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It鈥檚 Thursday, when Diggin鈥� It visits several gardeners around the world who write frequently about their plants and landscapes. Today we whiz from Switzerland to the Hudson River Valley of New York to Louisiana, finishing up with a jaunt to a country garden in Ireland.
(Adventure Garden) is written in alternating paragraphs of German and English, so I could practice my German while peeking occasionally at the translation to see if I鈥檇 remembered a word correctly or not.
The writer, who lives in a small village near Basel, Switzerland, especially enjoys peonies, roses, hostas, and hydrangeas. Reading about her plant-related vacations in Portugal, Scotland, and Spain, I discovered that Centranthus ruber 颅鈥� one of my favorite perennials, an unassuming jewel 鈥� is called Lilac d鈥橢spagne in French, a charming name. (Much better than red valerian in English.)
She has a photo of one growing out of a wall in Barcelona's Park G眉ell, in a very precarious situation 鈥� and yet it was blooming quite happily. That鈥檚 my kind of plant!
When I read in The New York Times about Margaret Roach stepping down as editorial director of Martha Stewart Omnimedia to live and garden in the country and blog about it, I 鈥� and thousands of others, no doubt 鈥� knew I had to learn more about her new adventure.
Margaret's blog, is a delight because it鈥檚 so beautifully written. But it also owes its strong appeal to the fact that she鈥檚 living a life that many others secretly dream of and would love to make a reality.
In Louisiana, Thais Perkins is the . She鈥檚 married to an environmental engineer and teaches at Southern University in Baton Rouge. They鈥檙e almost ready to begin picking corn and have been harvesting tomatoes since mid-June 鈥� I turned chartreuse with envy at the photo of a wheelbarrow piled high with the red fruits.
But then I read about the days and days of torrential rains they鈥檇 endured recently and decided I would be content with waiting till those little green balls on my own plants finally turn red, gold, and orange.
Across the Pond in rural Ireland, Silvia is a freelance artist who also gardens extensively and maintains . Each day she posts lovely photographs of what鈥檚 in bloom 鈥� from roses and perennial geraniums to hawthorn trees and lupines at the moment.
Obviously, Silvia's mother also has a green thumb and I loved the photograph (taken from an upstairs window of the house) that shows her little 鈥渃ottage garden.鈥�
It's fun to see the real thing after all the fancy pictures we're bombarded with in garden books and magazines. And who says you need elaborate paths? Some well-placed rocks to guide you and keep your feet dry are an authentic and inexpensive choice, the photo shows.
That鈥檚 what I enjoy about visiting others鈥� gardens through their blogs 鈥� this sense of what鈥檚 being done by real people in real gardens. We鈥檒l do more next week.
