Hydrangeas Love Water

Hydrangea 'Mothlight'

Yesterday the Toronto gardeners and sisters Helen and Sarah Battersby, reminded me that hydrangeas like a lot of water.  ”Hydra” is right there in its name so it shouldn’t be too hard to remember.  Fortunately, my ‘Mothlight’ hydrangea purchased a number of years ago from Nasami Farm (before it belonged to the New England Wildflower Society )  was planted where I do some watering. The bush itself got much bigger than I expected!

'Mothlight' blossom

I bought ‘Mothlight’ because I like the airiness of the blossom. I am not sure that it qualifies as as a lacecap, but the flower does not have the density of the mopheads.

Oakleaf hydrangea 6-30

Last summer I bought the native oakleaf hydrangea (shown above) from Nasami Farm. It is still hardly more than a foot tall, but you can see it beginning to blossom. I later bought a ‘Limelight’ hydrangea from Shelburne Farm and Garden. Their purchase, and planting behind the peonies was part of my lawn eradication project.  I expect both of these bushes to reach substantial size, not only tall, but more importantly for my purposes, they will have a wide spread.  My plan is that ultimately the hydrangeas will nearly fill the space between the peonies and the road.  Last summer was very rainy and even if I had been thinking about how thirsty hydrangeas are I wouldn’t have needed to water them.  However they are planted in a spot that drains very well and is quite dry.  This spring I added a ‘Pinky Winky’.  Water is essential for good bloom  I  will water all three well today.

Gardens Are More Than Plants

Kousa Dogwood - Bonifaz garden

It takes more than plants to make a garden. First, it takes time.

Deirdre Bonifaz  and her husband Cristobal moved to Conway in 1985. For Deirdre it was a return to a part of the world she knew as a youngster. In the 1950s her father had moved the family from New York to a West Whately farm, to be closer to the soil and the essentials of life. ‘He was a man ahead of his time,” Deirdre said thinking of all the back to the landers who would  come to this area a decade and more later.

After graduating from high school she went off to college – and continued traveling  after her marriage to Cristobal.  Her husband’s work as a lawyer took him to many exotic places; her first child was born in Ethiopia.

By the time she and her husband bought their old house in Conway she had satisfied all her wanderlust. The house had been built by an apothecary in the 18^th century, but had other owners including a farmer who built a large dairy barn behind the house. The barn was in serious disrepair and in spite of their heroic efforts to restore it the barn came down in 1995.

The gardens became more expansive at that difficult time for Bonifaz. At the same time they were taking down the barn, her mother was dying.  When the last of the barn debris was taken away she was left with the stone barn foundation. Here she planned a Walled Garden and dedicated it to the memory of her mother.

The second thing a garden needs is love.  Over the years, as the gardens grew, other memorial plantings were added. Bonifaz’s garden is a living testament to the love for family. The most notable is the Walled Garden with its magnificent roses.

Nina Newington, a skilled and knowledgeable gardener with a specialty in roses, was still living in our area in the 90s. She worked with Bonifaz to plant hardy antique roses in the protection of the barn foundation walls. Newington liked the roses from Pickering Nursery in Canada because they were so sturdy.  There was never any trouble ordering and having the roses cross the border.

I know that William Baffin is a vigorous climber, but I have never seen anything like the exuberant growth of the one in this garden. “Nina had me put up a support to hold it because she knew it would be needed,” Bonifaz said.  The support is made of sturdy timbers about six feet tall in a kind of pergola that hold the rose bush that climbs over the foundation wall to a height of at least ten feet.

When I asked her how she cared for the roses to get such vigor and growth she said, “I don’t fertilize except to put three or four shovelfuls of good compost around the base of each rose in the fall. In the spring I spread it around the bush.”  She then allowed as how she did fertilize The Fairy during the summer, but not the other roses.

Other roses in the Walled Garden include Madame Alfred Carriere, a large white climber, Madame Hardy another white with a beautiful green button ‘eye’,  the pale pink New Dawn climber and Goldfinch, all white and gold.

A third element necessary for a beautiful garden is variety, which Bonifaz and her husband have provided in their plantings of fruit trees, blooming trees, shrubs, perennials, and built structures.

Bonifaz says she spends a lot of time on the beautifully laid brick patio at the end of the new barn/garage that houses her husband’s legal office. There, surrounded by lilacs, Salvia ‘May Night’, irises, lady’s mantle and other perennials she, her husband, and guests can enjoy meals and talk.

I was taken with the pergola supporting more roses, and the new rustic supports for tomato plants.

Herb Garden

Perhaps thinking of the apothecary who built the house, and all apothecaries who used medicinal plants, Bonifaz has planted a small fenced herb garden laid out with geometric beds that is as useful as it is beautiful. “I was inspired by a medieval garden I saw,” she said.

The Bonifaz garden is just one of the gardens that will inspire visitors on the 22^nd Annual Franklin Land Trust Farm and Garden tour on Saturday and Sunday, June 26 and 27. The event will include six private gardens, five unique farms, two studios, one of which is a fascinating woodworking studio, and the Boyden One Room Schoolhouse in Conway.   The event runs from 10:00 to 4:00 each day.  This year the tour centers on Conway and West Whately. For full information about tickets logon to www.franklinlandtrust.org or call Linda Alvord at (413) 625-9151 or email lalvord@franklinlandtrust.org.

Tomato supports

Between the Rows  June 19, 2010

No Rain at the Annual Rose Viewing

The Rose Walk

The sky was gray and a few guests came early to the Rose Viewing, hoping to beat the rain, but blue skies arrived, as well as muggy temperatures, and more guests. It is always a pleasure to show people around the garden myself, but visitors can also go around with a rose list and map that my husband makes. Since I look on the Rose Viewing as a quasi-educational event I am always pleased to see people making notes on their rose list. I am also happy to be able to recommend nurseries like the Antique Rose Emporium in Texas which sends container grown roses through the mail in the spring. The advantage to container grown roses is that if the weather is bad, sleety, frosty or even too darn hot, the container plants can be kept watered and happy until they can be put safely in the ground.

Red Meidiland rose

There was a lot of discussion about whether the roses were all early, but after the spell of high temperatures that send the roses rushing into bloom, it got turned cold again. Another fire in the woodstove. It stayed cool and most of the roses relaxed, content with their more normal bloom times.  Remember our house and garden are more than 1600 feet above sea level and that means that nights are cool through most of the summer. One rose that is blooming early is this red Meidiland landscape rose that came as a sample from the hybridizer more than 15 years ago.  Usually it has only a few blossoms to show at the Rose Viewing which is always the last Sunday in June.  It has survived nicely, as has the White Meidiland next to it, but our weather is severe enough that it hasn’t attained the spread it is known for. You can image that this brilliant scarlet rose is quite a delightful shock when the other roses are in shades of pink and white.

In the Cottage Ornee

As delightful as it is to wander among the roses, enjoying all the fragrance, the day was hot, and it was equally delightful to sit down in the Cottage Ornee and visit. The Cottage quite magically seems to capture every wayward breeze, the lemonade was cold, the strawberries sweet, and the cookies delicious. If I do say so myself.  Then Sheila brought her handmade goat cheeses and Cheryl, pictured above with our neighbors the McCutchens, brought Strawberry Shortcake!

Rose Viewing Preview

Pink Grootendorst Rugosa

We are making the final preparations for the Annual Rose Viewing tomorrow afternoon. I haven’t finished dead heading, but here is a preview of some of the roses in bloom.

Ghislaine de Feligonde rambler

Fantin-Latour alba

Ispahan damask

Red Meidelland landscape rose

Madame Plantier alba

These roses and more will be awaiting admirers at the Annual Rose Viewing at the End of Knott Road in Heath, Sunday, June 27, 1-4 pm. Take some time to smell the roses.

Purington Roses

Purington Pink rose

Last year, about this time, I asked our wonderful Heath librarian Don Purington if the offer of a pink rose from his family farm still stood. Lucky for me it did. He not only introduced me to his mother Barbara, but my visit to Woodslawn Farm, also led to my meeting his sister Carol and a new friendship. Carol is a poet, a reader, and a great conversationalist.  She was struck by polio on her first day of school when she was six years old, and has spent the past 54 years in an iron lung.  Her survival is a testament to her medical care,  her own strength and stamina, the love of her large family, and the wisdom she has developed over the years. Carol and I have had jolly visits together, thoughtful and gay by turns – including a joyful celebration of her 60th birthday.

Though Carol’s friendship was the unexpected gift, Barbara gave me more than one rose.  Purington’s pink, pictured above is the rose that grows outside her kitchen window. It is about five feet tall and a substantial bush. Mine is till small, but it came through the winter and is fragrantly blooming on the new Rose Bank.

Purington Rambler

Also on the Rose Bank is the Purington Rambler which grows in a tangle on the stone wall outside Carol’s room. There it can tumble over the edge of the wall. On the Rose Bank it will sprawl and become a moundy tangle. It has taken hold magnificently.

I planted two other Purington roses on the Rose Walk.  Barbara said the yellow rose usually didn’t survive  transplanting, but I got really lucky and it has come through the winter.  It is too small to bloom and I am still trying to coddle it, but I have great hopes for next year.  The other rose is also pink, but not yet flowering.  Keep watching.

While I have used Carol’s poetry on Muse Day before, I cannot again mention Carol’s poetry, collected in several books including A Pattern in this Place: Words of a Pioneer Woman with illustrations by her sister-in-law Stephanie B. Purington, without giving at least a tiny sample. Carol specializes in haiku.

“I set my bucket

Beside  the spring,

Kneel to watch its surface flicker

With leaf-cut sunlight -

The peace of God enfolds me.

Ends and Starts

Ryan left for home with his father last night – but not before a final flurry of activity. He helped me move the chicks out of the brooding box and into a larger space. The henhouse has two sections, one for the laying hens, and the equally large ‘entry’ which we arrange so the chicks only have 2/3 of the space. It is so dark in the this area, with the brooding box still in place, that I couldn’t get a photo of the happy chicks – who are now beginning to fly. Ryan is holding a Barred Rock, but the Black Stars are very adventurous birds.

Pitcher plants

Ryan and I went searching for adventure and visited the Rowe bog where carniverous pitcher plants grow right next to the road.  I tried to identify this variety, and there are over 100, but have been unsuccessful so far. Any help you can give is welcome.  I never visited the bog when the flowers were in their glory, never realized they were so pretty, even if they are looking away from the road. The bulbous structure at the bottom is the carniverous part and is unlike photos I have found of other pitcher plants.  More research is required.

Ryan at Birch Glen Stables

The final adventure for Ryan this trip was a riding lesson at Birch Glen Stables. This wonderful place is ‘right around the corner’ from us and Joan Schoenhals is a patient and encouraging instructor. Riders begin at the beginning – with grooming the horse, and learning about the ‘tack’ which is to say the saddle and bridle and everything. Joan is attentive, and Ryan certainly is concentrating. We thought he had a good feel for handling the horse – and after only about 45 minutes actually on the horse!  This summer Ryan is the first grandson to visit, so he is the first one to have a lesson, but soon the other boys will arrive and we’ll see if they enjoy riding, too.

Thomas Affleck

Now that Ryan’s visit has ended, we start the final push before the Annual Rose Viewing. Last summer I planted Thomas Affleck at the end of the Herb Garden in front of the house because the description of the Antique Rose Emporium said they were fragrant and should be planted where that fragrance could be enjoyed often. The rose has done well and I didn’t even realize how many flowers and buds were on the bush until I cleared out the bolted spinach that I planted in front of it – knowing that the spinach would be out before the Rose Viewing. It looks great, but it isn’t fragrant. At least not this year – or so far. I find that the intensity of the fragrance for any rose varies from year to year.

My Hero, Griffith Buck

Applejack at the End of the Road 6-13

Dr. Griffith Buck (1915-1991) is my hero because when he was working at the Iowa State College after the Second World War he began hybidizing roses that were hardy and disease resistant. At that time (and still today) rose gardeners knew they had to spray and coddle their roses.  Buck was a man ahead of his time; nowadays many poison sprays for roses are being banned for environmental reasons and other hybridizers are working on disease resistant rose hybridgs.

Applejack

When he began hybridizing he ran into problems and called on Wilhelm Kordes, a famous German rose hybridizer for help and was soon on his way to developing a whole family of disease resistant roses. Applejack was perhaps his  first success.  I can attest to his hardiness, vigor and health here at the End of the Road. I planted other Buck hybrids in our early days here, but I think due to poor planting on my part, they died.

Hawkeye Belle

Last year I began planting Buck hybrids again.  Carefree Beauty is not yet blooming, but Hawkeye Belle, a pale pink, planted this spring has its first bloom.  I will post more photographs of my Buck roses as they come into bloom.

The earliest blooming roses in my garden are the rugosas – and they are naturally disease resistant.

Apart

Apart is one of my favorite roses, big and fragrant. It took a real beating the winter of the ice storm and is just now recovering, but it has sent out new shoots, right in the middle of Champlain, a Canadian Explorer rose, who has always struggled. I haven’t solved that problem yet.

Belle Poitvine

Belle Poitvine is similar to Apart, so of course, I love her, too.  You can clearly see the heavy ridged foliage that is typical of rugosas.

Mount Blanc

Just so you can see that not all my roses are pink. Mount Blanc is almost as double as Apart and equally favorite.  All the roses will be ready for admiration at the Annual Rose Viewing this Sunday.

Vermicompost Harvest – Not!

My worm composting bin 6-20

I have been waiting for dependably w arm weather to harvest my worm compost, vermicompost. Composting worms cannot survive when temperatures go below 50 degrees. The weather has been so unsettled this spring, first hot, then cold, and then hot again. Even when it has been very warm temperatures in Heath get cool, and the weatherman kept threatening 40 degree nighttime temperatures.  My basement, where the worms live for at least 8 months of the year is a steady 50 degrees. This is not optimum, but they survive.

We took the compost bin outside and dumped it onto a big piece of cardboard. There was none of the shredded newspaper that had been the original bedding of the bin, but some bits of rotted bread and fruit from the last feeding were visible.  We left it for an hour. The idea is that worms move away from the light and will migrate deep into the pile and you can skim off the vermicompost, then put the worms, which should have multiplied, back in the bin on fresh bedding.

Me and Henry and worms

We returned to the bin to actually begin the harvest. We found a few worms, but not many. We were perplexed. Then as we sifted through the compost, we  noticed  that it was full of tiny tiny worms. The babies were too tiny to get a good photo, but after passing around handfuls of compost to daughter Diane, grandson Ryan, and a friend who stopped by, we all agreed there were tiny wriggling worms in the compost. And very few big worms. However the big worms were in good enough shape to reproduce – lucky for us.

New bedding for worm bin

There was nothing to do except prepare the washed bin with fresh bedding made of newspaper strips soaked for three or four days.

Ryan and me

Ryan and I then put all the vermicompost, such as it was, and all the tiny tiny worms, and the few adults, back in the bin. The bin will remain outside on the north side of the house where it will not get too hot in the summer.  Worms can’t get too cold, but they can’t get too hot, over 90 degrees either.  My plan now is that I will do a harvest in the fall, before I have to bring the worms indoors. I will keep the vermicompost until next spring when I can use it on the earliest plantings.  We will see if these worms make it through another winter. I admit the only Heath person I know who had a thriving vermicompost bin kept it in the house – handy to the kitchen. I am not quite ready to do that.

Delights and Disasters

Ryan and The Major

With the Annual Rose Viewing only a week away, daughter Diane and her son Ryan came to help with preparations. There were big jobs like working with The Major to gett the tractor and wagon operational to fetch wood, and then be put out of the way. Ryan had to mow the lawns using the riding mower while Diane edged and weeded. And weeded.

While weeding we discovered that deer had eaten my beautiful Casa Blanca Lilies that won first prize at the Heath Fair last year. Every single leaf and bud. Too horrible a disaster to photograph.

Richard Willard at the Silver Daylily Nursery

I nipped into Greenfield to buy  some daylilies at the Silver Garden Daylilies from my friend Richard Willard. Beautiful big healthy plants!  The next time he will be open for business is on July 10.  The Daylily Festival is on July 17 which will include culinary treats prepared by Mary Ellen and Denise of Stockbridge Herb Farm.  When I got home Diane helped me plant Dream Date, Beauty Girl, Brookridge and Fairy Tale Pink on the Daylily Bank which looks better every day. This was a delight.

Charlemont Farmer's Market

On the way home from buying daylilies I stopped at the new Charlemont Farmer’s Market held at the Hawlemont School from 10 am to 2 pm. This market has just opened, but I not  only bought greens, radishes and snow peas and sugar snap peas from Pen and Plow Farm, I got some frozen lamb from Barberic Farm. We will eat well this weekend.

I also bought some broccoli and pumpkin plants at the Farmer’s Market. I wanted to try and experiment by planting seedlings in haybales.  Long ago I planted seedlings in cold compost beds made of autumn leaves pressed into wire frames. I’d make an indentation in the leaves, pour in about a quart of soil and the seedling.  Leaves are very porous so the plants did well, but they needed to be kept watered.  Planting in haybales in similar. I kept the twine around the haybales to hold them together, but managed to pull out enough hay to make planting holes for the seedlings.  I used enriched soil for the planting hole and watered everything well.  The theory is that the plants will gain all the nutrition they need from the rotting hay as the roots spread during the growing season. Next year the really rotten hay will make good mulch.  I have never done this before so we will see. It is fun to experiment.  Watering will again be essential. I’ve placed these bales against the south stone wall of The Sunken Garden.

Ryan preparing to dive

It was hot work, and everyone was devoted to duty, so as the Sunday afternoon temperatures climbed we all headed out to Mohawk Trail State Park where there is swimming in the Cold River. Ryan and The Major were the only ones who got wet. The river is cold! But they had a great time, diving, swimming and sitting in the rushing water of small waterfalls. Diane and I read in the shade, chatted and enjoyed the cool breezes. Multiple delights.

Designing with Thought

CSLD students prepare

Last week I was privileged to be invited by Paul Hellmund, Director, to the Conway School of Landscape Design for the presentations of term projects by this year’s class.  I was particularly interested in two of those projects: a feasibility study for the Davis Street School site and plans for a Botanical and Geological Garden at Greenfield Community College.

I have long been an admirer of the Conway School of Landscape Design with its emphasis on environmentally sound and sustainable principles and design, and its belief in learning by doing. This means that each semester of this ten month accredited Master’s program is devoted to a project carried out by teams of two or three.

The projects given to the students are real projects. Municipalities, non-profit organizations and homeowners can contact the school with an idea for a project, whether it is landscaping for a house or a Master Plan for a campground or street.  If chosen, those projects, residential in the fall, and municipal or organizational in the spring, are given to the students to form the vehicle for the curriculum.

Those who propose a project to the school know that they will get more than suggestions by an untested and inexperienced novice. Many of the students bring various educational, professional and life experiences with them when they begin, Then, from the start with client interviews, site visits for assessment and analysis, understanding of client goals and desired outcomes, Conway students work with skilled faculty who teach and guide, helping them find solutions to each site and design problem.

While clients may have or state a single goal, the educational process requires that each team come up with three options, based on that goal, for each site. At the end of each term the students present their projects to judges who critique the project and the presentation. Walt Cudnohufsky who founded the school in 1972 believes strongly in the necessity for students to be able to clearly articulate their plans orally, and in writing, as well through drawings.

The buzz at the school was electric when I arrived last Friday as students were putting up their drawings, and greeting guests which included clients for their projects. If I was excited to see the presentations I can only imagine how the students felt.

The range of projects was fascinating, with very different challenges. One team had to come up with a Master Plan for the Tully Lake Campground in Royalston administered by the Trustees of Reservations, and another was a Master Plan for Marble Street in West Rutland, Vermont.

I was particularly interested in the Davis Street School Administration Property Feasibility Study because that two acre site, about a five minute walk from Main Street, includes the ten year old community garden with its 36 plots – and a waiting list.

This is not the place to go through the three options that Josiah Simpson and Annie Cox presented, but from my own perspective I will say that if I were choosing I would work with the option that included retaining the community gardens, and landscaping the rest of the lot as a park. The truth is that the community, drawn by the gardens, already use the land as a park, walking dogs, and visiting.

Cox and Simpson were told that Greenfield already has sufficient housing so the old school building should not be renovated to that purpose. For myself, I think the cost of renovating that building for any use, as historic as it might be, is prohibitive. What the town does not have is a sufficiency of green space for public use.

Kate Snyder (R) and Gareth Crosby (center)

As a former member of the Greenfield Community College staff I was also very interested in the plans put forth by Gareth Crosby and Kate Snyder for a Botanical and Geological Garden behind the building.  Professor Emeritus  Richard Little has already arranged geological specimens from the Pioneer Valley in this space which include a greenhouse but the goal was to organize the space to provide adequate sun for a net-zero greenhouse, teaching space, and water/drainage management on the sloping site.

I liked all three of the options that Snyder and Crosby presented, but if I were the client I might very well want to combine elements from each. I was told this is what many clients do.  It then became clear that a presentation to a client is not the end of a project, but probably a mid-point, as the client reacts, not only approval, but with questions and concerns.

We all got to see all nine presentations, and hear the judges comments, but the clients will meet privately with their team for discussion.

The client will take possession of the project.  I know that Heath asked the Conway School for a plan for the town center including a park next to the Community Hall. I remember a large drawing hung in the Town Hall for a while, for comments.

I could not find that drawing or report, but I did track down a mention of it in the 1992 Annual Report. I will keep looking.

It’s hard to think that after so many long days, so many meetings, and so much hard work to provide multiple solutions, a project report may ultimately be lost in some dusty file and forgotten.

Maybe that’s just another lesson in reality for the students.

Conway School of Landscape Design