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From now until October when our temperatures again descend to freezing, we’ll have beautiful bountiful summer bouquets. Our annual cut flower garden grew three times in size this year, offering us more space to plant everything that we love. These annuals like zinnias, ageratum, marigolds, cosmos amaranth and nicotiana are just beginning to bloom. It’s heartbreaking work, but necessary to cut the first few flowers and leave them for compost in order to encourage the plant to put more energy into growing larger, taller and stronger before they really being to crank out flowers. Sometimes this means cut 1/3 to [...]

As summer rolls into the fields, the trees and plants are popping into flower, almost a new blossom every week. This week we harvested linden flowers from a few trees that are bordering our driveway. Linden flowers have an amazing smell, last week they were in full bloom in Pittsburgh and every street smelled so sweet I could almost see the relief that people were feeling. Linden is cooling, demulcent and soothing to frazzled nerves. Sometime our thoughts get in the way, becoming circular, repeating our to do list, not letting us get to sleep. All this pressure can make [...]

Here, in the so called Allegheny Plateau or Valley or Ridge or Mountains – basically this area of western PA, Maryland, little parts of West Virginia, here is where wild cherry trees (and maples) dominate the forest.  Here in this little forest, that is absolutely true. I love their black bark, almost purple.  I love the large ones, really only medium sized trees here.  And I love the spindly little ones that are reaching up for the sunlight, but not quite making it. Right now, I have a cough.  So I’ve been chewing on the cherry twigs.  These twigs [...]