Gardening is part planning, part serendipitous and 100% rewarding – in a pick yourself up by your boot straps sort of way. I love the reliably unexpected moments of discovery. Volunteers and new comers mixing up a planting plan, traveling pollinators and crops that sometimes fail but often succeed. My best plants, like best friends, [...]
Archive for the ‘Botanical Moment’ Category
May 10, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, Critters, Gardens, Habitat, Inspired, Native
Social Tagging: Creating Natural Landscapes • Garden • habitat • Soaproot
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, Critters, Gardens, Habitat, Inspired, Native
Social Tagging: Creating Natural Landscapes • Garden • habitat • Soaproot
April 4, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Botanical Moment, Nature, Profiles
Social Tagging: Garden • Why do you garden?
Filed under: Botanical Moment, Nature, Profiles
Social Tagging: Garden • Why do you garden?
The art of crafting a garden is one of the most fulfilling and sometimes hair pulling endeavors to embark upon. Clean lines, starting small and including plants you love is a good place to begin. But when choosing plants count on the emotional takeover of the five f’s: flowers, fragrances, flavors, fauna and family. They [...]
March 27, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, DO, Grow, Inspired
Social Tagging: Grow Plants From Seed • Seed Geek • Seeds I love to look at...
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, DO, Grow, Inspired
Social Tagging: Grow Plants From Seed • Seed Geek • Seeds I love to look at...
My early spring to-plant list always includes pumpkins. A garden without pumpkins must be like committing spring planting heresy. It’s just not right. And of course they have to be accompanied by loads of other squashes. Lupines are a hardy bunch from seed to flower. Like an independent teenager, they tend to strike out on their [...]
February 2, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, DISCOVER, DO, Grow
Social Tagging: Obsessed with Kale? Winter Garden Crops • school garden
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, DISCOVER, DO, Grow
Social Tagging: Obsessed with Kale? Winter Garden Crops • school garden
A closer look at the school garden I manage reveals a few faithful winter classics. The same standards of my obsessive winter diet. Broccoli, kale, kale, flowers to adorn my salad, more kale and broccoli. The few varieties missing here would be carrots, leafy greens of all kinds and, of course, more carrots. (However, I’m [...]
October 11, 2012 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, Critters, DESIGN, Gardens, Habitat, Habitat
Social Tagging: Ecology in the Garden • Garden Habitats • Growing Rudbeckia spp.
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, Critters, DESIGN, Gardens, Habitat, Habitat
Social Tagging: Ecology in the Garden • Garden Habitats • Growing Rudbeckia spp.
It’s hard to go wrong with black-eyed susans (Rudbeckia spp.). They’re lovely no matter how or where you plant them, pairing well with most other perennials, grasses and shrubs. Try digitalis, salvia, delphinium, hollyhocks, echinacea, Russian sage, bee balm, any bunch grass, ribes…. it doesn’t matter. At the moment I’m particularly fond of paring them [...]
May 31, 2012 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, Critters, Inspired
Social Tagging: Papaver somniferum • Poppy Love
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, Critters, Inspired
Social Tagging: Papaver somniferum • Poppy Love
The poppies have bloomed. I have to say that they are suspiciously beautiful, in a way reminiscent of an Alice in Wonderland character. Strangely fascinating. The honeybees are particularly amazed. I’m already anticipating their day-after-Christmas blues when the last petal falls and there is no more pollen to gather. A quick bit of research led me to a [...]
February 29, 2012 by Emily Murphy · 1 Comment
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, Critters, DISCOVER, Grow, Native, Nature
Social Tagging: Discovering Native Plants • Easy to Grow Drought Tolerant Plants • Edible Perennials • Gardening with Nature • Permaculture • Plants for Beauty and Food • Soapwort
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, Critters, DISCOVER, Grow, Native, Nature
Social Tagging: Discovering Native Plants • Easy to Grow Drought Tolerant Plants • Edible Perennials • Gardening with Nature • Permaculture • Plants for Beauty and Food • Soapwort
The oddest thing happened. I was on a perfectly lovely trail run near the headlands when bits of partially eaten plants and plant parts began littering the path in front of me. Roots, fibers and leaves that looked strangely like those of a bulb appeared frantically strewn about, the remains of what appeared to be [...]
November 21, 2011 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Botanical Moment, DO, Grow
Social Tagging: Companion Planting • Hearbal Oil Infusions • Making Calendula Oil • Urban Gardening • What to grow in your kitchen garden
Filed under: Botanical Moment, DO, Grow
Social Tagging: Companion Planting • Hearbal Oil Infusions • Making Calendula Oil • Urban Gardening • What to grow in your kitchen garden
I’ve tried growing all sorts of flowers as companion plants in and near my kitchen garden. Calendula, Calendula officinalis, remains my go-to plant. There are, of course, others I appreciate. I love the delicate blue, cucumber tasting flowers of borage, Borago officinalis. But it tries my patience. It’s lovely until it stubbornly and unyieldingly reseeds [...]
October 12, 2011 by Emily Murphy · 1 Comment
Filed under: Botanical Moment, DO, Grow
Social Tagging: Garden • Gardening with Scarlet Runner Beans • Growing Runner Beans • Phaseolus coccineus • Scarlet Runner Beans • Unthinkable Surprise
Filed under: Botanical Moment, DO, Grow
Social Tagging: Garden • Gardening with Scarlet Runner Beans • Growing Runner Beans • Phaseolus coccineus • Scarlet Runner Beans • Unthinkable Surprise
There’s something incredibly fascinating about opening up a dazzling green bean pod to find shades of hot pink, lavender and red mottled seeds inside. Crazy really. In fact, to see children open these beans, scarlet runner beans, is better than opening presents on Christmas day. Better because the contents are an unthinkable surprise. “And it [...]
August 4, 2011 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Botanical Moment, DISCOVER, Grow, Perspective
Social Tagging: Eat Local • Growing Peaches • Niagara Fruit Belt • Niagara Peaches • Ontario Canada
Filed under: Botanical Moment, DISCOVER, Grow, Perspective
Social Tagging: Eat Local • Growing Peaches • Niagara Fruit Belt • Niagara Peaches • Ontario Canada
What is it about people from California? I’m from California, so I think it fair of me to ask. Why is it that it seems, after sifting through my unofficial survey, that people from California tend to stay in California, or the west in general, rarely to never traveling east? In fact, when questioned, ponder [...]