Category Archives: Gardens

Archive Garden Potager

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Francois Lachance

Louise Glück opens her forward to Green Squall by Jay Hopler with the following observation: Before poetry began pitching its tents in the library and museum, before, that is, mediated experience supplanted what came to seem the naive fantasy of … Continue reading →

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Meet the Wort Family

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Francois Lachance

Anna Pavord in the preface to the Herbology section of Harry Potter – A History of Magic: The Book of the Exhibition (At the British Library) waxes eloquently on plant names and the very special magic contained in etymology. She … Continue reading →

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Propagation

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Francois Lachance

Some history and some speculation… The saga of Jefferson and his favorite herb, tarragon, is a typically exasperating story of failure and futility. Jefferson likely encountered tarragon, or estragon, while in Paris as minister to France. After returning home in … Continue reading →

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how sweetly flows that liquefaction

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Francois Lachance

Michael Lavers from The Burden of Humans in New Ohio Review https://www.ohio.edu/nor/a/content/pdfs/lavers.pdf The frost tattoos its sermon on the rose, but in a language only you can read; Calls to mind poems by Lorna Crozier in The Garden Going On … Continue reading →

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Not Zen

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Francois Lachance

Patrick Lima. The Art of Perennial Gardening: Creative Ways with Hardy Flowers. There may be some folks of a more Zen cast who come to gardening with a built-in appreciation for leaves. I admire the austerity and clean lines of … Continue reading →

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Step Out into the Abyss

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Francois Lachance

The first chapter is suitably entitled “Approach” for this phenomenologically-informed discourse. Every approach needs to presume upon its reception. And, so, in beginning we never fear that we shall be wholly misunderstood, we trust that our hesitancy, our stumbling talk, … Continue reading →

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Hotbed

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Francois Lachance

The elaborate layering exploited the heat generated by the composting. Ingenious. As the weather warmed up and we moved toward summer, the main crops were planted — corn, beans, melons, and peanuts. Sweet potato plants were ready for pulling from … Continue reading →

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Nexus: between seed and fruit

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Francois Lachance

“Take back the fruit: public space and community activism” is about the “Fallen Fruit” project in Los Angeles. The description of the project leads to a question: But who is the public? This question is at the core of Fallen … Continue reading →

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Hibiscus syriacus

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Francois Lachance

from James Schuyler “Sonnet” in The Home Book while the trees lean in folds and the rose of Sharon blooms and blooms at each twig and branch tip like a toy tree the lines themselves carry over like the overburdened … Continue reading →

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Notes on Slave Gardens

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Francois Lachance

Zones… Scholars have long understood that the slave plantation system was the model and motor for the carbon-greedy machine-based factory system that is often cited as an inflection point for the Anthropocene. Nurtured in even the harshest circumstances, slave gardens … Continue reading →

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