I saw this in my backyard yesterday, while playing basketball with Carter. I’ve posted pictures of my Lenten roses before, and written about how they came from my grandmother’s garden, and how they always miraculously seem to bloom during Lent (I mean, I know that’s how they got their nickname, but it’s still fun to me how they do it so reliably, when Lent starts at a different time every year). But this one is different. It’s blooming out in...

Dear Gardening Editor:How do I keep the birds from eating all of the berries on my blueberry bushes? L.A. Jackson: Plant enough to share. L.A. Jackson was the editor of Carolina Gardener Magazine when I got hired on as an editorial assistant just a couple of years after graduating from college, and he was a force to be reckoned with in the gardening world. An avid garden writer and sought-after speaker on the gardening symposium circuit, L.A....

In preschool, we learn about seasons by assigning some simple characteristics:Winter: Snow and snowmenSpring: Flowers and green grassSummer: Hot sun, thunderstorms and swimming poolsFall: Colorful leaves and pumpkinsIt all seems so clear cut, with nice lines dividing up each season into clear periods of time. In reality seasons aren’t that clear cut. Time is a continuum — a continuum that stands out to me especially in my garden, where...

Have you ever experienced one of those times when something that’s really small, not a big deal at all in the overall scheme of life, just sets you off? That happened to me, around the middle of July, when I faced the realization head-on that I wasn’t going to get any tomatoes from my garden. We’d marched through one disappointment after the other like troopers: school closures, canceled vacation, a soccer season cut short (and by short I mean...

There are times when winter can really be depressing. Days on end of cloudy, gray skies. Darkness when you wake up in the morning and when you eat supper at night. Gardens empty of blooms, littered with dried up leaves blown about in wind storms. And then you have a day like this: It’s one of the things I love about living in the South. Sunshine and blue skies. While they don’t come every single day, at least we get them year round. I love how...

When Bill and I were newlyweds living in Greensboro, we were invited to supper at the home of a couple in our church who had been married quite a bit longer than we had been. I’m sure they had us over to help introduce us to people in the church, or to get to know us better since we were newcomers. I know we had a good time, because Mr. Hull was a great storyteller and always a lot of fun. But what I remember most about that evening is their...