This peach tree was nearly dead in an abandoned corner of the landscape. Peaches like more water and 'cool' feet than is available here in the high mountain desert. I revived this tree by adding deep mulch out past its drip line and planting a non-spreading variety of comfrey all around. Comfrey is one of the most amazing beneficial plants in the garden, it deserves an article, even a book of its own. In addition to herbal and medical properties comfrey is a powerful dynamic accumulator and mulch plant, it brings a variety of nutrients from deep in the ground and accumulates them on the surface in its leaves. The leaves break down quickly into rich black soil.

Shrubby St. John's wort early in blooming period. Location is in west central Maryland. Photo by Curtis Adams, July, 2015.
Photo of a rustic landscaping in DC Metro.

When Menges & Curtis Pharmacy opened during the height of the Industrial Revolution on Saratoga Springs’ main street, its druggists mixed tinctures and remedies to their own formulas, examined and treated patients and even applied leeches if it was deemed appropriate. By 2010, the family that had owned the Menges & Curtis for the past 50 years was struggling with the conventional pharmacist’s lot in modern life: handing out prepared medications for an increasingly lower insurance reimbursements, and trying to make up the difference by selling spa and personal care products. All the while, M&C’s traditional clientele was drifting away to chain drugstores, supermarkets and retailers such as Walmart stores, which were dispensing medications at low margins to lure shoppers into their aisles while they waited for their prescriptions. The owner restructured his business plan, selling his traditional pharmacy assets to a chain and creating a partnership with a “compounding shop” in Latham to go back to time-honored methods of creating personally formulated nutritional and vitamin supplements, hormone balancers and natural wellness herbal extracts for preventative health maintenance, chronic illnesses, veterinary and pediatric care. Now a new business with an old-school ethos, Fallon Wellness Pharmacy needed substantial renovations to its iconic storefront in the S.W. Ainsworth Building in Saratoga’s Broadway Historic District. The low ceilings made the space feel cramped, and storage was ineffective. The new partners called upon Old Saratoga Restorations to project manage a complete modernization of the space, adding graceful private consultation rooms and compounding labs to comply with health and safety codes, while respecting the integrity of the ornate High Victorian 1871 brick commercial block building.

You have probably heard of ‘ginkgo boloba’, the herbal supplement used for memory and clear mind. It comes from the Ginkgo tree, which is my favorite tree. If you’ve ever walked down a tree-lined street in downtown Manhattan, then you have seen ginkgo trees! Ginkgophyta is a very old species, fossils dating back 270 million years. Its leaves are often used in decor motif so I thought I’d put together a collection of ginkgo inspired art and decorative accents in varying budgets.