My Moss Garden
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Bridge of Flowers
The Bridge of Flowers officially closed on October 30, but it will be open for a few more days so people can take the scenic route from Shelburne to Buckland OR Buckland to Shelburne. Last week there was a final exciting event. Note the graceful ironwork on the Bridge sign. It was a collaborative community effort between Bill Austin and Grey Marchese of Austin Design in Colrain, artist/blacksmith Bob Compton of Rising Sun Forge in Conway, and Michael Therrien's…
Thanksgiving
“Come ye thankful people come, Raise the song of harvest home: All is safely gathered in, Ere the winter storms begin.” Well, we had our first winter storms, and not quite everything was gathered in this year. Many farmers lost substantial portions of their crops. Now the eternal cry of farmers and gardeners is heard in the land, “There’s always next year.” Yet as we arrive at Thanksgiving this year, still struggling with storm damage and losses, we…
Gratitude
This Thanksgiving I am looking over the past year, which was such a trial in many ways with storms and floods and unexpected fluctuations in temperature, I have many reasons to give thanks. First there is my beautiful family. It is hard to get everyone together for a photo, but we made a special effort at last year's Larson family reunion. My brother and his wife bookend my crew. This year the five grandsons were all in their…
Massachusetts Horticultural Society
After I gave my talk about my roses, and other disease resistant roses, at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society last week, I took a brief tour around the gardens. I can just imagine what this Wedding Garden must look like in June! Weezie's Garden is the children's garden at MHS. It is a charming space with a sand pit for the very youngest, a tower for the most adventurous, shade and sun and place for conversations. Lots of benches…
Our Food, Economy and Community
When I drove down the Greenfield Community College driveway last Saturday I passed ‘my tree,’ a weeping cherry that I donated when I left the College in 1989. I reveled in its good health, parked my car and walked towards the steps. A head popped out of the Sloan Theater door, calling to tell me I could take the elevator up. I called back, “No, no. Step to health. Step to health,” ever my motto as I was…
Yesterday and Today
Yesterday was a gray day at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, but all was sunny in the classroom where I talked about hardy and disease resistant roses to an enthusiastic group of gardeners. Maureen Horn, MHS librarian, introduced me in this, the first of a series of Meet the Author talks. This morning we woke up to snow. Again.
Bloom Day – November 2011
Between the fact that the weather has been so oddly warm, today at 7 am it is 55 degrees, and our efforts to prepare for a kitchen update, I forgot about Bloom Day - not that much is in bloom. Still, I dashed out into the gray dawn. Certainly it is the end of rose season. Does this Thomas Affleck bloom still hanging on count? An unexpected stop at Wilder Hill Garden in September sent me home with…
Jane and Eudora
Readers often have favorite authors and are not content with reading the author’s books. They want to know where and how the author lived, what made them the writer, the person they were, what influenced them and what supported them. In recent years, after a tough beginning, I have come to enjoy Eudora Welty’s books. I confess it took listening to an audio book of her stories including “Why I Live at the P.O.” and heard those southern…
Winterberry – Ilex verticillata
It was Martha Stewart who first introduced me to winterberry, a native deciduous holly. Since it was Martha who pointed it out in an arrangement I thought it must be exotic, and not something I could grow. I was wrong. I did buy and plant five winterberry plants this spring, four female 'Winter Red,' and one male 'Southern Gentleman', but this photo is of a clump of winterberry growing by the side of the road. Those roadside shrubs…