Every historic building has a story to tell
Author’s Note: The authors and content creators of Gardens to Gables typically attempt to avoid confrontational topics and as such this post may “ruffle the feathers” of ornithologists, entomologists, archaeologists, and Baptists alike. That being said, I speak from a position of observation and no ill feelings are intended. People find the coming spring (read more)
Categories: Kentucky Gardens, Warren County
Tags: #birds, #purplemartins, Spring
I knew it was coming – and I’ve never seen a more wonderful spot of color amidst last fall’s leaves. The first of the Narcissus Mando, a 1959 Guy Wilson hybrid, is blooming in one of the front porch garden beds. Very soon, a riot of color shall follow, for I have planted hundreds of (read more)
Category: Kentucky Gardens
Tags: #jonquils, #kentuckygarden, daffodils
As some folks may know (especially if you follow Gardens to Gables on Instagram and are privy to my frequent venting about the weather), the snow in January and February – and that snow’s refusal to melt and disappear – has resulted in my children missing 12 days of school since the New Year (14 (read more)
Categories: Kentucky Gardens, Other Places
Tags: #CincinnatiMusicHall, #CincinnatiOH, #kentuckyweather, winter
Many years ago, on a farm located on the Salt River in Mercer County, Kentucky, my maternal grandmother planted a spiraea. It blooms early in March, sometimes the delicate white blossoms even appear in a mild February, and blend in with snow on the ground. My mother took a division from this shrub and planted (read more)
Category: Kentucky Gardens
Tags: #kentuckygarden, #shrubs, #spiraea, Gardens
It’s spring break for my minions, and this morning we were lucky enough to huddle in the basement during a tornado warning! I must admit, I was very proud of how quickly they followed my directives. I deposited them safely on lawn chairs in our dank cellar before rushing back to the first floor to (read more)
Categories: 1901 Farmhouse, Kentucky Gardens
Tags: #garden, #kentuckygarden, #springbreak, daffodils
It’s National Gardening Day, and I am grumpy. The weather is acting like June (80 degrees yesterday!) and I only have one rain barrel half full of water – we last had rain on March 31 in my neck of the woods. My pansies turn tortured and accusing faces toward me, as if to ask (read more)
Categories: 1901 Farmhouse, Gardens, Kentucky Gardens
Spring/early summer is upon Kentucky, and this brief glorious period (before oppressive heat and humidity and worries about lack of rain sets in) coincides with my complete lack of attention to anything but the most pressing of matters – and my garden. My stack of library books gather cobwebs in the corner (I have a (read more)
Categories: Gardens, Kentucky Gardens
Tags: #garden, #gardenlife, #kentuckygarden, #kentuckygardener, #kentuckygardens, Gardening
In the fall of 2020, mired in the uncertainty of the world and convinced we might never venture off the farm again, my daughter and I ordered some tulip bulbs. Tulips, while beautiful, have never been a mainstay of any of my gardens. They are too expensive to be treated like annuals, and yet that (read more)
Category: Kentucky Gardens
Tags: #kentuckygarden, Gardening, tulips
When I was young – maybe 8 or 9 years old – we had a series of droughts. A dryer than normal June turned into a parched July and August. Farm families not only make their living from the soil, but are wary yet devoted minders of the weather and Mother Nature. We still only (read more)
Categories: Gardens, Kentucky Gardens
Tags: drought, Gardening, Kentucky garden, rain dances
Gardening might be the closest I will ever come to magic in this world. The delight and wonder of growing plants transcends the sometimes ugly or thorny blemishes of reality – and I felt this way even before the Pandemic. If gardening is magic, then the tobacco hornworm is a troll, gnome, or orc (read more)
Categories: Gardens, Kentucky Gardens
Tags: caterpillars, garden pests, Gardening, hummingbird moth, Tobacco hornworms
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