by Susan Yoder Ackerman | Jun 17, 2013 | -Miracles in the Garden with Susan Yoder Ackerman
Out for an evening walk in my neighborhood, I came upon a young woman tending her plants inside a small fenced enclosure to protect it from deer and rabbits. I soon learned that it was her very first garden, her very first flat of plants, and her very first time to...
by Susan Yoder Ackerman | Jun 10, 2013 | -Miracles in the Garden with Susan Yoder Ackerman
When I was a toddler, my mother had to appeal to the birds to get me dressed. In an effort to make me stick a contrary arm through the sleeve of my undershirt, she would sing out, “Listen to the bird! It’s saying “Shirt-y on-y, Shirt-y on-y!” I listened, my...
by Susan Yoder Ackerman | Jun 3, 2013 | -Miracles in the Garden with Susan Yoder Ackerman
There is one pair of gardening gloves that will get way more use in the future around this place, and not just for trimming sticker-y rose bushes and blackberry brambles. Those long protective gloves will be pulled out and put on for pretty much everything that...
by Susan Yoder Ackerman | May 27, 2013 | -Miracles in the Garden with Susan Yoder Ackerman
There must be a hint of the butterfly in me, because beautiful flowers make my mouth water. Today I stuck my nose in every iris I came to, to see if that color smelled as much like bubble gum as the deep blue ones my mother used to grow. While I didn’t actually eat...
by Susan Yoder Ackerman | May 20, 2013 | -Miracles in the Garden with Susan Yoder Ackerman
I am stirring chopped kale in a frying pan with hot olive oil and garlic. As I stir, I am saying, “Thank you thank you thank you,” to the rows of vegetables growing in the shared garden at Lisa’s. And I’m also thanking Lisa for sacrificing some of her flower-growing...
by Susan Yoder Ackerman | May 14, 2013 | -Miracles in the Garden with Susan Yoder Ackerman
Everybody knows Lisa is the real thing when it comes to plants, and maybe that’s why she has Solomon’s Seal in her shade garden and I just have False Solomon’s Seal in mine. Her flowers are beautiful, it’s true. (See photo in her recent blog.) But I love my False...
by Susan Yoder Ackerman | May 6, 2013 | -Miracles in the Garden with Susan Yoder Ackerman
Early in the morning I awoke to the sound of rain drumming on the tin roof. It sounded heavenly. I snuggled deeper into my toasty down comforter and thought about the thousands of delicate baby sunflowers and celosia we had just planted, and how their dry toes would...
by Susan Yoder Ackerman | Apr 29, 2013 | -Miracles in the Garden with Susan Yoder Ackerman
Spring arrived over a month ago, but somebody did not get the memo. This morning I walked outside with my coffee and found I needed my signature fingerless gloves even with the warmth of the mug. By the way, these are great for casual gardening, you know, for those...
by Susan Yoder Ackerman | Apr 22, 2013 | -Miracles in the Garden with Susan Yoder Ackerman
Before the sun is barely up tomorrow morning, Bobo, Carin, and I will be moving trays and flats of baby sunflowers and zinnias from Lisa’s workshop to the beds where each little soil-blocked root cube can tuck in and begin to grow. It will be a day in which to be...
by Susan Yoder Ackerman | Apr 22, 2013 | -Miracles in the Garden with Susan Yoder Ackerman
I’m walking on a mulched path and suddenly it crinkles and crackles. A mole is apparently slithering through just under the surface, raising the roof of his tunnel and making me think of my mother. She would have been at him with a shovel. Or at the very least a hose...