: Plant this here; Do this particular design; or Here is a laundry list of plants which grow in USDA Zones 3 to 7. Instead, tell me a story. Make me want that heirloom iris rescued from an old Texas homestead, or the tomato which bears the name of a friend and colleague long ago. Chris Wiesinger, a/k/a the Bulb Hunter, and Cherie Colburn do just that in their book Heirloom Bulbs for Today. Unlike so many gardening books being published of late, Heirloom Bulbs is a big beautiful tome with loads of gorgeous photos. Many books are now being downsized due to printing costs which I understand. However, it's nice to see generous macro photos along with landscapes in front of old homesteads and cemeteries to remind us of...

We came home last night from Bill's paving convention at Big Cedar in Branson, MO. On the whole, Missourians were pretty disgusted with their weather and kept apologizing because it was unseasonably hot. I almost laughed, out loud even. Missourians are nice folks and want you to be comfortable in their state. However, half my birth family is from Missouri, so I've spent a lot of summers up there visiting my granny. They may get more rain than we do, but it creates one hot and humid mamma jamma. Bill's paving convention was scheduled a week earlier this year in the hope things would be cooler. Mr. Sun and Ms. Jet Stream decided not to cooperate. Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time as always. How could we not? Big Cedar is one of those places where it is difficult to have a bad time. This was our sixth year. For...

First, I am fine. The house still stands. Thank you so much for your tweets and FB messages. It made me feel loved. The large tornado which devastated parts of Piedmont and the west side of Guthrie including the high school was about ten miles west of here. Tornadoes also touched down in other communities which haven't received as much news coverage like Chickasha and El Reno. It's been a rough weather week throughout much of the U.S., and last Tuesday, Oklahoma wasn't spared Nature's vehemence either. On Twitter, when I said I wasn't afraid of tornadoes, I was taken to task by one tweeter. Really, I'm not afraid, but I think I should explain why. I've lived in Oklahoma my entire life, and I understand tornadoes the way people born in California "get" earthquakes. I am in awe of their violence, and I respect their power, but I don't...