The best laugh I enjoyed of Spring Break was when I couldn’t get a group of teens and tweens to stop washing the library tables. …
“When they’re black and shiny, they’re edible. It’s a mild flavor, but something you could survive on.” I am discriminating in my choice of which…
Around the same time I was planning this summer’s family vacation, Nature to You launched a library program titled “Portable Plants”. I wondered: What if…
My cat Picacho (named for the Peak, near where he found his way into my life) used to beg for carrot tops. And spinach. Broccoli…
I was talking to little lettuce plants on a comfortable Saturday morning in my backyard. I had made a couple trips back and forth from…
On a Wednesday night in October, I packed boxes bursting with plants, a bucket rattling with shovels, bags of heavy potting soil, and an assortment…
Photos by Anna Van Devender unless otherwise stated. Escaping the Southern Arizona heat in June is a Van Devender family tradition. Driving to Yellowstone in…
In the five seasons of our Sonoran Desert, the main times for rain are winter and Monsoon summer. April (end of spring), and the first…
Plenty of things about Disneyland make me happy: the thrilling rides, the delicious food, the artistic details at every turn, my 9-year-old’s joy while hugging…
Ask the sunflowers. Among three different Tucson-area locations I tend, sunflowers are sprouting this spring in: pots and raised beds where my son and I…