Primrose or Primula- Spring Delight

  • Post published:04/30/2014
  • Post comments:5 Comments

Primroses are a wonderful early spring flower. Last weekend I toured the Leonard J. Buck Garden with my brother and his wife. Spring has been slow there, as well as here, but a few of the primroses were in bloom.   There are many types of primroses, but all of them are hardy and  like a damp site and humusy soil. I have even seen them growing in the water at the edge of  a temporary spring stream.…

Touring Colleges with Rory

  • Post published:04/24/2014
  • Post comments:3 Comments

High schools are off this week so we had the chance to go touring colleges with grandson Rory. It was pouring all during the UMass-Lowell campus tour, but we were undaunted, and got to see the O'Leary Library, the bookstore, a dining hall, a classroom and lots of students very busily going about their business. We were also fortunate enough to speak to one of the faculty members who gave us lots of  good advice. While we were…

Earth Day – April 22, 2014

  • Post published:04/22/2014
  • Post comments:0 Comments

  How can we celebrate Earth Day every day? We can grow a garden. Forget the lawn; grow veggies and herbs and berries, trees and flowers. Gardens, ornamental and edible can feed lots of pollinators and other bugs that need different kinds of foliage to nibble on, so that they can be eaten by birds and other wild creatures. Plants are pretty low on the food chain so that makes them especially important. Edible plants feed us healthy…

Pansies for Remembrance

  • Post published:04/21/2014
  • Post comments:2 Comments

Pansies are for those of us who are too impatient to wait for the flowers in our gardens to begin blooming. Of course, we need the help of flower growers  and garden centers before we can pot up  a few pansies to brighten our barren landscape. I became curious about the history of these early spring bloomers and was amazed to find out how ancient a flower they are. An early forerunner of the pansy was the viola…

Fancy Foliage for the Ornamental Garden

  • Post published:04/19/2014
  • Post comments:4 Comments

  When people think of the ornamental garden their first thought is of flowers, but it is foliage that holds a garden together. Flowers on naked stems would not be as lovely as they are when surrounded by foliage, leaves of various shapes and in various shades of green ranging from almost white, to almost blue, to almost red, as well as deep green. We take foliage for granted, but it can be used to increase the interest…

A History of The Annual Rose Viewing

  • Post published:04/17/2014
  • Post comments:2 Comments

I am often asked if I always loved roses. The answer is no. My desire for roses began when I was living and working in New York City. There amid Manhattan’s concrete towers I developed a hunger for roses. What flower is more ancient and more romantic? When my husband and I, and our three daughters (the two boys were already out of the house) moved from the noisiest apartment in Manhattan on November 28, 1979 to the…

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day – April 2014

This Garden Bloggers Bloom Day is rainy, but I finally have blooms. Not many. Snowdrops are blooming in front of the house, and in the erstwhile orchard. I had hoped that I might have a few daffodils, buds at least, but it is not to be. I saw these Van Sion Daffodils blooming down in Charlemont - 1000 feet lower than Heath - and checked my Van Sions, an old and very early daff, but I don't even…

CSA – Community Supported Agriculture is for You

  • Post published:04/13/2014
  • Post comments:0 Comments

For some people the initials CSA are just another of those annoying acronyms that can make our conversations sound like an unintelligible inter-office memo. For some CSA means Community Supported Agriculture which encompasses delicious local food, help for the farmer, and a community of like-minded folk who enjoy fresh food, and enjoy knowing they are supporting farmers and farms, and the very land and environment that surrounds us. Small farmers never think they are going to get rich…

Applejack Rose – A Hardy Griffith Buck Rose

  • Post published:04/11/2014
  • Post comments:7 Comments

Applejack is a wonderful rose, growing on a graceful bush about 7 or 8 feet tall with single pink flowers. It doesn't begin blooming until mid-June but I had to cheer myself up with a post and picture of a pretty pink country rose because winter is not relenting easily. The weatherman teases and promises 60 degree days and sun, but each afternoon I finally give up and build a fire in the wood stove. Griffith Buckwas a great…

Panicum virgata ‘Northwind’ – Plant of the Year

  • Post published:04/09/2014
  • Post comments:0 Comments

For only the third time since the Perennial Plant Association's Plant of the Year program was instituted an ornamental grass, Panicum virgata 'Northwind'  has been given this designation. 'Northwind', is a 5 foot tall blue green switchgrass that turns golden in the fall. The fine flower panicles rise another foot or so above the foliage. 'Northwind' has a very erect and upright growth which makes it ideal for narrow sites. It needs sun, but is tolerant of most soils.…