Bolean Gardens

16/06/2025

The only good thing I read on the internet today:

07/06/2025

Oh, happy Blister beetles. How we love thee, so long as we don't touch thee.

25/01/2025

I've read about thirty or forty books about pruning in my life so far, and I expect to read several more before I myself am pruned, dumped on a compost heap somewhere, and slowly converted into plant food by various species of macro and microorganisms.

If you have read one or two (or forty) books about pruning, you will have noticed that every book recommends that you begin by pruning out the dead wood. The books will tell you that the dead wood serves no beneficial purpose, and that dead wood is an entry point for disease and potential insect attack.

However, reality tells us a very different story, and I would argue that dead wood in a tree serves many beneficial purposes. I am fairly certain that the sixty-two Cedar Waxwings perched on the dead branches of the Cottonwood tree in the accompanying photograph would agree with me.

Most of the branches of this Cottonwood are alive and healthy, but quite a few are dead. And it is interesting that the Waxwings, who have been flocking around here for the last few weeks while they slowly devour this winter's abundance of Juniper and Mountain Ash berries, invariably choose to perch on the dead branches.

I can't tell you why they choose to do this. They are a tight-lipped lot, clannish and aloof, and refuse to answer my questions no matter how politely I phrase them.

Regardless, I expect to find dozens of young Juniper and Mountain Ash seedlings underneath the dead branches of the Cottonwood this coming summer, and that suggests to me that there are at least two good reasons for not pruning the dead branches. There are probably many more.

24/12/2024

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. Especially to this pocket gopher. Goodnight, pocket gopher.

05/10/2024

What's blooming in your garden today? We've got Fall Crocus, wild strawberries, and a geranium not yet dead from the frost. Fall is indeed a magical time of year, eh?

30/09/2024

Minus one this morning. Yesterday was a blur of picking, chopping, and preserving. Not a bad haul for a couple of hicks up in the mountains, eh?

25/08/2024

We can't grow redwoods in Falkland (Lord knows we've tried), but we can learn about them. Here's another clip from one of my favourite American tree people:

17/08/2024

We are pleased to introduce Hummus, the newest addition to the menagerie at Bolean Gardens.

Hummus is a peafowl, born last night at 9:12 pm, weighing 66 grams, s*x unknown and completely irrelevant.

Welcome to the world, Hummus. Live long, and prosper.

16/08/2024

Just in case you didn't get enough cuteness in your life today - and on the off chance that you've been overloaded with gardening posts - this is one of our chickens. Her name is Opal, daughter of Carmen Marans. We don't know exactly who her father was, but we're pretty sure he was a handsome young Lavender Orpington named Merideth.

We thought Merideth was a girl for the longest time, gave him a girl's name and everything, but he turned out to be a boy. C'est la vie.

Opal, and her ancestors and descendants, provide eggs, meat, pest control, and fertility to our gardens. They improve the tilth, nutrient and moisture-holding capacity, and productivity of our sandy, rocky, terrible soil.

That being said, we have about 40 recently hatched chicks who will need names soon. If you've still reading this, feel free to comment with your favourite chicken names. Merci beaucoup.

10/08/2024

Today's bounty: fresh cut flowers, strawberries, and the first tomatoes of the year.

04/08/2024

Came across this gem of a post this morning:

Let’s talk about one of my favorite topics: “Failure Tolerance”
Y'all, we have GOT TO STOP beating ourselves up when we fail. It's not helpful in any way.

One of my top goals for this space is to NORMALIZE FAILURE.

I used to get so upset when I failed. 
I would make it mean all sorts of terrible things about myself…

“You’re so stupid”
“How could you have done that?”
“What were you thinking?”
“Other people wouldn't do that”

None of these self-deprecating thoughts were helpful. They just made me feel even more stressed and upset.

But I learned a better way…

I learned to embrace the reality of failure.
I learned to remove emotions from failure. 
I learned to see failure as neutral feedback.
I also learned to EXPECT failure. Here’s an example:

From past experience, I know that about ¼ to ⅓ of my plants will get eaten, destroyed by weather, succumb to pests or disease… the list goes on. There are a million ways plants can die 🤣 😳

Using this factual information, I work this into my planting plan now. I EXPECT that I will lose ⅓ of my plants, so I over plant by ⅓. 

If nothing goes wrong (which has never happened! Ha! Things always go wrong!) I will find myself with an overabundance of flowers, which is a delight.

But if (WHEN!) something goes wrong, I have a “back up plan”. 

All this to say:

Normalize failure

Expect failure

Neutralize failure

Plan for failure. 

I firmly believe that INCREASING OUR FAILURE TOLERANCE is the path to peace of mind and success.

03/08/2024

Wasps: some of the most beneficial creatures in the garden.