Underutilized Trees and Shrubs

  • Post published:03/31/2017
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Jay Vinskey gave a useful workshop on Underutilized Trees and Shrubs at the WMMGA Spring Garden Symposium last weekend. I attended because I may not be quite finished choosing shrubs for our new Greenfield garden and I was looking for more suggestions. Small trees and shrubs are the elements I am counting on to make this a sustainable, low maintenance garden. Vinskey’s list included trees like paperbark maple, tupelo, ironwood, redbud, stewartia, and pagoda dogwood. His shrub list…

World Water Day – March 22, 2017

  • Post published:03/22/2017
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On this World Water Day I want to share some of my water photos. This group of gardeners has been visiting Minneapolis area gardens on a hot summer day. It was bliss to sit in the shade and enjoy the lake breeze and serenity. We can't all have a lake in our garden, but we can arrange to have fountains like this patio fountain in Minneapolis. This might have been my favorite Minneapolis water fountain - located at…

Spring Has Sprung – Theoretically

  • Post published:03/20/2017
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Theoretically spring has sprung. The first day of spring dawned chilly, but temperatures got to 56 degrees before they began to fall again. I thought wistfully of this time of the year in 2016. Last year I went shopping and bought potted shrubs which I planted on March 22, along with a Lindera benzoin, spicebush. Spicebush swallowtail butterflies like to eat the foliage of Lindera Benzoin. I had a wonderful day last year working in the garden, cleaning…

Toxics Action Conference in Boston – Water and More

  • Post published:03/17/2017
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Water is life! That is the cry that was repeated when Kandi Mossett finished her keynote address at the Local Environmental Action Conference last Sunday. Mossett, of Mandan, Hidsata and Arikara tribal heritage, is a leading voice in the fight to the impacts that environmental injustice are having on indigenous communities across our country. We all know about the stand taken at Standing Rock in North Dakota to keep an oil pipeline from crossing sacred lands and under…

Mount Holyoke College Flower Show

  • Post published:03/15/2017
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The Mount Holyoke College Spring Flower Show is blooming and continues through Sunday, March 19. The Greenhouse is open from 10 am - 4 pm. Winter had come back to give us a ferocious bite on the day I met Tom Clark, the new Director of the Mount Holyoke Botanic Garden. We walked through the Talcott Greenhouse door into the fragrant woodland glade of this spring’s Flower Show. The title of the show, Spring Pools, refers to the…

Western Mass Master Gardeners Spring Symposium

  • Post published:03/10/2017
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Every March I celebrate the arrival of the Western Massachusetts Master Gardeners Spring Symposium held at FrontierHigh School on Saturday, March 18. This gala event includes a broadening and informational key note talk by the noted gardener, writer and speaker Margaret Roach. There will also be a wide range of practical workshops. This year gardeners can choose from among 15 talks that include choosing “no fuss” shrubs for the small garden, underutilized trees and shrubs, basics of making…

Local Environmental Action 2017 – Water

  • Post published:03/07/2017
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This past Sunday I attended the Local Environmental  Action conference 2017 in Boston. One of the two keynote speakers was Kandi Mossett, a leading voice in the fight against climate change and environmental justice.  Unlike my experiences at most conferences I did not come home with a load of paper. I came home with a list of links which I will share. The Conference was organized by toxicsaction.org  Since 1987, Toxics Action Center organizers have worked side by…

Spirit of Stone by Jan Johnsen

  • Post published:03/03/2017
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Stone came into my garden last year. And I have to say it lifted my spirits considerably. There is nothing like a stone wall that you didn’t have to build yourself. In her new book The Spirit of Stone (St. Lynn’s Press $21.95)Jan Johnsen shows us the many ways that many types of stone can be used in the garden, from practical porous driveway paving to rustic or elegant stone walls, walkway paving, dry gardens, as sculpture and…