Last May I went on a fabulous tour of some of NYC's parks beginning with Battery Park. There I saw Amsonia, which some bloggers had been raving about. I looked at this mass planting and did not see what all the raving was about. The flowers seemed inconsequential. I was not impressed. Now I read that Amsonia hubrichtii has been named the Perennial Plant of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association. How could this be? The PPA…
Nancy and Haynes Turkle have been concerned about the environment and the ways we affect it for a long time. Nancy’s graphic design company even worked for the Department of Environmental Protection for 15 years creating educational recycling materials. During their 20 years living in Groton they were involved in many community activities including helping to found a community garden. As the garden thrived so did cooperation between the members of the garden and the wider community. They…
As I surround myself with rose catalogs and make my final decisions about this year's purchases, I can't help remembering all the roses I have bought and killed. When I was a new gardener I was ashamed of every failure and knew, rightfully so, that it was caused by my lack of knowledge and skill. It took time to realize that knowledge and skill grow from our failures. We learn about proper planting, proper siting, and proper maintenance.…
Another snowfall left another 5 inches of powdery snow. The plow was here at 6:30. No excuse for a lie in. This is the view from my south bedroom window. With all these frequent snows the fields remain pristine and white. This is the view from the west bedroom window. This is how I spend the first half hour of the morning, winter or summer, with my coffee and a book. My chair is right near the woodstove.…
Many of us probably don’t fuss very much when we are making a flower arrangement for our dining table. We run out into the garden and cut a little bit of whatever is in bloom and a few leaves, put them in a vase with little fuss and we are done. However if we are make a more important arrangement for a special party, for a friend’s wedding, or the church altar, we will need more flowers and…
Constance Spry found beauty in places others had not noticed. The unexpected drama of the plants she used surprised and delighted people. She turned to the vegetable garden and found one of her favorite plants – kale – but used other vegetables and fruits to brilliant effect. Her arrangements would not have the same startling effect today, because the ideas she propounded, her cry to forget about the rules and have fun, to see beauty in the commonplace…
“I want to shout out: do what you please, follow your own star; be original if you want to be and don’t if you don’t want to be. Just be natural and gay and light-hearted and pretty and simple and overflowing and general and baroque and bare and austere and stylized and wild and daring and conservative, and learn and learn and learn. Open your minds to every form of beauty.” Constance Spry Those passionate words came from…
Many of the plants in our garden have a name attached to them. I have grown the Madame Hardy rose, and assumed she was a real woman. Others have a name that is less obviously that of a real person like Anemone nererosa 'Robinsoniana'. But who are these people whose names are attached to plants. Who was Perry, or Mrs. R.O. Backhouse or the Vicomtesse Byng? It is easy to know who is being honored when you…
You have to look really close, but the worms are more than surviving in my worm bin, which I said I would never keep in my kitchen. I was afraid of fruit flies. When it was time to bring the worm bin in from outside in September I put them in the Great Room which is not heated except for lots of solar gain during the day, that kept temperatures above 50 at night. That did not last.…
Icing on the Lawn Beds. Iced lilacs. The long road to home. It's a long time til spring.