The Ungardener keeps her eye on the prize as she gamifies the most mundane of tasks

After teasing us since January, we can reliably feel Spring’s energy rising from the roots to the tips of branches.

As many readers of this column know, I have been working in the woods, fields and marshes on my property for about a dozen years, eliminating invasive plants and encouraging native species to grow.

I have been thinking about borders, those of the garden variety. The word can connote both a barrier, such as a border with the neighbors, and a gateway, as with a border along a path, or with an entrance into the woods.

In late October I received from a few friends and social media acquaintances a link to a BBC article about Japanese knotweed and the near impossibility of ridding it in the United Kingdom, where the herbicides we rely on here to help control knotweed cannot legally be purchased.

The lingering warm weather earlier this month had brought the garlic mustards back to life and I was happy for the opportunity to get ahead of what is usually one of my first spring chores: pulling them out with that long white taproot intact.

While garden work is winding down, it is high ungardening season and those of us working in the woodland and meadow are busy with a myriad of tasks. I had a conversation with Cornwall Garden Club comrade Heidi Cunnick, who is a PhD of environmental science, to compare notes on our fall ungardening work and talk about our ‘to do’ lists for the next few weeks.

I had put off writing about my number one issue these days — the drought — hoping that between writing and publishing it would rain. And rain it has; a most beautiful two days of showers.

If, as is said, one can’t see the forest for the trees, might it also sometimes be true that one can’t see the trees for the forest?

If, as is said, one can’t see the forest for the trees, might it also sometimes be true that one can’t see the trees for the forest?

Here’s a question: If one gardens, is one, by default, a gardener?

I’ve had the privilege of working with landscape architects and garden designers inventing surroundings that encourage nature to create a planned paradise.

At least where I am situated, in Litchfield County on the shores of the Housatonic River, it looks like there were two hatches of spongy moth caterpillars.

“Barberrians at the Gate!” declared Fred Balling as a group of 30 fellow Cornwallians, some gloved and armed with bypass loppers, met in front of a residential property to learn about the methods to identify and remove Berberis Thunbergii, or invasive barberry.