The axe always forgets, the tree always remembers
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to cut it up and use it for heat or timber, is it a waste of resources? Or, put another way, are humans the only reason that all other life on Earth was created?
Notes from a plant nerd: What a Lark
I wear a few different hats in my world. A big straw hat for working in the garden or walking out in the sun. Wool caps and toboggans for the colder mornings of spring. Party hats for the celebrations. I’ve even been known to wear a tricorne hat when visiting Colonial Williamsburg as a kid.
Notes from a plant nerd: Hope for the Hemlocks
In springtime, all things are possible. Everything around you that is alive is imbued right now with the same hopeful energy.
Notes from a plant nerd: Invasive Plants
I’ve been writing this column for over a year and a half and every plant that I have highlighted and celebrated evolved and co-evolved in the bioregion of Southern Appalachia.
Notes from a plant nerd: Barking up the right tree
To get through the winter, some plants go underground to take advantage of the earth’s insulation, while others stay above ground and protect themselves in other ways.
Notes from a plant nerd: Hey Buds!
Hunkered down for the long winter, wrapped in multiple layers and prepared for the cold, I have a lot in common with the flower and leaf buds of woody plants.
Notes from a plant nerd: Oh balsam tree, oh balsam tree
At the highest elevations of the Southern Appalachians grow two evergreen trees that give the Balsam Mountains their name — red spruce (Picea rubens) and Fraser fir (Abies fraseri).
Notes from a plant nerd: Like a podium
Creeping along the forest floor is a group of native plants that look like mosses, but aren’t mosses.
Notes from a plant nerd: You reap what you sow … if you’re lucky
Whoever first wrote down the phrase, “You reap what you sow” was definitely not a farmer or gardener. I’ve started following that phrase with, “…if you’re lucky.”
Notes from a plant nerd: Going to seed
Want to hear a corny joke about an oak tree? That was it.