Horticulture

RIBWORT PLANTAIN

I KNEW OF A HIDDEN POND that I figured would be full of fish, so one day I loaded up my car with fishing gear and set out. There was no path to this pond, and you couldn’t see it from the road. You had to know it was there to know it was there. Getting to it involved brushing my way through tall stands of rushes and cattails.

Soon enough I was flinging a colorful plug out into the deep part of the pond, hoping to hook a large-mouthed bass, when a sharp pain hit the little finger on my left hand. A bee had found my pinkie and as I squeezed the fishing rod’s handle, it stung me.

Almost immediately I felt a hot streak zinging up my left arm. It began to itch

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Horticulture

Horticulture4 min read
Films With Flowers
SOMETIMES THE SETTING in a tv show or movie is such a prominent part of the story that it almost becomes another character. Examples include coastal Cornwall in the BBC series Poldark and the Rocky Mountains in Robin Wright’s movie Land. Sometimes ev
Horticulture6 min read
The Right Start
WHEN I STARTED my first vegetable garden more than 30 years ago, I puzzled over whether to direct sow my seeds in the soil or start them indoors on a windowsill. “Or maybe I should just buy a bunch of seedlings from a local garden center and plant th
Horticulture5 min read
Ancient Silphium (possibly)
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO recently reported that the Vatican has opened a public exhibition called “Life and Death in the Rome of the Caesars” that features a Vatican Necropolis, a Roman burial ground located a few feet beneath St. Peter’s Basilica in Ro

Related