Glad to see you, On Point listeners!

Delightful. That is the best word to describe today’s talk with Tom Ashbrook and Sydney Eddison on NPR’s On Point. I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate in their discussion of gardening and what it says about you. Eddison’s book, Gardening for a Lifetime, is a refreshing change from the usual garden porn. The book has small drawings instead of lush color plates and—from beginning to end—it is honest, straightforward talk from an expert gardener who is figuring out how to keep gardening on the same two acres without physical injury or exhaustion.

I have some things in common with Eddison, actually, though our properties could not be more different. She has a large country garden in Connecticut, but she does do a lot of shade and woodland gardening and loves many of the same plants I do. We do differ on a couple things: she loves Autumn Joy sedum (I have a strange and unreasonable dislike of this) and primroses—which I find pretty, but can’t afford the space for plants that are unattractive in summer. We agree, however, that age or other vicissitudes will not stop us from gardening.

If you missed the talk, you can listen to it archived here.