11 Amazing English Ivy Benefits and Facts

If you visit your favorite garden center in late February or early March, you’ll likely find shamrock plants to coincide with the St. Patrick’s Day holiday. The myths and folklore surrounding St. Patrick are quite fascinating, although perhaps not factual.

Want to know how to get two distinct flavors from one plant? Well, the plant known as Coriandrum sativum can provide just that. C. sativum is commonly cultivated as a low growing, vegetative herb known as cilantro that adds a savory flavor to many foods and dishes. However, not everyone knows that the seed produced by C. sativum is commonly referred to as coriander. Coriander is used whole or often ground as a spice to provide delectable flavor to many traditional and newer fusion-type meals. The herb and the spice come from the same plant, just different parts. For this reason, C. sativum is referred to with two different common names.

No, I have still not met Andre, though we’ve been in contact for more than a year. But we grow a little closer every week when the latest stash of doodles-in-progress arrives, and I get glimmers into the thought process that is behind them, just like I did when I read his memoir, “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.” (There is no better book to give your shrink; it should be on the curriculum of psychoanalytic institutes and departments of psychiatry in teaching hospitals and schools of social work, I swear. Insurance companies should mail it out to all patients using mental-health coverage, so they know they are not alone.) Some week

Click on the first thumbnail to start the show, and toggle from slide to slide by using the arrows. Note: You may have to scroll to find the arrows below the verticals, in particular. Enjoy.What are all these images, and where did they come from suddenly? My beloved Nebraskan-English-Transplant correspondent explains (imagine this with an accent if you can):“My mum has begu

OK, SO I HAVE A TWISTED SIDE. No big surprise to most of you, probably. And that being the case, I have some off-color favorites in various realms…including illustration. My all-time love is Andre Jordan from the UK (don’t know him personally, but he replied to my cold-call email saying it’s OK I post this). Jordan is a great talent, and since I had just left the city to live in the woods when I first came across this piece of his, I have adopted it as my motto. His doodles tackle life’s challenges, like love done in (or never achieved), depression, and other things that pull at my heart strings, including a popular if quite startling series for the BBC on disabilities. But caveat emptor: He can get a little wild, and is not PG. You are all grown-ups, no? So go see his A Beautiful Revolution site (or don’t, up to you), and especially his “Postcards I May Send” section, oh my.

ANDRE SWEARS THAT IF I PUT THESE AROUND THE TRUNKS of my young trees, no critter of any description will be able to get in for a nibble. I’m more familiar with traditional hardware-cloth collars, but I’m always open to any suggestion regarding pest control.

A PPARENTLY HIS ENGLISH UPBRINGING didn’t prepare him for our American mania for mowing. Andre the now-Nebraskan doodler, who recently became a homeowner with a yard of his own to tame, seems to be feeling a little, shall we say, agitated.

THIS LITTLE-KNOWN SPECIES (apparently first discovered and named by famed British plant explorer Andre Jordan) reminds me of all the plants I used to bid on at rare-plant auctions. The thinking always seemed to be that the harder it was to grow, the more valuable it was–and up went the bids, sky-high.

For just $40, plus $10 for lunch, visitors can enjoy Nate and Berta Atwater’s modernist masterpiece, before heading to John Gwynne and Mikel Folcarelli’s rarity-stuffed hidden garden, Sakonnet. Amazing Opus Nursery, the place of master grower Ed Bowen, will be on hand all day for a plant sale that’s every bit as special as the palette of Dixter.For those within a day’s drive, this is a garden party not to be missed. Get glimpses of all the gardens (as well as of Dixter) and the event details in this pdf about the event. Best of all: Each dollar raised will be matched by the UK’s “lottery board” so that Great Dixter may carry on in its colorful, inspirational style.(Anthony Chammond photo of pots at Dixter from Flickr.)

ILOVE WHEN ANDRE SPEAKS HIS BRAND OF ENGLISH, using words like “jumper” for sweater, or “allotment” for community garden. And I don’t know about you, but I want some of what they had (above).

IHAVE READ (AND WRITTEN) ABOUT HOW YOU CAN “read your lawn weeds,” about how what’s invading your lawn (moss? plantain? dandelions?) reveals issues with the underlying soil, the light conditions, and so on. But now Andre the Doodler brings new meaning to the phrase “read your lawn weeds” with his latest graphic utterance.

SOME THINGS CAN’T BE COMPOSTED, I was explaining to Andre the Doodler the other day on a Skype call–you know, like meat and bone and fats, I said. “I see,” said Andre, as if he was taking it all in and making notes.