Amy Stewart

"A tree," states Jeff Gillman in his new book, How Trees Die: The Past, Present, and Future of Our Forests, "can be briefly defined as a tall plant with a woody stem which survives for more than a single year." But a tree is so much more than that. In this slim and personable exploration […]

Thanks to a confluence of weird and wonderful scheduling issues — an already-planned vacation with some friends combined with a couple things my publisher wanted me to do — I have ended up in Manhattan for three glorious weeks. I’m here by myself for the first week, and with my publisher-related duties out of the […]

For the last month I’ve been on a book tour. Book tours consist of long periods of time away from home that are mostly spent wandering around in airports, reading incomprehensible driving directions while missing exits and finding creative ways to run your bar tab through the expense report as a bridge toll or a […]

The Humboldt Botanical Gardens Foundation has brought the garden tour back this summer, and I’m glad to see it return after taking a hiatus last year. There are other changes afoot for the organization, but more about that in a minute. First, the gardens. The focus this year is on Eureka and Bayside, with 13 […]

I was in Minneapolis last week hanging out with gardeners and horticulturalists from the university. I learned several things about the brave souls who garden in this land of ice and snow: First, they all want to grow rhododendrons. Go figure! Do you have any idea what it takes to get a rhododendron through a […]

A couple of years ago I took a research trip to Logan, Utah to visit the USDA’s Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory. From the photographs on their website, I was expecting a sort of horticultural X-Files experience: something very high-tech and state-of-the-art, but also mysterious, subversive and possibly dangerous. And in fact, that’s exactly what I […]

In case you haven’t been to a feed store lately, I’ve got news for you: It’s chicken season. Every feed store in town has a little wire cage rigged up with heat lamps, and under those heat lamps are — nothing. Nothing. We are in an oversold situation with regard to baby chicks this spring. […]

I did not enter the Journal’s "99 Words or Less" short fiction contest. Not only do I write for the Journal, but I’m married to one of the judges, which surely disqualifies me. But in the spirit of the thing, I submit to you my own short works of horticultural fiction. This year’s deadline has […]

I spent the weekend rigging extension cords, timers and power strips through the rafters in my attic so that I could get my indoor growing operation set up. And no, this was not your typical ambitious Humboldt County indoor grow. No blowers, no tanks, no generators. Just enough equipment to get some flowers going ahead […]

On most days, the only way I get through my life is by reminding myself that it’s okay to have very relaxed standards about pretty much everything. The whole house needs to be vacuumed, but it’s not as if Good Housekeeping is coming over to do an inspection later this afternoon, and besides, nobody ever […]