A couple weeks ago I was grumpy after a drizzly, unproductive day. Ready to head home, I started the car and the heater, put the dog in the car and last-minute decided to walk down to the dock, just to give myself an attitude adjustment. I walked about six steps on the floating wooden walkway […]

RABBITS are driving us nuts. Pesky insects and diseases exploit helpless plants trapped in overly-soggy pots. So we move the plants undercover. And then rabbits finish them off! The rabbits are practically costing me my living! They shouldn’t be here. They are Eastern Cottontails. What right do they have to mow down whole blocks of […]

Because I am feeling inspired by the election and by this beautiful day, some musings on community and freedom: “The trees soon revealed startling secrets. I discovered that they are in a web of interdependence, linked by a system of underground channels, where they perceive and connect and relate with an ancient intricacy and wisdom […]

In all my spare time, when I haven’t been trying to keep up with the breakneck speed of spring in the nursery, I’ve been trying to shake off the fog of two years of Covid-19 and answer the simple question: What’s next? It feels like time for a re-set. Time to evaluate various aspects of […]

For two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has been messing with each of us. Though we’re “all in this together,” everyone’s experiences and reactions are unique. My reaction to the pandemic was not particularly creative; I hid from Covid-19, avoiding it like the plague. Oh, whoops, whadda-ya-know, it WAS the plague. WAS! I think the plague-level […]

October 14, 2021 Remember the Heat Dome The Hemlock (Western Hemlock/Tsuga heterophylla) needles have blended into the soil, the cracks in the patio and the gravel of the driveway. Falling leaves have further obscured them. But just one month ago, they carpeted the ground. They dropped en masse after the “heat dome” event at the […]

Won’t it feel great to be able to hug freely again? A hug is energizing, literally. Just think of all those happy synapses in your brain, releasing oxytocin. On Mother’s Day, it was difficult to refrain from hugging everyone; I have just had my 2nd vaccine, so there is a light at the end of […]

The underrated Black Twinberry is a habitat champion when it comes to birds. I hope you can fit one into your yard! Black Twinberry (Lonicera involucrata) is a fast-growing deciduous shrub that grows to about 9’. In the sun, it grows full and fat; in mostly shade, taller and lanky. It thrives in moist to […]

Can we take anything for granted anymore? A couple weeks ago we were buried in ten inches of snow. After the apocalyptic winter of pestilence, politics and deadly riots, any degree of confidence that spring will come again strikes me as foolish; we should put that dangerous Sound-of-Music cliché out of its misery. The world […]

They say (whoever THEY are) that the chilling descent of rain and darkness upon the Pacific Northwest breeds creatures, nay, organisms, that defy explanation or categorization. We at Tadpole Haven, coupled with our eco-friendly practices, impose a strict discipline upon our plants — under which some simply snap. Ugly, sometimes gruesome, some belonging to the […]