Of the hundreds of times I’ve done this, 95 percent of the time the answer is a worm. It’s the ones that choose slugs that I find most compelling. They get a second question.

Emmylou Harris, one of folk’s greatest purveyors, achieved that goal in spades with “Red Dirt Girl.” In this poignantly tragic song, Harris tells the story of someone who otherwise would ...

I used a three-prong fork to dig under the bulb to loosen the soil. Then I gently pulled it out and shook off the dirt. In the past I haven’t been as good at removing all the dirt.