Spruce Pine Cottage

Recently we had to have all our porch and step railings replaced because they had rotted. It took months to get them rebuilt and painted. Now that all the work is done, I wanted to show you some “after” pictures and tell you a little about how I became...

One day a long time ago when I was still living in Atlanta, I was driving in the country, on my way up to the mountains, when I passed an old wooden house surrounded by dewy blue spiderworts (Tradescantia virginiana). The house was weathered and silvery...

Chasmanthium latifolium is known by many common names—river oats, wood oats, Indian wood oats, wild oats, northern sea oats, upland sea oats, inland sea oats, flathead oats, upland oats, broadleaf uniola—but to me the most apt and evocative of all its...

When I was growing up, my parents had a piedmont azalea that was queen of the side yard. From my earliest memory, it was sprawling and spready—utterly enormous. A grand thing. In spring it would be dressed in pale and shining raiment and surrounded by...