Celebration Season – Eat Your Heart Out

Heath Gourmet Club

Celebration Season this year has been quite lengthy. We had one rowdy family Christmas on December 22, but then a quiet adult Christmas  on December 25 with only one child and his lady, and a dear friend who always joins us for Christmas dinner. On December 29 the Heath Gourmet Club celebrated Christmas with a theme of Looks Like a Wreath to Me! Nearly every course was wreath-like. My savarin pans came in handy for the main course which was grape leaf covered rice and beef, with roasted cauliflower in the center and braised kale with colorful dice peppers surrounding it. My Green celebration bread was a big hit. Gourmet Club has been serving ourselves for over 31 years! Wonderful food with never a single failure, and friendship.

Wreath de Noel

The finale was not a Buche de Noel but a Wreath de Noel with lots of fabulous chocolate ganache, pistachio marzipan (home made) and topped off with a fondant ribbon.

Grand and great-granchildren

Yesterday, we drove throught the nearly 20 inches of snow that the last two days have brought for a final family Christmas. The eating continued with some of the Butternut Squash soup I made for Gourmet Club, and delicious pumpkin pie. The children all agreed that pumpkin is a vegetable and they were very happy to eat their vegetables.  It is impossible to get all the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren together anytime except in the summer, but we had a very nice showing. They even stopped moving long enough for a posed photo.

Son, grandson and great granddaughters

There were a few quiet moments. Reading Aloud. Lola, the youngest, got a new copy of Maurice Sendak’s Nutshell Library. Happy reading. Happy day. Happy family. And a happy new year beginning tomorrow

Gifts of Christmas

Free Harvest Supper fudraiser for food pantry

As we race around shopping and buying Christmas gifts for the people we love, the Salvation Army bell-ringers seem an appropriate accompaniment. The Holy Family was poor, and enduring so much bad luck, that they had to find shelter in a stable for the birth of the Christ Child. It is not hard to imagine the fear that Mary must have felt as she labored to bring this baby into the world. Where were they to go from here?

And then the skies were filled with the heavenly host singing songs of joy, shepherds arrived to see what was going on, and finally three wise men arrived bearing rich gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It is those wise men who gave birth to the idea that all who celebrate the miraculous birth, should do so with gifts. Ever since, the world of myth and story tell of the desire to give a gift, and which gifts were most valued.

There is the story of the poor girl who wanted to bring a gift to the Christ Child, but had nothing to give. She searched for wildflowers, but it was the wrong season. Her tears fell on the snow and the first Christmas roses, hellebores, bloomed to make a bouquet she could carry to the stable.

Another little girl also wept because she had no gift to bring. She gathered what dried grasses she could to make a kind of bouquet, but when she laid them by the manger they were instantly transformed into brilliant poinsettias.

One of my favorite Christmas stories is about why the bells rang on Christmas. Two poor brothers were on the way through the snowy night to bring their small gift to church, a church that had bells that did not ring on Christmas unless a great and especially valuable gift was given. The bells had not rung for many years. The two boys trudged along as fast as they could until they came across an old woman collapsed in the snow. One boy left to get help, but before he returned to his brother he slipped into the church as the great congregation was leaving, disappointed that the bells remained mute even after the king had left his jeweled crow. The boy crept unnoticed up to the altar to leave his small coin and then, suddenly, the bells began to chime, but no one knew why because the boy had already left to return to his brother and bring help to the old lady.

A more modern story by O. Henry is about the poor young couple, each of whom gave up their dearest possession to buy a Christmas gift for the other. All of these gifts were valuable, not because of their intrinsic worth, but because they were given out of love. Something to remember as we stand in front of the bright and shiny wealth of the department stores.

We might console ourselves with the thought that the three wise men did not show much wisdom in their choice of gifts, except possibly the one who brought gold to the poor family. Those who pay attention to symbols might say that we don’t really know what the wise men brought, but gold is a gift appropriate to a king, frankincense, a fragrant resin from a tree, is symbolic of a priesthood, and myrrh, another tree resin, is also used in embalming. These three items are symbolic of Christ’s life, but one cannot help wondering what Mary and Joseph thought as they opened what I imagine was a jeweled gift casket to find an embalming agent.

Still, all three gifts were intrinsically valuable, and that value was going to be very important to the Holy Family as they learned that Herod had ordered the death of all male infants.

An angel warned Joseph that he should not return home and so they fled, with that noble donkey, for Egypt. The poor family had not planned an extended time away from home and Joseph’s livelihood. Surely the gold was welcome and then I imagine the frankincense and myrrh were sold to provide them with a home in faraway Egypt.

During their flight to Egypt legends are told about the plants who gave their own gifts of service to the family. Mary had to wash the Christ Child’s clothes. Unlike other plants, the rosemary allowed her to hang them on her branches. Ever since the rosemary’s flowers are as blue as Mary’s robe. At one point, with Herod’s soldiers drawing near, the holly allowed the Holy Family to hide within its branches. It immediately grew lush and green with prickly foliage. How can you measure the value of these gifts, of help with every day tasks, or the gift of safety in danger?

Now as we hurry to complete our Christmas shopping, and grocery shopping so that we can bake special treats and a feast for gathering family and friends, we hear the Christmas bells of the Salvation Army on the street, and the bells of  our own churches. I think they are asking – what valuable gift have I forgotten? What do you hear when you hear the Christmas bells?

Between the Rows   December 22, 2012

The First Snowfall of the Year

The first REAL snowfall of the year

I am counting this as the first  snowfall of the year, although there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground on Christmas so we  could all have a white Christmas and get an extra helping of Christmas spirit. Now we can enjoy the post-Christmas tranquillity, sitting by the fire, watching the snow snowing and the wind blowing. This photo was taken at 7 a.m.

More Christmas is coming with further gatherings with family and friends. Gourmet Club! and then we will enjoy more post-holiday tranquillity.

UPDATE – 3 p.m.

Snow December 27 3 p.m.

Over a foot of snow has fallen, with only a bit of snow still flurrying.

FURTHER UPDATE  December 28  11 a.m.

View to the south

Garden Books for the Young

Planting the Wild Garden by Kathryn Galbraith

I’ve written  about a number of garden books for  the young over the past year. They are not how-to books although there are books that do lead a child  into  the garden with real instructions. My friend Kathryn Galbraith wrote Planting the Wild Garden and turned science into poetry. She reveals all the ways that Mother Nature spreads seeds over the landscape using the wind and rain, and hot sun that makes seed pods burst. The rivers and streams carry seeds long distances, and animals move sticky seeds from here to there and the birds drop seeds in their own inimitable way. Even we humans carry seeds when they stick to our sweaters and socks.  Wendy Anderson Halperin created the beautiful delicate and accurate illustrations.

Kathryn takes a different tack in Arbor Day Square, the story of a family that was part of the pioneer move westward, building towns where there had only been grass and woods before. The young girl in the story knows that trees have more value than utility, they are  for beauty too. As the story unfolds it is clear that trees are also about building community. A tender story that we can all identify with today. The illustrations by Cyd Moore are as bright and cheerful as a quilt.

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

For the very youngest potential gardeners Lois Ehlert has given us a board book that teaches colors and the rainbow sequence while showing bold stylized flowers.

When my five children were small the happiest part of my day was bedtime (so often the case for us busy mothers) when the children were bathed and in their jammies, and we could all sit down, and slow down, together to read. A whole wold of wonderful children’s books opened up for me and them at the same time.  Then we acquired 9 grandchildren and when they visit we have moved on from my reading to them, to evenings of Reading Aloud when we all read to each other, and sometimes we even invite other guests to join us. We even have two great-granddaughters now. I have not had many opportunities to read to them, but as a new kindergarten student Bella is already to read aloud to us!

While I cannot claim that my book, The Roses at the End of the Road is suitable for bedtime reading for the young, it does work very well for us older gardeners. Right now, for those who buy it directly from me, I am offering a sale price of $12 and free shipping until the Twelfth Day of Christmas, January 6. It is also on sale at the Kindle Store for $3.95.

The Roses at the End of the Road

With these suggestions come my wishes for a happy Christmas and a year filled with happy hours of reading, about plants, and gardens, and gardeners, and every fascinating thing out in our beautiful world.

More Christmas Gifts for the Gardener

Red pots at Shelburne Farm and Garden

I’m not saying gardeners are greedy, but it is true that it is easy to choose Christimas gifts for gardeners. When I wander through Shelburne Farm and Garden or Greenfield Farmers Coop I have all I can do hold myself in check. There are so many bright and sturdy items that will please and be useful to both novice and expert gardeners.

The Shelburne Farm and Garden Center has a wonderful collection of pots. So many of us are growing flowers and other plants in pots that a handsome pot is almost always a good choice. Two matching Christmas red pots, different sizes, really caught my eye, priced at $20 and $30.

The glove rack is a temptation. Gloves are always wearing out. MUD gloves are a particular favorite, some made with the wonderfully flexible nitrile, while others are heavier for jobs that require greater protection. Both types cost $10.

There are so many great gift choices from an array of bird baths, ceramic and metal, in the $70 t0 $90 range as well as a great collection of bird feeders and sacks of bird seed from $22 to $60. I was particularly struck by the  Bird Nester ($19), a wire cage filled with cottony fibers that is available for birds when they are building their nests. It made me think of Patricia Machlachlan’s tender children’s book, Sarah, Plain and Tall, where older sister Anna is cutting young Caleb’s hair, and sets out his curls for the birds to use in their nests.

On my way out of the store I couldn’t help picking up a few bulbs that were on sale and will be used for forcing. The Greenfield Farmers Coop also has bags of bulbs for sale right as you talk into the store. It might be too late to get bulbs in the ground, but there is plenty of time to force them. A great gift would be bulbs for forcing along with a bag of soil mix and a handsome pot. You could plant the bulbs yourself, or pass it on as a DIY project.

The Coop has a large array of tools. Good quality pruners like the Corona bypass pruner for $30 and the Corona needle nose thinning shears at $24 would make any gardener happy – though I hope that experienced gardeners long ago learned the benefits of quality tools and already have their own favorites. Although, if they had a second good tool they might be able to work with a companion.

I was particularly taken with the small, bright red, fixed tine shrub rake at $13. I have seen the Flower Brigade ladies using similar little rakes as they tended to their clean up chores on the Bridge of Flowers and saw how efficiently and gently they worked in the borders.

Tubtrugs at Farmers Cooperative in Greenfield

I loved the display of colorful Tubtrugs in sizes of three and a half to ten gallons. These light, strong flexible containers will hold a lot of weeds, or compost, or what you will, in the garden and around the house. I can imagine a wonderful gift of a bright Tubtrug filled with bags of Espoma fertilizer, seed starting mix, twine, Bag Balm and other small necessary and consumable garden items. Prices range from $9-$27 depending on size.

Compost makings are the result of every meal preparation. A bowl by the sink will serve, but not as handsomely as the lidded one, or one and a half gallon Compost Keepers ($27-$39), in stainless steel or ceramic.

As useful as these practical items are and as welcome as they will be, one could take a different tack to gift buying for the gardener. Luxury!

J.H. Sherburne has a new wing to her portraiture and frame shop in Shelburne Falls called Serious Whimsies for the Garden and Home. I do buy my own tools and consumables when necessary, but I never buy luxurious gifts for my garden like the stone rabbit and hedgehog sculptures for $80 and $30.  There is a wonderful big dancing angel planter for $90, but many more modestly priced planters like the stone bowl ($29) with a frog sitting on the edge. This could be planted with a bit of sedum or succulents for a really carefree bit of elegant whimsy.

Birch Bark Baskets at J H Sherburne’s Serious Whimsies

I also liked the birchbark baskets and containers that are perfect for holding holiday greens and decorations. The large flat basket ($30) would work as a handsome wreath substitute on the front door filled with greens. Smaller baskets, round and square, cost $9-$19. You can even buy silk flowers and greenery to fill them if you wish.

Siver jewelry at J H Sherburne’s Serious Whimsies

Of course, some of us might like to luxuriate in our gardens by wearing beautiful garden inspired jewelry. Sherburne has a small curated collection of delicate silver pins, a dragonfly ($50), a fern frond ($36) and a gold and silver sunflower bracelet ($100).

Though small, the shop is a treasure trove of whimsical delights. A fancy soap is shaped like a heavily frosted cupcake and the scented candles come in little milkbottles.

There are many ways to shop for gifts. Sometimes you know just what that special person in your life wants or needs. Sometimes you just want to surprise and delight which can take thought. Sometimes you have no clue. All these shops can provide you with a gift certificate – and gift certificates always make my eyes light up.

A final note – J H Sherburne is also noted for her portraiture including portraits of pets, or of pets with their owners.

Portrait by J H Sherburne

Between the Rows     December 8, 2012

Hemi-demi-semi Christmas Tree on Wordless Wednesday

Our newly cut Christmas Tree

We usually cut our Christmas tree from our own land. We are famous for having Charlie Brown trees. This tree strikes me as a hemi-demi-semi tree.

Our Christmas tree in profile

The only tree we could find was this section of a tree that had been damaged by the ice storm several years ago. It only has branches on one side.

I think this year, for the first time in over 30 years, we’ll be shopping for our Christmas tree.

For more (almost) Wordlessness click here.

Last Chance for Celebratory Book Giveaway

Roses at the End of the Road

Today is your last chance to leave a comment here  by midnight tonight and participate in the my book giveaway. You could win a copy of Beautiful No Mow Yards AND my own book The Roses at the End of the Road. I have enjoyed these past five years that has brought so many wonderful new people into my life. And useful and inspiring books like Beautiful No Mow Lawns from Timber Press.

I will choose a name randomly tomorrow morning and will announce the winner. Good luck!

Gifts for the Gardener

Potted plants can be a good gift

This post is a reprise from last year and has some really good ideas, so I am repeating, but I will have some new ideas next week.

What gifts for the gardener are on your list? In the ‘olden days’ garden catalogs did not arrive until after the new year, the first sign that spring will eventually return. Now my mailbox is already full of garden catalogs describing all kinds of plants, books and tools, every company hoping for some of those holiday dollars that are so important to business in these difficult days. The catalogs are really tempting because many gardeners are like me, greedy for a new plant, or a new book and new information. The trick is to find the right plant, book or information.

Sometimes you know a gardener has a particular passion. I have one friend who always welcomes a handsome pot for her container plantings. However, unless you know that a gardener has a particular enthusiasm a gift certificate is a great way to make sure the gardener in your life gets exactly what she, or he, really wants. Over the years I have gotten a few lovely plants as gifts, and enjoyed them for a while, but chosen as they were by non-gardeners, they were not as hardy as they needed to be for the gardens at the end of the road. I have gotten tools as gifts, but again, non-gardeners are not always able to assess the quality or utility of a given tool. In the case of plants and tools, gift certificates make the perfect gift. And think of the pleasure the recipient will have considering the possibilities before it is actually time to acquire the item itself.

New information can come in a variety of ways. Books, of course. Our local book shops have a good supply of dependable and beautiful garden books. I have written in this column over the past year about many excellent books I have found from Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind by Gene Logsdon and 50 Beautiful Deer Resistant Plants: The Prettiest Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs and Shrubs that Deer Don’t Eat by Ruth Rogers Clausen to the Encyclopedia of Container Plants: 500 Outstanding Choices for Gardeners by Ray Rogers. I might even mention my own book, “The Roses at the End of the Road.”

Some of us will think of magazine subscriptions that bring us loads of new information and inspiration every month. I have long been a subscriber to Organic Gardening, Horticulture Magazine and Fine Gardening. Over the years it has been nice to see how mainstream magazines have been paying more attention to organic methods. I have a new subscription myself to Green Prints: The Weeder’s Digest, a quarterly magazine that is a family operation with Pat Stone at the helm and wife Becky handling circulation. You can log on to www.greenprints.com for sample articles, and the monthly electronic newsletter.

Another way to gain new information, support important garden and educational activities, and gain a variety of benefits is by giving a membership to a horticultural or plant society. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society  membership will give a free ticket to the Blooms! Garden show in Boston in March, free or discounted tickets to many botanic gardens across the country, free subscriptions to magazines, discounted workshops and programs at the Elm Bank Gardens in Wellesley.  They also have a research and circulating library at Elm Bank which is a wonderful resource.

Right in our own backyard we have Nasami Farm which belongs to the New England Wildflower Society. Nasami’s many greenhouses propagate thousands of native plants for sale in spring and fall. NEWFS members get discounts on plants, programs and free admission to the beautiful Garden in the Woods and a subscription to the Society’s publications.

I also belong to the American Horticultural Society because it means I get their excellent magazine The American Gardener, but there are other benefits like discounted admission fees to many botanic and public gardens across the country, seed swap, and discounted publications and programs. Their extensive website contains information for members only, but even non-members will find a great deal of useful advice on this site. All these organizations provide education for children and adult gardeners, helping us all to be better stewards of our land.

There are also special plant societies from the African Violet Society of America to the American Hosta Society and American Rhododendron Society. There are even more specialized groups like the Historic Iris Preservation Society. What plant is your gardener passionate about? There is bound to be an appropriate plant society.

Consumables make great gifts. We gardeners can use up fertilizers and potting soil at a great pace. I think my container loving friend would be thrilled to find a pot filled with potting soil, perlite, organic fertilizers like Neptune’s Harvest or Espoma Rose Tone under her Christmas tree. So would I. This may not seem glamorous, but it is such a useful gift, acknowledging all the gardener’s needs and desires.

One of the best garden gifts I ever received was a load of rotted horse manure for my first garden. I was so grateful. Nowadays we don’t need to count on a friend with a farm. We can order, or get a gift certificate for a load of rich compost from Bear Path Farm or Martin’s Farm. The need for compost never ends.

This bag of gifts may not contain much glamour but it sure contains the promise of many pleasures all year long.

Don’t forget, you can win a gift for yourself by leaving a comment here . You could win a copy of Beautiful No-Miow Yards and The Roses at the End of the Road.

Between the Rows  December 10, 2011

Beautiful No-Mow Yards by Evelyn Hadden

Beautiful No-Mow Yards by Evelyn Hadden

What has your lawn done for you lately? That is the question asked by Beautiful No-Mow Yards by Evelyn J. Hadden and published by Timber Press ($24.95).

My husband would answer “Not much.” He was happy to find a strong boy to give the lawn a final mowing just before Thanksgiving. The lawn requires a fair amount of time and equipment to keep it mowed, even on the irregular schedule we manage to keep. We never fertilize or water, but even so, the lawn is definitely work.

Evelyn Hadden is a founder of Lawn Reform Coalition which aims to teach people about sustainable, healthier lawns. In Beautiful No-Mow Yards she proposes 50 alternatives to mowed grass lawns, offering solutions to cutting down on grass cutting in ways that are likely to appeal to every kind of gardener: new gardeners who are more interested in flowers or vegetables, experienced gardeners who are looking for new ways to garden, and environmentally concerned gardeners who want to cut down on the use of fossil fuels, herbicides and their own energy.

The table of contents lists some of the ways to think about no-mow gardens, or elements that will eliminate a lot of mowing. Play areas, patios and ponds do not need any mowing. Rain gardens keep rain water on site, with beautiful and varied plants. They never need mowing and if you live on a residential street your rain garden will also keep water out of stressed storm sewers.

Other chapters give advice about shade gardens, meadow and prairie gardens, edible gardens and stroll gardens, but it is not necessary to devote yourself to a single garden type. Many of us have patios and play areas, but still have lawns, after all. Hadden has spoken to couples like the Mayberg’s who have a patio and fire pit where they can sit and “enjoy views into two shade gardens, a mini-prairie, and a pond garden.” Curving paths lead into spaces that create different moods, but none that require mowing.

We have too much lawn at our house, but a number of years ago I realized that the common thyme growing in my herb garden had jumped to the west, overtaking the grass around a row of roses, and even jumping into the weedy field beyond. After that I began digging up clumps of thyme and planting them in a section of our front lawn where the soil is dry and not very fertile. The thyme is happy there and has spread over a large area. I love thinking that I have this lovely English thyme lawn that needs infrequent mowing.

Thyme is one of the living carpets that Hadden includes when listing other familiar ground covers like sedums, sweet woodruff, ajuga, lamium and others. Even those of us who need or desire lawn probably have areas that are not going to get a lot of foot traffic and could very easily and attractively be planted with these types of groundcovers.

Clump of barren strawberry in bloom

Four or five years ago I started planting barren strawberry (Waldsteinia), a native groundcover with strawberry-like leaves and little yellow flowers at the edge of our too-big lawn where it has spread beautifully. I underplanted it with a variety of daffodils and this area is beautiful in the spring.

This fall I took clumps of golden marjoram that grows in a dense mat in my herb garden and planted it in my failed Circle Garden. Rabbits! Rabbits have made it impossible to grow flowers in that circle as I have done for several years. Golden marjoram will send up flower stalks but I think it will tolerate some mowing. We’ll see.

Many people are unhappy with the shade in their gardens, partly because it is so difficult to grow grass in the shade. I envy them. I only have sun and long for shade, partly because it would mean I could eliminate lawn and plant ferns, hostas, and delicate flowers like tiarella, As in each of the other chapters, Hadden offers chats with gardeners who have created unique no-mow gardens with beautiful photographs. In the shade garden she points out the pleasures of working with light and shade, with colors of foliage, and with foliage size and textures.

One of the latest trends in suburban gardening is the edible garden. Hadden shows us ways that the edible garden can be as beautiful as an ornamental garden, and just as welcoming for sitting and visiting.

If we really must have a lawn Hadden devotes a chapter to Smarter Lawns. These can be achieved with low care grasses. In our region this would be fine fescues that can be kept to a height of four inches with only three or four mowings a years.

I call my unfertilized, un-herbicided, unwatered lawn filled with violets, dandelions, hawkweed, daisies and lots of clover a flowery mead, but Hadden calls this kind of lawn a freedom lawn. She provides whole list of plants that can be over-seeded a grass lawn.

A final section provides a small list of ground layer plants from Ajuga reptans only 2-4 inches high to 7 foot high joe pye weed.

Beautiful No-MowYards will be a wonderful gift to yourself, or to the gardener in your life who is rethinking where she spends her energy and labor. For myself, I find more reward in caring for my vegetable garden, roses and other ornamentals, than the lawn.

Between the Rows  December 1, 2012

Walking in the Woods Towards a Christmas Wreath

Storm damage in the woods

On Saturday my husband and I walked up what we call The Lane, the remnants of the old road that once led all the way to the next town of Rowe. We walked up the hill between two fields and into the woods.  We have done some logging in the woods, but when we walk there these days the extensive number of trees and limbs that have been toppled and broken are due to the big ice storm in December of 2008, then Hurricane Irene that did  devasting damage throughout the county in 2011 and the recent Sandy storm this past October. It is amazing to think that we have had these three severe storms in less than five years, when we had nothing like them in the previous 25 years.

We picked our way through the fallen branches to a large plantation of princess pine. We carefully clipped off a few dozen plants without disturbing the roots so  this planting could continue to grow.  We also collected branches from the white pine trees that have begun encroaching on our northern field, and a single very large red pine in the same field. We were collecting these branches to make Christmas wreaths. I was all inspired to make more Christmas wreaths after my lesson at Chapleys with the Greenfield Garden Club.

I made a final small harvest of greens from the Lawn Bed. The fountain juniper, Goldthread chamaecyparis,  and even the holly bush gave up a few of their branches for wreaths. I spent esterday afternoon on the piazza enjoying the mild weather while I wired the greens onto forms. I’m not done yet, but I think I’ve made a good start on my Christmas wreaths. Ornaments and ribbon to come.

Homemade Christmas wreaths and me