Companion Planting – Folk Wisdom or Science?

  • Post published:03/29/2014
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When I first learned about companion planting I thought it was a bit of simple folk wisdom. Plant your peas and carrots together, but keep them away from dill. Plant marigolds near the tomatoes, and soybeans with anything. This information, which is available in lists in books and on the Internet, has been my guide every spring when I rotate the vegetables around in my garden. Of course, in my small rotating vegetable garden I am also practicing…

Peter Kukielski and the Sustainable Rose

  • Post published:03/27/2014
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The April 2014 issue of Fine Gardening magazine has an article by Peter Kukielski, former curator of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden titled Easy Picture Perfect Roses.  Peter knows all about 'Easy' roses because during his tenure at that garden he ripped out 200 or so of the roses in the garden that needed pesticides and fungicides to survive and then replaced them with 693 roses that did not need that kind…

Tiarella Added to the Flowery Mead – Heucherellas Come Next

  • Post published:03/25/2014
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Tiarella is the latest plant added to my arsenal as I try to lessen, if not eliminate our lawn, otherwise known as the Flowery Mead where thrive violets, dandelions, hawkweeds and many other wildflowers. These tiarellas are planted east of the Peony Hedge, and west of  what will be the Hydrangea Hedge.  Tiarella, also known as foam flower, for obvious reasons, is a native flower and groundcover. It likes the shade and requires no care. In the photo…

Five Plant Gardens by Nancy Ondra

  • Post published:03/23/2014
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  Nancy Ondra has been gardening for over 20 years and she has ten books to show for it and  Five Plant Gardens: 52 ways to Grow a Perennial Garden with Just Five Plants (Storey Publishing $18.95) is her latest. This book has something for everyone, but it takes garden design to a new level of ease and understanding for the novice gardener. Even an inexperienced flower gardener understands pretty quickly that you put tall plants in back…

How Tea Changed the World

  • Post published:03/21/2014
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  I never imagined that tea changed the world. In my world, tea was served endlessly in the English novels I love, but tea did not become a regular part of my life until I met Elsa Bakalar in 1980. With Elsa I could imagine myself living in one of those English village novels where tea was served up with gossip, or to survive shock with milk and sugar. Now I have a collection of tea pots –…

First Day of Spring – Just for the Record

  • Post published:03/20/2014
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It snowed and rained last night. As the first day of spring dawned the plow came through, but mostly they were sanding the road because things were a bit icy outside. The temperature was already 34 degrees - and climbing. More showers. The rain stopped!  Only the roofs are dripping, dripping. The sun came out and raised the temperature to 45 degrees. The snow will melt some today. I am not discouraged because I know it could always…

Tree Peony Extraordinare – Guan Yin Mian

  • Post published:03/18/2014
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Guan Yin Mian is my favorite tree peony, a native Chinese plant.  Guan Yin is the bodhisattva of compassion, or in terms more familiar, the goddess of mercy. During our years in China I became familiar with Guan Yin who is much given to appearing in visions, giving women the babies they and long for,  and who laughs that  we can struggle so - as she helps us. She is often shown wearing a gown with a rice…

Cabbage – Here and There – Beijing

  • Post published:03/16/2014
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  Cabbage. Such an ordinary vegetable. We don’t give it much thought. We shred it into a salad, dress it into coleslaw, or boil it up with corned beef, but there are many types of cabbage in the world, and many ways of serving it up. Think of corned beef and cabbage!             I began thinking about cabbage this week when, while sorting through some old photographs, my husband and I found a few shots of the ai…

Cooking Lessons Over the Years

  • Post published:03/13/2014
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As a liberated  woman I have made sure that my grandsons have had a few cooking lessons over the years. Rory was 13 when this photo was taken, but it is not his first lesson. Perfect scrambled eggs was probably an early lesson, but by 2009 he had moved along to the perfect omlette. Saumon en papillote, a Julia Child recipe, amazingly simple, but a dish with dash, has become Rory's specialite. I cannot begin to tell you…

Cellars and Cave Tour with the Heath Agricultural Society

  • Post published:03/11/2014
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The Heath Agricultural Society gave us all a chance to  go exploring the cellars and caves of our neighbors  this past Saturday. Root cellars, cider cellars and a cheese cave. Who could resist this opportunity? Over 50 people signed up for this tour, many of them from towns beyond Heath. Even Springfield! I took one group around beginning with Sheila Litchfield who first explained the basics of cheesemaking. Chemistry. Bacteria. Sheila is a nurse so she knows all…