- High Line in New York City 5-3-10
Annik LaFarge, author of On the High Line: A Walk Through America’s Most Unique Urban Park, which will be available in April, is also writing a blog http://livinthehighline.com/ In the blog he writes about many other elevated/railroad gardens including The Bridge of Flowers.
Since this photo in 2010, the High Line has been extended
I visited the High Line in 2010 and it is a fabulous space, but it has to be said that the Shelburne Falls Bridge of Flowers predates the High Line and all the other greenway projects by decades. Just goes to show that the women of the Women’s Club were way ahead of their time. They continue to maintain the Bridge of Flowers in beautiful bloom from April through October.
One of the most unusual greenways that Annik links to is the Delancey Street Underground. This planned project would bring sunlight to the 1.5 acre underground trolley terminal and turn it into green space. Gardens are growing UP and DOWN in NYC. What a town!
Bridge of Flowers - view to the west 5-24-11
Shelburne Falls is quite a town too.
The Bridge of Flowers officially closed on October 30, but it will be open for a few more days so people can take the scenic route from Shelburne to Buckland OR Buckland to Shelburne. Last week there was a final exciting event. Note the graceful ironwork on the Bridge sign. It was a collaborative community effort between Bill Austin and Grey Marchese of Austin Design in Colrain, artist/blacksmith Bob Compton of Rising Sun Forge in Conway, and Michael Therrien’s freshmen/sopomore carpentry class at Franklin County Technical School.
Tree of Friendship by Bob Compton
Last week Bob Compton installed this beautiful tree of friendship which will annually record the names of all the Friends of the Bridge who support the plantings and maintenance of the Bridge. As you can see this is a blooming tree and we look forward to the blooming of a strong neighborhood of Friends. Thank you, Bob!
Now that the flowers are gone from the Bridge of Flowers it is easy to see how important foliage is in any garden. Obviously conifers are an anchor in the fall and winter garden. The Bridge has two magnificent weeping hemlocks, one at either end.
Some shrubs have foliage that turns gold.
Others have scarlet foliage. I am not sure what this is, but it is not the invasive burning bush.
Some foliage stays green well into the season, but adds berries.
Some foliage, like this Pieris japonica is very dark.
The foliage of this azalea is almost black in the fall.
Hakonelochloa 'Aureola'
The crisp dried grass adds a very different note,
As does the annual ornamental kale. There are many ways to have color in the garden after the flowers have gone.
Only Bob Compton’s flowers will bloom all winter.
October 31, 2011
We don’t usually have snow at the end of the season, but it has been a remarkable and difficult year with extraordinary weather. I think the Bridge is ready for a rest.
See you on April 1, 2012.
Buckland side entry to Bridge of Flowers
Chrysanthemums were planted in September. We want the Bridge to be full of bloom all season.
I am so happy to see roses still in bloom.
I am also happy to see a quiet river behind these dahlias.
The dahlias are important at this season.
But the weather has been so relatively mild that even the begonias are still blooming.
The gardens will be put to bed and the official garden season ends on Sunday, October 30. Have a good winter. See you on April 1.
Tags: Annuals, Autumn, Other Gardens, Our Community, Roses
Annuals, Autumn, Bridge of Flowers, Other Gardens, Public Gardens, Roses | Pat October 26, 2011 | 
Comments (6)
Little Big House Gallery
Artist Glenn Ridler says his Little Big House is a major work of his career, playfully and artfully shifting proportions to build his living space and the Little Big House Gallery. The house is set amid beautiful gardens that were the setting for his daughter’s wedding in June.
Little Big House shed
I have known Glenn and his wife Christine Baronas for many years, but I do not often get to visit up on their Shelburne hill. A shed I had not seen before provides an excellent space for enjoying the garden.
A garden lit by the setting New England sun last Friday is as artful as anyone could desire. But it is a fleeting beauty.
Little Big House Gallery - Bridge of Flowers exhibit
The beauties of the Bridge of Flowers were captured more permanently by a group of artists including Fred Burrington and Walter Cudnohufsky. It is this exhibit that brought me up to Patten Hill, picturesque in its own right, to enjoy the visions that many artists have created of Shelburne Falls’ Bridge of Flowers. Some of the paintings had been sold even before I left the opening. The exhibit will continue until October 28. Gallery Hours are Saturday and Sunday from 1-4 pm. The drive to and from the Little Big House Gallery alone is worth the trip on an autumnal afternoon.
The Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls survived storm and flood. More Wordlessness is to be found here.
Governor Patrick with Heath officials
It has been exactly a week since I wrote about our experience of Irene here. Since then towns across the region have been busy picking up the pieces. Governor Deval Patrick made his third trip to Heath (the first governor in history to pay so much attention to Heath) and on Wednesday he met with town officials. Here he is looking at a map of damaged road with Mike Smith in his Fire Chief uniform, but he is also our beloved road crew boss who has worked so hard to get enough roads fixed so we can all make our way into the greater world of grocery stores. To the left of the photo are Tom Lively, Brian deVries and Sheila Litchfield, our selectboard, who have also put in a lot of time this week with the Emergency Response Committee.
The governor arrived by helicopter, but local TV station reporters and reporters from multiple print outlets had to drive to the town common. Fortunately for us we didn’t need to have helicopters from FEMA drop water and MREs down to us, as they did in Hawley, the town of 300 across Route 2. My friend Tinky Weisblat wrote about her experiences with MREs on her blog In Our Grandmother’s Kitchens.
Deerfield River in Shelburne Falls
We did not have too much clearing up to do around our house, and the road crew did a great job of repairing our road, so I was able to go out and see what else was happening in the neighborhood. They were not happy sights with bridges destroyed and streams carving out new beds with trees that were carried in the rushing water. I went down to help clean up the Bridge of Flowers on Friday and the Deerfield River was looking muddy but so quiet and innocent. It didn’t seem possible that it had washed away Ann Brauer’s Quilt Studio (which has already found a new home on Bridge Street) and done all manner of damage to riverside shops.
The Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls
At the same time there was so much damage in The Falls, the Bridge of Flowers was relatively unscathed. Roaring waters splashed over the Bridge, but did not overwhelm it. I was part of a crew that helped clean the path of a layer of silt while marvelling at how wonderful the flowers looked.
Bridge of Flowers path resurfacing
A crew of men came in to help us women with the heavy work of wheelbarrowing in loads of stone dust to resurface the path. More members of the Blossom Brigade went in for a final tweak and deadheading before the Bridge reopened on Friday evening. Hooray for the Bridge of Flowers volunteers!
It is raining again this Monday morning and we’ll enter a new week, an autumnal week, with children back to school, though not necessarily their usual schools because of flooding damage, and commuters become more familiar with necessary detours that will be in place for some time.
The weather has been hot and dry. Our Texas grandsons Anthony and Drew were glad to take a dip in Rowe Pond near-by this past week. They are excellent swimmers after several years on their local swim teams. We left the Pond when we heard thunder, but we never did get the longed for rain.
When Kate returned to Heath after tending to other family responsibilities in the eastern part of the state she did a little touring with the boys. We made sure they signed the guest book at the Bridge of Flowers. They all loved those fabulous Crocosmia.
We had a good visit with this branch of the family, but Dad was waiting impatiently back in Texas. Before they left yesterday the boys did a good job of stacking winter firewood. Maybe we’ll get some more help from visitors to the Heath Fair. Only two more weeks.
You can see the other big project that we have been working on over the past few weeks – getting my book The Roses at the End of the Road ready for publication. We sent the electronic files off to lulu.com and now we wait for a proof. Do you think we will have copies for sale at the Heath Fair? We hope so! Click on the button to the right for more information.
Queen of the Prairie
The Queen of the Prairie looks more like the Queen of the River in this photo. She is attended by hundreds of handmaids and courtiers.
As a member of the Bridge of Flowers committee many people ask me about when it is open and when is the ‘best’ bloom time. Those questions are easy to answer. The Bridge of Flowers is open every day, all day from April 1 to October 30. There is no ‘best’ season. The Bridge is in full and glorious bloom all year long. Of course, some people might prefer the earliest perennials and bulbs, while others prefer the late summer garden with dahlias and asters and other fall bloomers – but it is always beautiful. And always FREE! There is no charge – although you are invited to leave a donation. And please do sign the guest book.
I love rose season, which is long and beautiful on the Bridge of Flowers.
The path is universally accessible on both the Buckland and Shelburne sides of the Bridge.
A beautiful garden is about more than flowers. The Bridge of Flowers includes handsome shade and foliage plants like these ferns.
Mosaic by Cynthia Fisher
The Bridge of Flowers is immortalized in this mosaic by local artist Cynthia Fisher who created eleven other mosaics honoring the other towns in our area. This is one of the things I tell visitors about when they ask what else to see in town. The mosaics are mounted on the walls on town buildings on both sides of the Bridge.
Of course, there are also the Glacial Potholes, beautiful crafts made by the skilled and talented local artists and artisans, and good eats. You can even dine while overlooking the river and the Bridge.
How do you get to the Bridge? Unfortunately GPS systems do not seem to have found the Bridge, but if you get to Bridge Street in Shelburne Falls, which is on the GPS, you will see the Bridge. You can’t miss it!
Tags: Annuals, Other Gardens, Our Community, Perennials, Roses
Bridge of Flowers, Other Gardens, Our Community, Paths, Perennials, Public Gardens, Roses, Shade, Travel | Pat July 20, 2011 | Comments (4)
Yesterday we went to Tyngsboro to celebrate the Fourth of July with friends, but most especially to celebrate our daughter’s 50th birthday with her family. This is our third child to celebrate a 50th, the last two girls are not far behind. The birthday cake provided by Diane’s best friend showed a hill with Diane on the downside. Diane laughed and asked me if I remembered the cake she had made for me on my 30th birthday? It was decorated with a very similar hill.
The party was held in a beautiful garden with a variety of trees and shrubs, handsome stonework (a LOT of stone in that part of the world) and a swimming pool that kept the covey of kids happy and busy. A joyful day on a national scale and a domestic scale.
We brought daughter Betsy’s son Tynan home with us for a week of country doings. Tynan at 13 is now as tall as I am and is sounding very manly. It’s a little disorienting. He is ready to work mowing lawns and splitting wood. I am allowed to do a little weeding now that we have established I do not have a fractured femur, only a muscle pull. The garden needs work, but you can see from the photo above that the golden welcome at our front door (which no one actually uses) is bright and cheery.
The yellow loosetrife (not an invasive variety) was here when we moved in. I added the ‘Terra Cotta’ achillea last year, and this spring, after the Bridge of Flowers plant sale, I added a creamy daylily which is not yet in bloom. I may have to replant it to give it a little more room because this bed, created by the lasagna method, is apparently very fertile. The loosestrife and achillea are both extremely vigorous.
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