Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was born into a prominent Amherst family so everyone knew who she was. She attended the Amherst Academy and went on to the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (as it was called at the time) for a period before she went back home, to garden and write poetry. She was more known for her gardening than her poetry in those days; now she is more known for her poetry and her reclusiveness. In the spring of…
I knew it was a Snow Day, no exercise class, when I woke. When I went out to take this photo at 6:30 am the plows had not come through and it was still snowing. Not as much as predicted, but enough to close the schools and the Y. Time for coffee and reading before the day really got under way. The sun was hiding, but sharing some of its light. In town there is no room for…
Bloom Day is here, but there are no blooms outdoors. But for the first time in a couple of years I have blooms in January. The amaryllis that is opening was an early Christmas present and it grew rapidly. The amaryllis with buds about to open spent the summer out in my garden and is giving me great gratification Two other amaryllis bulbs that spent the summer in the ground are coming along - slowly. I have hopes.…
My frigid winter garden is peaceful, blanketed with snow. Mysterious tracks speak of the creatures that wander across the landscape, leaving hints of their dancing in the bright moonlight, or shifting shadows of the breezy day. Tiny birds frolic near the Norway spruce, and seem to be feasting on the spruce seeds left for them on the snow. My town winter garden is small, and very different from the fields of Heath, where the snow danced with the…
New cultivars and old favorites plants are a part of every garden. When I was a Girl Scout we sang a song with the line “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver but the other gold.” As I look out at my garden and look at the dawning of a new year, I am thinking about the new things I may plant and use in the garden, but I know there are certain things that…