Guest Editorial : Giving Up the Garden, by Carleen Madigan Perkins, Storey Publishing : Terrain.org

• At a recent gardening conference, I met William Cullina, the head propagator for the New England Wild Flower Society and the author of several books about gardening with native plants. When I told him about my situation, he said, “I know what you mean. I felt the same way when my wife and I moved into our house—it didn’t seem like there was much I could do to improve on what was already there. So, I don’t really garden much. I just prune and weed selectively, and try to help the plants that are already established grow better.”

  And maybe, in my own yard, that’s really the best I can do.