Progression of Spring

  • Post published:05/30/2017
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The progression of spring is one of magisterial slowness. The April Fool snow did have the advantage of showing us where we could expect the spring flood to appear. The snow didn't last too long and it didn't even look that wet anymore in mid-April. The slow progression of spring. There were considerable rains  which started things greening up, but also brought the flood. This shows the progression of spring took a leap, but then stepped back for…

Cutting Back and Glorious Shade

  • Post published:05/27/2017
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Cutting Back, and Glorious Shade are two new books that held a particular appeal to me. For me Japanese gardens and shade gardens share an atmosphere of serenity and calm. There is no rushing, no ecstatic clamor at the brilliance of blossoms; there is a quiet peacefulness when you are strolling through a wild woodland garden or an artful Japanese garden. Both types of garden use design to emulate the beauty of nature in different ways. In Cutting…

Exotic or Immigrant – Flowers from Afar

  • Post published:05/19/2017
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I do promote the beauty and benefits that native flowers bring to our garden, but they would be less beautiful if they did not include the  flowers from afar that have come to be called ‘exotics.’ The Bridge of Flowers is one place you can see natives and exotics blooming harmoniously. Dayliles first bloomed in Asia where they were used medicinally. Four hundred years ago they arrived in Europe and hybridizing began – and continues today. We are…

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day, May 15, 2017

This is my first Bloom Day post in quite a while. Here in my corner of western Massachusetts we are having quite a wet spring. Yesterday over 2 inches of rain fell, causing about the worst flooding in the backyard that we have had  so far. Even so, blooms are surviving.  The wood poppy is growing on our hugel so it is not flooded but has plenty of water to drink. There is quite a  golden look to…

Mysteries of May in the Garden

  • Post published:05/14/2017
  • Post comments:8 Comments

With the turning of the calendar page I am out in the garden investigating the mysteries of May. Young shoots are everywhere. Surely they have names. I stand looking at the swath of a bright green, crispy ribbed ground cover that has taken its assignment to cover the ground very seriously. I have no idea what it is called. I vaguely remember looking at it last fall as I removed autumn leaves and wondered if some of the…

Shades of Green

  • Post published:05/07/2017
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Every garden, vegetable or ornamental, includes many shades of green, and yet so much of our attention is on color. We look for blooming trees and shrubs, we consider how to combine colors in the flower garden and we even welcome unusual colors in the vegetable garden – rainbow chard, purple carrots, nearly black cherry tomatoes. And yet green is the overarching color in our gardens and requires consideration in its own right. Having said I will focus…

May – A Golden Month

  • Post published:05/03/2017
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It's May and the flowers that bloom in the spring are beginning to show themselves. Lots of gold in May, not counting the dandelions. The barren strawberry plants on The Hugel are thriving and blooming. They are not really strawberry plants at all. It's just that Waldsteinia have strawberry-like foliage and flowers. Trollius laxa is a more lackadaisical form of Trollius europaeus, which is taller and even more golden. It is also called globeflower which is more prominent…