VOTE "O"

Someone out to get the passionate gardening vote knew that plant graffiti would be hard for any chlorophyll lover to miss. This scrawled message was spotted at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill in one of their Habitat Collections -- three small but deliciously designed gardens representing the diverse geographic regions of NC.

I've spotted lots of defaced beech trees and even some etched bamboo canes in my travels but this is the first cactus I've seen bearing a bumper sticker. Not that it matters, but I'll be voting for Opuntia this year.

Amazing Space

A few outtakes from a recent assignment for the New York Times Home section. This one took me to a reclaimed lot in Baltimore where good folks from the Amazing Grace Lutheran Church built more than just a community garden -- they created a sacred space.
Nearly an entire block in size, The Amazing Port Street Sacred Commons includes a labyrinth, a vegetable garden and a lush grassy area surrounded by colorful murals and metal sculpture. It's hard to see any remnants of the trash and drug dealing that once filled these lots.

After the shoot, everyone left but I stayed a while longer hoping for a cloud or two to soften the harsh midday sun. The pretty light never really came but I did get to meet a few neighbors walking through the Commons. Despite the occasional sirens (and even gunshots) in the background, the conversations I had were sweet and uplifting. Open space=Open hearts.

This is one of about 120 public projects partly funded by the forward thinking TKF Foundation who believe that sacred spaces increase a sense of community and contribute to a deepening of human connections.

Anne's Tomatoes

Two pictures from a shoot with Anne Raver for the New York Times Home section. The bottom one ran last Thursday along with a handful of others detailing the chores and pleasures of fall gardening. Anne's family farm nestles comfortably into a rolling hillside of rural Maryland and we had fun putting these little stories together. So many wonderfully authentic details and Anne's delicious prose made for a sweetly compelling feature.

Goodbye to Donny

Sadly, after a month of illness, our beautiful little tough guy had to be put down yesterday. A wrenching decision, but he was no longer eating or drinking and could barely walk. The vets office handled him (and us) beautifully in a small private area that felt more like a guest bedroom with a small rug, sofa and soft lighting. He went gently but not without lots of tears and promises from us.

Without a doubt, he had more personality than any other animal we’ve shared our home with. Probably bred as a fighting dog, with both Pit Bull and Doberman genes, his ears and tail were clipped and docked but his soul was filled only with love and playfulness. Sue negotiated his rescue 14 years ago from a series of bad homes in our old neighborhood and he quickly became a dominant figure in our lives.

Always ready to take a walk, eat anything that could be remotely described as food and chase a ball for endless hours at a time, his enthusiasm lifted our spirits over and over. And when he wasn’t charging about, he enjoyed close contact and soaked up affection like sponge. May he rest in peace.

Night Crawl for Voodoo Doughnuts

It was evening in Portland and feeling the need to escape the rubber chicken, the gummy cheesecake and re-breathed air of the DoubleTree, C. and I took an walk outside. Perhaps as am antidote to working so much in the realm of daylight, I'm finding myself more and more attracted to the mysteries of night photography.


Urban spaces defined only by artificial light sources - tungsten, sodium vapor, mercury, neon - mix it up with a little moonlight to offer a new palette of possibilities. And one without any commercial sensibilities. What freedom!

Carrying one sensitive camera with a very fast lens, we strolled through the empty neighborhoods surrounding the hotel stopping every now and the to explore nocturnal colors, gestures and light. Realizing the need for a destination (not so much as a place to satisfy a sweet craving but as an arbitrary end point), we headed to Voodoo Doughnuts - open all night and sure to delight.

Asking directions a few times from strangers on desolate streets, we finally spot an eerie blue glow. Entering, we inhale the yeasty air, make our choices from the rotating dessert case, and sit at old school desks to watch the parade of night folks.

Big Leaves, Big Drama

Big leaves hog center stage in Chanticleer's August garden. Add a dash of hard sun and you can almost hear the photosynthetic pulse of these tropical giants. As much as I adore lotus blooms, their lingering seed pods have all the personality. Like articulated shower heads, they twist their twiggy necks to gape at their neighbors.








Canna 'Tropicanna' is as common as you get but it still grabs me when backlit. And it absolutely floors me when the light also wraps gently from the side.

And the Red Banana, Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelli', is made even more gorgeous when the shadows of a nearby fine-leafed tropical play over the bright green and orange bands. What this late summer foliar exuberance needs now is a soundtrack of sprinklers, crickets and ice cream trucks.

Chanticleer - a pleasure garden

Without a doubt, Chanticleer Garden is the finest public garden I have ever roamed. How fortunate that I live only 20 minutes away and can frequently savor their inspired horticultural displays. Chanticleer was on the Perennial Plant Symposium tour last week and I'm sure that jaws were dropping by the score as they toured the grounds. My twenty minute talk (condensed into 10 as I was pushing into the first coffee break) at Tuesday's plenary session was well received by at least one blogger, Kevin Neal. Thanks for the good press, Kevin!