I was picking over some disparate items in a box at auction when I spotted a round paddle board with wooden chickens on the top. It reminded me of the paddle ball toys I’d played…
Category: Gardening
I watched as two hefty men hauled the big black pot between them and sat it squat on the muddy ground in back of the auction house. As soon as I saw it, a very…
I was about to pass right by a large box of flower pots when I did a double take. I stopped to make sure my eyes were not fooling me. But there it was, hard compacted lifeless…
Antique farm plow for my garden
Posted in Gardening
It looked like a farm plow to me. This vintage-looking metal implement sitting there on top of a chest in a back room of one of my favorite auction houses. I was drawn to it because…
For some time, I had been searching for garden chairs for my backyard. I had three aluminum ones with yellow and brown plastic strips that I had dragged around as I moved from city to city. Now, it was…
As spring nudges, a look back at Victory Gardens
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Gardening, and Home
On my train trips into downtown Philadelphia, I would pass the remnants of a large community garden on a hill right near the tracks. Faded wooden structures, dead weeds, bald patches. It was wintertime and gardening…