66 Square Feet (Plus)

The lablab beans are looking very good. Lablab purpureus , beautiful and edible.  And yesterday evening, after six, we were treated to fifte...

Funny that it takes a whole growing season for things to fill out this much. The moonflower vines are rampant, the African basil is a forest...

The edges of the terrace, with the dignified and aging skylights of Arrow Linen beyond.  African blue basil is a seedless basil hybrid that ...

The moonflowers began opening in earnest the day Don died. The night of the day. But, in South African time, the morning after the night of ...

Very, very late summer and the tall things are bending in the breeze. The South African milkweed and the fennel are irresistible to pollinat...

Mugwort-raspberry hooch, cut with cold tonic water and piled with ice. In a pretty glass given to me by a Frenchwoman.  I have cut back the ...

6.37pm. The first moonflower opened on our terrace. It will be a few days before the rest of the buds catch up. But the harbinger is beautif...

  Our evening suppers are now netted, which is normal for summer. Usually, it's for tiny flying insects (smaller than fruit flies, but w...

I made a gardening mistake, this year. Enthused by the success of the African basil last summer, and the endlessly interesting pollinator sh...

Summer flowers, wild and weedy, aromatic and opportunistic. Knapweed, Queen Anne's lace, white sweet clover and mugwort are feral filler...

When local greenmarkets spill over with produce it's hard not to be vegetarian. Corn is ritually peeled of its outer husks, the tender s...

  Hot days, hot nights, heat advisories. Turning on the oven seems insane, so if we're not eating cool and cold food, we're cooking ...

The last week of June has resembled the first week of August. Daytime temperatures of 100 degrees. Watering the terrace two, and sometimes t...

It is all very green, where lately it had been brown. Lately is months ago. Lately was March and April, the tentative days of spring. But ti...

The little garden is very green, a small echo of the park and wild spaces nearby. There has been a lot of rain. In the pots perennials are g...

On Monday I bought pink peonies in tight bud. $15 for three stems. Around the corner they are $20, and fully blown. Walking an extra 10 minu...

I rediscovered a bottle of black currant (cassis, in French) syrup living in the back of the fridge. I made it in that briefest of black cur...

Evenings have moved outdoors, again, and if we are very lucky, Pirelli joins us.  Beyond the terrace the horse chestnuts are in bloom, and a...