The urn standing proudly in front of the wide herbaceous border. Since it's the weekend, let's do some armchair garden travel and return to an English summer in Yorkshire, UK. Grab yourself a cup of something warm or frizzante and follow me. Layanee DeMerchant took this photo of me in Pamela's garden. I think it's fun! We went to Yorkshire at the end of June. It was a good time to go although they were in the beginning of a bad drought. As always, click on the gallery photos to see them in a larger format and read the captions. We're off the bus, and we're strolling across a gravel walk toward my favorite garden on this trip at Low Hall. Low Hall is the childhood home of Pamela Holliday, who created the garden from scratch. And, what a garden it is! We saw so many wonderful gardens--about three a day--when...

Bordered Patch, Chlosyne lacinia, butterfly on Cosmos 'Cupcake White.' Good September afternoon! Hope all is well in your little world especially if you're in the path of Hurricane Florence or one of her ilk. Here, at Little Cedar Garden, everything is refreshed from the rain, but a little tired too. There are great swathes of green, but very few blooms. We do have plenty of wonderful insects especially butterflies and spiders. The butterflies emerge from their chrysalides, and the spiders try to eat them as the butterflies flit from flower to flower. Sometimes, the spiders are lucky, and other times, the butterflies are. Releasing a Monarch butterfly in my garden. It didn't seem to want to go. Thanks to Father Novak for taking such a lovely photo! I smile whenever I see it. Personally, I root for the butterflies even though I understand spiders need to eat too. It's just...

A large pot makes a focal point at Cow Close Cottage. Finally! I've found time to post again about our Yorkshire garden trip. My first post was about Newby Hall. You may get really tired of these UK posts, but as Robert Browning wrote:  "Oh, to be in England now that April's there," or perhaps, in this case, June. Antique copper pot used as a very large container. The owners were thrilled to get one that was so large. Unfortunately, I can't remember what was once boiled in it. Sheep's wool? Sorghum? I don't know. I hope you don't mind me sharing our travels because travel is one of the things I truly live for. Sedum 'Matrona,' Salvia nemorosa 'Wesuwe', and tall campanula at Cow Close Cottage. When not traveling, I'm planning my next trip. Last week, I spoke on a panel with two other bloggers, Erin Schanen from The Impatient Gardener...

Putting the frame back into the hive. My first season of beekeeping. Several people have asked about my bees and my first season of beekeeping so I thought I would share some photos my daughter, Claire, took of a hive inspection yesterday. When I'm working alone, I don't have enough hands to take photos very easily, and I haven't yet created a setup like some beekeepers to take video. Maybe I will someday, but now, I'm doing good to hold the frames, smoke the hive and watch out for the small insects. They don't always take kindly to being disturbed. Lighting my smoker. Beekeeping has its own language. The first thing I had to learn was all the different beekeeping terminology. Just like gardening, beekeeping has its own language. I may mention one or more of these terms throughout this post so I want to explain them as best I can. Hives are...