Insects leave (Madagascar periwinkle) Catharanthus roseus out of their diets. So, for that matter, do deer. The reason is that the plants are loaded with alkaloids so potent that they are the source of vincristine and vinblastine. These are drugs important in routines of chemotherapy for treating Hodgkin's disease and certain forms of leukemia.

Gardening transcends everything that otherwise divides us.

In a well-made garden every day is new.

When I need to be precise about a plant, I use its Latin name, even if my nongardening friends sometimes look at me a little funny for using big words in a dead language - or in the kind of horticultural Esperanto that botanical names make up.

Crabgrass is aptly descriptive of this hated weed, for it does scuttle quickly through a lawn.

Am I accurately reporting what I see in such a blossom? The answer is no ... and yes.

In addition to all its rich offerings to the body and its five senses, gardening engages the mind.