The new issue of Garden Design magazine is so highly, gloriously visual that it’s almost fragrant. Its 132 pages join horticulture with the human-made, crisscrossing the U.S. (with jaunts over to Canada, the U.K. and Lake Como) for backyard glamour and expert advice, species spotlights...
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Chantal turn down champagne,” Ryan said in our kitchen a few days ago. We had a guest in town from DC, and let’s just say…the flutes were flying. The ongoing “sparkling wine as an everyday drink” is a...
We're big believers in rock gardens. Why? For one, that's where we try to contain our mint -- which grows and grows and grows...
Today's summer drink, a beer cocktail, might be our simplest. As much as I love our lush porters during the fall, come July, light, dry, refreshing lagers are my garden companion. Sometimes it’s the only thing that makes all this yard work not feel so much like work. My pick secret shame weakness?...
Welcome to Part Two of our Summer Cocktail Week, the series in which we ply you, gentle garden reader, with drinks for the warm weather. The classic Dark and Stormy cocktail is one of our favorites this time of year, even if the name doesn’t square...
Is there anything more summer-ific (if that’s a word) than biting into an outrageously juicy peach? Or finding a plum the color of a backlit amethyst? Stone fruits are synonymous with long hot days and jacket-optional nights. Lately we’ve been eating nectarines, peaches and plums by the...
Over the past several weeks, Chantal and I have been operating the Horticult from opposite coasts. This year I performed my annual training for the Naval Reserves in Charleston, South Carolina — a.k.a. Lowcountry, a.k.a. the Holy City, a.k.a. Chas — a complete shift from...
Hi — hello — we’ve missed you! Can you believe we’re already halfway into July? Ryan and I have been scarce, posting-wise, due to travel: back-to-back trips that have that thrown us into somewhat of a bicoastal tizzy. First there was Charleston. Then, a few days...
Growing up, I experienced occasional bouts of Girl Scout envy. Friends would come back from their camping trips — talking about fireside ghosts and tree-branch MacGyvering — and I, the non-Girl Scout, would feel like the squarest peg in town. Maybe that’s why I’m obsessed with...
One half of the Horticult is traipsing around Charleston, SC, this week, taking in lots of Queen Anne architecture and eating his weight in oysters. Ryan’s also getting his fill of the South’s iconic summer bloomer: the crepe myrtle. Sculptural branches, sizzling autumn leaves, and bark...
