The June Peak!
Unless you really have money to burn, a new garden takes time to reach any kind of maturity. Even if you do have money to buy large-size pots of perennials, or have moved them from somewhere else, they...
View ArticleBakarsan Bağ Olur, Bakmazsan....
...Dağ Olur! So goes the Turkish saying about gardens: "If you look after it, it becomes a garden, if you don't look after it, it becomes a 'mountain.'"I tested the theory to its (almost) fullest this...
View ArticlePumpkin or Squash? (Or Marrow? Or Courgette? or Zucchini?) Cucurbitacious...
In web sites and other writing I constantly come across questions about whether something is a "squash or a pumpkin," or references to "true pumpkins" but with little useful information to back up the...
View ArticleCalifornia Dreamin' I: Passionate about Passifloras
One of the reasons for my lack of posts recently was that I was in California for a couple of weeks. Every time I go to the San Francisco Bay area I fall in love with it again. Well, at least with the...
View ArticleThis Year's Squash - Bu Yılın Kabakları
This will be mostly a photo entry to show what my squash are up to so far.Bu kayıt, bu yıl ektiğim değişik balkabağı cinslerinin ilerlemesini göstermek için çoğunlukla fotoğraftan ibaret olacak...The...
View ArticleSummer Flowers and Mold / Yaz Çiçekleri ve Küf
The main reason I haven't written much about flowers lately, besides my being a squash-obsessed lunatic, is because with all the rain, followed by the sudden heat and humidity, lots of things just...
View ArticleThe Beginning of Autumn / Sonbahar Geliyor
When I took off down the coast to Kuşadası and from there to Samos six days ago, it was definitely summer here, even if it was an Indian Summer. 80 degrees plus, humid, and everyone was asking when...
View ArticleAccount Hacked!
I'm really sorry to have to make a post like this one here, but my Google account was hacked, and everyone on it got a message supposedly from me, stranded in Cardiff, Wales, and asking for 2,800...
View ArticleCycling Liminalities - Eşiktelik Döngüsü
liminal adj.Of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition. In-between, transitional.Nothing like an extended absence to let you know people are reading! Thanks to everyone who...
View ArticleAntakya in April. Nisan'da Antakya
Yes I'm aware that it's not April, but I can explain, really!Once again you're probably given up on me. It's been a full summer; not so much an extremely busy one, but there have been lots of things...
View ArticleCappadocia / Kapadokya
After Antakya, my plan was to return to Istanbul making several stops in different areas along the way, and photograph the spring flora. But the night my friends and I arrived in Ürgüp, the main town...
View ArticleMay - Mayıs
Really expert gardeners, the ones who write books instead of blogs (though some of them write blogs too), stress the importance of a careful choice of plants to provide interest and harmony in the...
View ArticleA Moving Post - Hareketli bir Giriş
I do love the new instant YouTube link capability in Blogger!A couple years ago I did a post (Lost and Found II) about a plant that was a favorite in our family garden for years. But since half the fun...
View ArticleBahçehastası Gets a Macro! Bahçehastası, Macro Lensi Aldı!
I was back in the US for most of November, and because I don't do well with jet lag, I like to break it up. This means 5 days or so in New York (-7 hours from Istanbul), a visit to my mother in...
View ArticleArkansas
If you've followed this blog, you know Arkansas comes up from time to time. My mother moved there back in the late 1980s and has become a local wild plant expert. She also has become fascinated with...
View ArticleArkansas: Wild Persimmons / Yaban Hurması
The American South has lots of beautiful places and interesting plant life as well. Northern Arkansas might be on the edge of what's normally considered "The South" but there are plenty of things that...
View ArticleWinter Lights - Kış Işıkları
I'll be the first to admit that I don't spend lots of time out in the garden this time of year. We have some pleasant days but overall January in Istanbul is not much different from January in Seattle....
View ArticleAnother Winter Surprise - Bir Kış Sürprizi Daha
In late 1982, my mother moved from Iowa, where she had lived since 1960, to the small community of Fairfield Bay in northern Arkansas. She'd always loved gardens and plants but until moving to...
View ArticleSigns of Spring / Baharın Habercileri
Every place has its special signs of spring. Back in Iowa, it was the first robins, even though they don't all migrate. Here, it's the first swallows, returning from their winter vacations in Africa.In...
View ArticleA Post? What the Hell?
Yeah, it's been a long time. No need to go into details, but circumstances over the last year or so were not really conducive to gardening, much less blogging about it. I barely kept up with the flower...
View ArticleSnowdrops
These came up in my garden on their own, probably as seed. Originally one plant, they've become a nice little clump.
View ArticleI'm here, but here is not where it used to be. Buradayim fakat burası,...
If anyone has been checking in to my blog to see if there is anything new and wondering why there isn't (not that I haven't had lapses here and there), it's because I'm no longer living in Istanbul. It...
View ArticleCarpetblogger: Trump Trumped by Central Asian Dictator with Better Brand, Hair
Carpetblogger: Trump Trumped by Central Asian Dictator with Better Brand, Hair
View ArticleStarting Again - Yeniden Başlamak
We have to start somewhere!Well, let me start by being honest: Liminality can be a waste of time. We don't always get to choose what comes to us. We can choose how we deal with it, but even that can...
View ArticleSo, What Has Changed? -- Peki Ne Değişti?
Mountains near Niğde, Turkey As I've gotten back to gardening in Seattle, I've realized that just like we can have "culture shock" in a new country, the way we see plants and gardens can also be...
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