Latest Posts
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The Tree of Forgiveness
Drought, freezing temperatures and disease have taken a major toll on the citrus trees in our backyard. Where four healthy orange trees once stood tall and strong, bursting with fragrant white blossoms every spring and delicious fruit every winter – only one remains. And it’s a deformed shadow of its former self. The lemon trees Continue reading
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The Little Tree in the Woods
There is a thick stretch of unruly shrubs, mixed with small and large trees that sprawls between the back of our property and our neighbors’ yard. The untamed growth is dense enough to provide a wall of privacy for us humans and abundant food and shelter for the deer and other wildlife who make their Continue reading
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Best in Show
For some southern gardeners, cultivating, growing and showing camellias is serious business. I am not one of those gardeners, but my friend Sarah Williams is. So last January, when Sarah asked me and some friends to help with the set-up for a regional Camellia show sponsored by the Tallahassee Camellia Society, we were excited to Continue reading
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Why Walk When You Can Fly?
Every backyard chicken person I’ve met has a story. The details and plot lines differ, but the outcome is consistent. Despite heroic efforts (and no small expense) invested to keep their chickens safe from predators, the laws of nature consistently prevail, and a chicken comes out on the losing end. Sometimes it’s a racoon or Continue reading
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It’s Not About the Eggs
I finally found an egg. I lifted the lid of the nesting box in our chicken coop last Saturday, and it was there. Perfectly shaped, light brown, and still warm. I gasped – then looked around to see who had produced it, but the chickens were off in another section of the backyard, digging for Continue reading
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A Late Bloomer
Many years ago, my mother-in-law Mary Lee gave me a small bougainvillea plant in a plastic nursery pot. I excitedly told her I couldn’t wait to plant it and watch those delicate fuchsia petals grow up against the white fence in our backyard. But I was genuinely intimidated. At the time, it seemed like I Continue reading
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Deadheading – For Living
While just about every other flowering plant in my backyard has said goodbye to the 2025 summer season, that Mexican sunflower bush I wrote about back in July continues to bloom with vibrant, deep orange gusto. Its flowers attract a daily crowd of butterflies, and I see new buds forming every time I walk past. Continue reading
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Looking Up
Last Friday I was in the pool before sunrise with my swim friends (AKA “the Squad”) for our regular weekday workout. It was a gray and cloudy morning, and after weeks of relentlessly hot and dry weather, the forecast was finally calling for rain. But the sky seemed to be telling a different story – Continue reading
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Trash Talking
Last Saturday, I was riding my bike with some friends in a rural area outside Tallahassee when we spotted a group of people in the distance along the grass shoulder of the road. As we got closer, I could see they were wearing reflective safety vests and carrying trash bags, so I assumed it was Continue reading
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Everything in its Time
We are straddling summer and fall right now in Tallahassee. The days are getting shorter and the early morning temperatures have gotten decidedly cooler, but by 11:00 am, the summer heat returns and lasts through the evening. My backyard is a greenish-brown testimony to this funky between-the-seasons dissonance. The summer flowers and vegetables that haven’t Continue reading
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