Christmas Extended – For the Birds

Pine cones, peanut butter, birdseed and ribbon

Christmas celebrations end for us on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. The wise men have finally arrived, the last gifts have been given and the party is over. But maybe not quite. When I take the Christmas tree down, I put it outside and decorate it for the birds. The ornaments are simple, but tasty, peanut butter smeared into pine cones and then rolled in bird seed.  A tie can be ribbon, yarn or twine, no matter.

Suet for the birds

I use an mesh onion bag to hold a piece of suet. Birds really appreciate suet to help them keep warm, although temperatures yesterday were again over freezing.

Suet and pine cone bird feeders

I tie these ornaments on my Christmas tree which is propped up by the brush burn pile. So far I have only seen bluejays taking advantage, but maybe that’s because blue jays are about the only bird I can identify. Except for robins.

Urban Greenways

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.

Winterberry – Ilex verticillata

Winterberry 11-7-11

It was Martha Stewart who first introduced me to winterberry, a native deciduous holly. Since it was Martha who pointed it out in an arrangement I thought it must be exotic, and not something I could grow.  I was wrong.

I did buy and plant five winterberry plants this spring, four female ‘Winter Red,’ and one male ‘Southern Gentleman’, but this photo is of a clump of winterberry growing by the side of the road. Those roadside shrubs are in a damp spot which gives me hope that my new plants will survive even though the weather has been wet and strange  all this season.

It is a joy when a plant like this is a native that supports the native wildlife and is beautiful in  the garden.

Good Berry – Bad Berry

Cotoneaster

When I walked through the garden the other day I realized how many red berries I have in the fall. Three years ago I noticed for the first time that my holly, ‘Blue Princess,’ and my cotoneasters had finally started producing berries. That berry production has gotten more prolific and beautiful each year.

Hollies are dioecious plants, which means they need separate male and female plants to cross pollinate and produce fruits. While there are many holly cultivars I chose Ilex x meservae ‘Blue Prince’ and ‘Blue Princess’ because they are among the hardiest of the hollies and ‘Blue Princess’ is considered one of the heaviest berry producers.

Both of these hollies are hardy in Zone 5 which is winter temperatures down to minus 20 degrees. They like moist but well drained acid soil and sun, although they will tolerate some shade. Full sun will give the best berry production. ‘Blue Princess’ and ‘Blue Prince’ will both attain a mature size of about 12 feet or more with a spread of up to ten feet. Fortunately they grow slowly only about six inches a year. In six years my ‘Blue Princess’ grew to about four feet tall and three feet wide. The ‘Blue Prince’ is smaller.

I love being able to prune off a few berry-laden branches for Christmas decorations, but I planted the hollies because I wanted more shrubs in the Lawn Bed. I am not ready to give up perennials, but as I get older I am looking for ways to cut down on the labor of maintaining perennials, dividing and cutting back, and weeding. Shrubs are so various with countless foliage forms, textures and colors, and even colorful blooms and berries that I think they add great richness to the garden.

About the same time  the hollies I planted two cotoneasters as groundcovers to provide a foil for the conifers I had in the Lawn Bed. They don’t grow very tall, only one or two feet for most varieties and the leaves are small and dark green. They are hardy and very attractive in every season.  I couldn’t wait for these to cover the ground individually and planted them much too close together. They have now merged and I’d be hard put to say which is which. One of them produces large quince-like blossoms in the spring. I just learned that the name ‘cotoneaster’ comes from two Latin words meaning similar to quince.

All cotoneasters (cuh-TOE-knee-asters) produce small red berries in the fall which will attract birds, if they are very hungry. They will not attract deer which makes me very happy.

Highbush cranberry

A third red berry that attracts birds in my garden the American highbush cranberry, the native Virburnum trilobum. This shrub is about 12 feet high in my garden and gives me no trouble at all. In the spring it produces flat airy blossoms that contain both fertile and infertile flowers. It is because of the flowers that I planted the highbush cranberry next to the Cottage Ornee. It also has very attractive palmate leaves.

The berries turn red in September and they are really beautiful. The birds love them, but I recently learned that they are not only edible for humans, but that they will make a very nice jelly.The berries are easy to pick because they grow in thick clusters and there are no thorns.

The berries can be harvested as soon as they are red, even though they will be crunchy at first. Freezing them before preparing them for processing will soften them up. I have been told that they taste very much like the cranberries, Vaccinium macrocarpon, that are so indispensable on the Thanksgiving table.

The birds are certainly thankful. Most of my berries, without any help from me, are gone by Thanksgiving.

Autumn olive

While I welcome holly, cotoneaster, and viburnam berries in my garden I have other red berries that are a source of dismay and frustration. The first is autumn olive, Elaeagnus umbellata, which we bought from the Conservation District many years ago. I planted three or four at the edge of the lawn, happy that they were fast growing and produced berries for the birds. They actually produce berries for me too, but I have never used them even though many people cook them up into a jam.

It did not take us long to see that the wind, or the birds, were seeding autumn olive in the field east of our planting. Over the years our planting died out except for one remaining bush. We are trying to eradicate the autumn olives in the east field.

The other dismaying berries are hips of the pasture rose which was here before we bought our house. We are constantly removing these briary, prickery roses and it is a never ending battle. They are very pretty and I have used sprays of their small red hips in holiday decorations, but mostly I arm myself with a heavy shirt and dungarees and leather gloves and try and cut them back at the root. Again and again.

Shrubs that produce beautiful berries give our gardens a long interesting season, and may attract our beloved birds, but if we are wise, we will be careful when we make our choices. We don’t want to invite trouble when we plant for color and for the birds. ###

Between the Rows   October 29, 2011

Nasami Farm – Planting Season

Photo courtesy of Nasami Farm

Nasami Farm in Whately is a part of the New England Wildflower Society which also operates The Garden in the Woods in Framingham. Here are the greenhouses that propagate the native plants that are then sold at Nasami and The Garden in the Woods to gardeners, landscapers and towns who are working to preserve local biodiversity. I have gotten many healthy beautiful plants at Nasami and I recommend them. Barrenwort as a groundcover, pagoda dogwood as a ornamental part of the new Windbreak, a penstemon and lobelia cardinalis for the border. All beautiful.

Nasami is open now for fall planting season. Hours are  Thursday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm until October 2.

If the rain stops long enough to do some planting, showers and cool weather will allow new plantings to settle in nicely before the winter.

The New England Wildflower Society also offers a full roster of classes from an introduction to botany to designing a mixed border to foraging for wild food. Click here for a downloadable version of their course catalog.

Also, soon we will be thinking about the gift giving season. Wouldn’t you like a membership that will give you so many benefits, nursery discounts, reciprocal admission to other botanic gardens and more, OR do you know someone who would like a membership. For full membership info click here.

More Tours – Hawley

A Hawley View

The weekend of July 9 is going to be busy. A festival of garden and artisan tours will be on offer. The Hawley Artisan’s & Garden Tour, sponsored by the Sons and Daughters of Hawley is billed as “A Collage of Art and Gardens.” One of my favorite gardens is Jerry Sternstein’s vegetable garden that is much more lush than mine – and has a fabulous view.

Other Hawley gardens have perennial borders and blooming shrubs, but many will also offer quilt displays, stonework, and Marian Ives delightful metal ornaments. One garden grows Energy, with an array of solar hot water, photovoltaics, a wood boiler and more. Lunch will be served at The Grove ($12) right across from the historic East Hawley Meeting House.  And don’t forget the famous Hawley Bog with its many rare plants.

For more information or to order tickets ($10 suggested donation) call Cyndie Stetson, 339-4231.   Tickets will also be available the day of the tour, Saturday, July 9 from 10-4pm at the Stetson house, 108 West Hawley Road.

A Dying Luna Moth

Injured Luna Moth

The large Luna Moth is a beautiful creature.  The Luna Moth (Actias luna) here was badly damaged and missing its long tail, but it was alive when my friend found it in her back yard. She put it in a casserole dish and began her researches.

Her moth was a female and even in its ravaged state it began to lay eggs. Ordinarily females will lay between 100-300 eggs about 4 to 7 at a time on the underside of leaves.  This moth had to make do with laying them on the dish.

Luna Moth eggs

I apologize that this photo is a little out of focus. My attempt at a close up was not successful.  These eggs are about the size of a pinhead, smaller than a beet seed.  Our poor lady could not lay them on the underside of a leaf, but she laid these down with whatever glue she naturally produces to make the eggs stick to a leaf.  That is something else I never thought about, that all the insect eggs that are laid on leaves need a ‘glue’ to make them stick.

Eggs incubate for 8 to 15 days and then each caterpillar begins its journey through several developmental stages (instars) before spinning a cocoon and pupating for about 2 weeks.  Their life span is short.  They do not eat, but mate and die in about a week.  This moth was discovered on June 3 so it must be very near it’s death.

I have not seen any Luna Moths, but I have noticed more butterflies than last year which makes me very happy.  The swallowtails haven’t started eating my dill, but they are welcome to it.

Trout Lilies

Trout lilies

This patch of trout lilies, Erythronium americanum, is growing by the roadside on the edge of a drainage in the woods near my house. Trout lilies are so called because the mottled leaves are thought to resemble the markings on brook trout, but it has other common names: adder’s tongue because of the look of the new unfurling leaves, and dogtooth violet because of the appearance of the white corm, but, of course, it is not a violet at all.

Erythronium americanum, trout lily

Trout lilies can join other spring ephemerals like bloodroot in the garden. They like fertile moist soil and enough sun in the spring to warm the soil in the spring, but shade throughout the rest of the year when they will have dried up and disappeared. They spread most reliably by creating new corms: while they may form a good sized colony they are not at all invasive. If you buy potted plants in the spring for your garden make sure they are nursery-propagated because native wildflowers are under siege everywhere.

I have so little shade in my garden that I really love finding wildflowers in my local ‘wilderness.’

Earth Day 2011

Greenfield Farmer's Market

On this Earth Day I don’t want to lecture about what we all should be doing to protect the environment. I want to celebrate some of the actions I know about in my community that are being done right now, many of which will grow.

I am thrilled with the school gardens that are being planted, tended and harvested. They not only supply food, but many lessons that connect with work in the classroom.  Heath school has had its garden for several years, but other schools also have gardens. I just learned that Mohawk Trail District Nutrition Director Elizabeth Buxton’s dream is for every school in the District to have its own garden. Buckland Shelburne Elementary will set up its garden on April 30.

I rejoice in the number of small farms that have started up in the last few years, making their produce available through their own farmstands, the farmer’s markets and local supermarkets.  Monday evening I am going to be at the Greenfield Community College Down Town campus at 6:30 to hear three Farm-hers, Deb Habib of Seeds of Solidarity in Orange, Sorrel Hatch of Upinngil Farm in Gill, and and Caroline Pam of the Kitchen Garden in Sunderland talk about their life and farms.

I give thanks that CISA (Community Involved in Sustainable Agriculture) is helping farmers and helping us find more and more local food all year round.

I applaud every time I see solar panels, or windmills as I drive along my country roads.

Of course I have my own part to play. We’ve tightened the house, got a new heating system, use FCLs, carry canvas shopping bags with us, bundle our errands to save gas, grow some of our own food and we are about to plant a windbreak that will help save on our  heating bills.

What do you celebrate in your area?  Do you have an energy saving project coming up?

Leave a comment on my Give Away post and maybe you will win Starter Vegetable Gardens. Deadline is midnight tonight.

Growing at the MG Spring Symposium

There was a great crowd at the Master Gardener’s Spring Symposium on Saturday. The arrangements were wonderful with a delicious and energizing breakfast buffet, fruit, muffins, juice, coffee and tea – all free.  And later a yummy lunch and great conversation with our fellow gardeners.

There were all manner of workshops from fruit tree pruning to roses!  Naturally I went to hear Tracey Culver, who is a head gardener at Smith College, talk about the roses she grows at home, and at the College. She was a mine of information about the care and maintenance of many kinds of roses. I’m going to pay special attention to the roses the next time I visit Smith.

Sue Reed, author of Energy Wise Landscape Design, filled us in on the many ways we can save all kinds of energy through our landscape design.  Those who couldn’t attend can find all that information in her book.  I’m glad I can refer to the book as I plant my windbreak this spring.

I can hardly wait for next year’s program, but I have plenty to do in the meantime and I am full of spring symposium inspiration!