Murder She Wrote/On Weeds

Some might say I killed an oak not so long ago. I would say I just did a little weeding. And since I wasn't in my own garden, I couldn't help but think of Michael Pollan's grandfather who he mentioned in an essay called "Weeds Are Us" as the kind of gardener who would pull weeds anywhere, not just his own garden or someone else's, but in parking lots and storefront window boxes too". Truth be told I have revisited this essay quite a few times in recent years as I think there is much in it that's instructive about the many problems I see within the world of "environmentalism" and its faulty thinking, irrationality and its anti-science, knowledge and fact stances today. One hero to many naturalists and environmentalists he takes down a notch is Thoreau and his romanticism about nature. Some others he takes down a notch are radical environmentalists who assume "human culture is the problem, not the solution" to the challenges of the times. Though the time he wrote the essay was decades ago, the lessons in it still ring with some truth today and the "radicals" on the environmental scene are too many to count and unfortunately are all over the news.

Wasparazzi 📷

The Cicada Killer above I recognized right away, having first learned about it while working outside at Brooklyn Botanic as a hort intern.  The VIP with the hourglass shape below though that I was stalking like a wasparazzi? I thought perhaps some kind of paper wasp, but my attempts to identify it so far have fallen short.

You Know You are a Garden and Plant Geek When...

You know you are a freak for flowers when you find yourself seriously attempting to ID one on a tee-shirt for sale in a windowfront.

You know you have it bad when you are snapping pictures of sod for sale at Home Depot and find yourself wondering about how this turf is farmed for likely too much time one summer afternoon. Who does this? Not normal non-garden geeks, that's for sure.

If you are overly excited by just the sight of the design plans for a public garden you have just discovered and actually make a return visit to the display of the plans more than once to snap a picture, you may need counseling!

Unfortunately I can be of no help to you. I was too excited to see that the design of the garden I had just discovered at Hofstra was by Oehme van Sweden myself.

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic 🎶

Although technically the flower is a hermaphrodite with no magic wand, it does seem to have the power to put a spell on you as you walk on by.🎶

And isn't she pretty in pink?🎶

And in yellow and green? And in both bud and bloom?

Sweet Sweetbay Magnolia Median Garden

You know you are a serious garden and plant geek when you begin naming median gardens that you pass.

And you find that you have taken more than one picture of said median garden you have named. 

This median planting by a street entrance at Hofstra though is so lovely and lush and densely planted, it makes me curious about who designed it.