Even when it's winter and I'm not out in the garden much, I still think of my garden! Here are a few things I planned last winter : to sketch and plan new little corners for the garden, to move pot plants around, to rearrange all the succulents on the plant stands, to trim low-hanging branches of the trees to allow in more sunlight, start a compost heap again and maybe start a new rock garden. I just have to find a large, sunny spot.
Thunder rumbled its way into the distance, and then the rain came, dropping words to the ground all around me.
Step outside after the first storm after a dry spell and it invariably hits you: the sweet, fresh, powerfully evocative smell of fresh rain! If you’ve ever noticed this mysterious scent and wondered what’s responsible for it, you’re not alone. It's called “petrichor.” It’s the name of an oil that’s released from Earth into the air before rain begins to fall. This heady smell of oncoming wet weather is something most people are familiar with – in fact, some scientists now suggest that humans inherited an affection for the smell from ancestors who relied on rainy weather for their survival.
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