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I’ll be traveling to San Francisco this week to hug some palm trees and give a talk at the University of San Francisco to a group of students on the topic of Garden Literacy. The talk is open to the public so anyone is welcome to come by and hear me discuss writing about gardening online, my own evolution as a garden writer, and the effect Michael Pollan’s “Second Nature” and Lorraine Johnson’s “A Gardener’s Manifesto” have had in reexamining my relationship to nature as a city-dweller and the positive role I can play as a gardener. Phew. Believe it or not that all ties together in a progressive and logical way.

The talk and subsequent discussion is very much geared towards the the students’ curriculum and their own explorations in finding their voice and being creative online, but I hear rumors that there will be snacks and I will be bringing buttons. And really, that’s pretty much how I lure in my audiences these days. They come for the buttons, but they stay for the awesome power of my public speaking might. Or they fall asleep and snore in the back row. That has happened too.