Two great books from Timber Press

I don't know about you, but I have tons of scrap wood and this little project was a great way to use some of it up! We made rustic wood lanterns for our mantel.

The South Garden at Mt. Cuba Center in Hockessen, Delaware, has been nicknamed the “pizza oven” by those who tend it. It sits in full sun, and its antique brick walls and pathways radiate a lot of heat. Yet this garden looks fresh and appealing throughout the seasons, thanks to a colorful palette of North American natives that are perfectly adapted to flourish in this hot, bright spot. Visitors who are inspired to plant these beautiful, border-worthy selections will also be helping to feed the local wildlife that depends on their gardens for forage and shelter. Here are some of the spring and summer stars that brighten the South Garden.

Ben Fink Shapiro | Design: Better Homes & Gardens

Another Trader Joe's recall, this time for Texas Tamale Company's Gourmet Black Bean Tamales (in nine states), has customers wondering what's going on with their much-loved grocery store. This is the sixth recall by the company, which has 564 markets nationwide. 

I am bored of rain. Fed up with cloudy days. Sick of the grey drip-drip-drip of this cool, showery, sun-starved, stormy summer, and the monotony of a weather forecast that only predicts more of the same. But even so, I’m forced to admit that the silver lining to what’s been a very sodden growing season is that many of our most beautiful, late summer-autumn flowering garden perennials and shrubs are loving the biblical quantities of rainfall in recent months, a high note to what’s otherwise been a forgettable year.

Herein in lies part of its charm. Tiny coastal villages, lazy rivers, reed beds and their narrow, watery channels, sandy beaches and the wide horizons for which the region is renowned make this a place of glorious escape. The region is studded with gardens to visit, too, be they aristocratic estates or smaller country houses.

When I woke up yesterday morning, it was misty. We’re approaching the middle of October, which is the usual time for the first frosts of autumn in my part of the UK. People in different areas are already reporting the arrival of the frosts on Twitter. This means it’s time for me to pop out into the garden and bring in my lemon tree (which I grew from a pip, several years ago). It has been enjoying the summer weather in the garden, but it’s only really hardy down to -10°C. I’ve nearly lost it a couple of times, and it has died right back to nothing, but somehow it always manages to come back.

What happened to my allotment is a reminder that it’s not just animal and insect pests we have to worry about in our gardens – humans can be a problem as well. Bob Flowerdew refers to such anti-social individuals as ‘two-legged rats’.

Header image: NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio uses a video camera to photograph the Ant Forage Habitat. Image credit: NASA

Our veg box delivery last week brought us a bunch of asparagus, so we put it to one side to see how well we could cook it on the bbq.

I love books about weeds and wild plants – they generally contains little gems of fascinating information about useful and edible plants, tidbits you don’t find in gardening manuals. It’s been a while since I had the chance to sit down and peruse a good book, so it was great to be offered a review copy of Wonderful Weeds by Madeleine Harley, which has the subtitle “an extensive and fully illustrated guide from seedlings to fruit.”

I have been sent two very different books on healing plants to review this spring. The first is ‘The Herbal Apothecary’. It’s written by JJ Pursell, an American “board-certified naturopathic physician and licensed acupuncturist”, and published by Timber Press.