Links that may or may not be related to gardens, food, travel, nature, or heterotopias and liminal spaces but probably are. Sources in parentheses.
essay: To Make A Snow Angel On a Stranger’s Grave — And other things on my bucket list (Andrea Gibson/Things That Don’t Suck). Love this. “My bucket list of little things aims to live every moment as if it’s my first. To find the glory in what a seasoned eye might falsely consider mundane.”
photo essay: Color Highlights from the Hudson River Valley (Karen Chapman/Le Jardinet). Ideas for fall colour using annuals — coleus, zinnias, cosmos, nicotiana, celosia, begonias — and using brick.
article: The Eye-Opening Realm of Avian Sleep (Michael Caduto/The Outside Story/ Northern Woodlands). “In order to remain aware of and responsive to their environments, birds – and some marine mammals – engage in unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS), keeping one half of the brain and the associated eye active, while the other side sleeps.”
essay with photos: Plant Profile – Goldenrod (Cathy Weston, Goldenrod Garden, Cape Cod). Weston looks at wild goldenrods — Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) and rough-stemmed (S. rugosa) primarily, with a brief mention of gray goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis), zig-zag goldenrod (Solidao flexicaulis), and blue-stemmed goldenrod (Solidago caesia) — as well as some “better-behaved” nursery species: Seaside Goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens), Sweet Goldenrod (Solidago odora), Showy Goldenrod (Solidago speciosa), and S. ‘Fireworks.’
In my NH garden, I have both the goldenrods she has, though I call the rough-stemmed goldenrod common wrinkle-leaved goldenrod; plus early goldenrod (S. juncea), which starts blooming in July here, silverrod (S. bicolor), flat-topped goldenrod (Euthamia graminifolia, formerly S. graminifolia), and tall goldenrod (S. altissima). I may add the zig-zag species next year. Nearby I’ve also seen cut-leaf goldenrod (S. arguta) and giant goldenrod (S. gigantea). We commonly see northern seaside goldenrod at Rye Beach. If you want to attract a raft of varied pollinators through four or more seasons, goldenrods are one of the best buys for your garden.
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