Does anyone remember Henry Mitchell? He wrote a gardening column ("Earthman") for the Washington Post for many years (he passed away in 1993, while dividing iris, as I recall) that I discovered by accident when we were in DC for several weeks in 1983. Crusty old dude, very opinionated and ultimately totally charming. He wrote The Essential Earthman, which I've given to many of my gardening friends. I wonder if it's still in print? His focus was primarily ornamentals though he did dabble in vegetables from time to time. From him I learned to be less timid--you don't like that plant? Tear it out and replace it with something you do like. That silver maple blocking all the sun from your garden? Cut it down (he hated silver maples). And he had very strong opinions about roses.
I think I'll look for my copy of the book and spend some quality time with it. We're in full gardening mode now--because of the virus we pay our gardener to stay safely at home, so we're on the hook for all the watering and pruning, sweeping up of leaves, etc. (We have no shortage of compost material.) And we planted vegetables for the first time in 10 years, in large heavy plastic troughs. I gardened for 29 years in Colorado, at 7200 feet, which made it very hard to get tomatoes to finish. Interestingly we now live at the same altitude in Pátzcuaro, but because we're much farther south I don't have to worry about late and early freezes like I struggled with in Colorado. The rainy season is tricky--tomatoes planted out in the open turn black by mid-July after days of rain, and cloudy skies keep some things from maturing normally. But I don't care--I can do this year-round!
I've just signed up for the AWayToGarden newsletter, to get more inspiration now that we're doing our own gardening for as long as the virus, and our energy, lasts. And I'll look for her contributions in the Times.
