The meadow garden has long captured the imagination of gardeners resisting the cultural hegemony of the lawn. The meadow stands as an appealing hybrid between the gaiety of the cottage garden and the primal power of the prairie. In an age of ecological gardening, its allure grows even stronger, and echoes of the meadow are […]

Off-the-grid joy draws visitors to western Maine. Mountains rose on his canvas, while crickets chorused instead of car horns. From the cabin on the ridge, Tim D’Agostino turned his easels to face the mountains: Baldpate, Old Speck, Whitecap. He’d paint all day, sometimes break for a hike, and at night he read Moby Dick by […]

Watching your kid sweat over college applications? Wondering which college is the best fit for your child and how to help them make that happen? We asked dozens of admissions officers to reveal the truth about admissions today. Here is what some of them they told us:  (Responses are edited for length): Martha Blevins Allman, […]

It’s easier than you think, no matter how you slice it. We all seem to have that single guilty pleasure when it comes to a particular food. You know . . . that food you can’t imagine living without. The one, when it’s in front of you, that speaks your language and you know exactly […]

The butterfly is universally loved, but its close cousin, the moth, is not. You don’t find grade-schoolers knocking on the Halloween door costumed as a moth. Schoolyards are not planted with moth pollinator gardens. One doesn’t ask for moth coloring books.To the extent that gardeners notice moths, it’s the moth species that are pests, which […]

Late August, and chances are that any vegetable that will produce is doing just that right now. It’s been a hot, dry summer, so some vegetables may be showing significant signs of stress. My tomatoes are tiny, compared with how they usually look each summer at this time. So, too, are the blackberries. Although these […]

As I’ve reflected on our summer months, the fun moments and the misses, I’ve noticed that the money we spent on activities skyrocketed – paddle-boarding has become a family obsession – and the amount we spent on food plummeted. Perhaps we ate out less frequently or loaded up on more vegetables and not as much […]