Heath School Gardens

Over at Garden Rant Mary Gray’s guest rant bewailed the state of many school grounds, all concrete and lawn. I am very familiar with the school grounds that she describes, but I feel fortunate that the children in our small town have a very different school experience.

Heath Elementary School wellhead

The Heath Elementary School, which opened in 1996, was built in a pasture surrounded by woodland. When the school bus pulls off the dirt road onto the driveway it passes a path that leads to the school’s wellhead. This area is well used for science study, with information about the importance of clean water, and how it is kept clean.

Heath School Entry

The children debark they welcomed by perennials on either side of the entrance.

Heath School Playing Fields

The school and its grounds are held in the embrace of a woodland, where science can be studied, and the beauties of nature can inspire art classes. Perhaps inspire a poem or essay or two as well.

Heath School Meadow

The meadow fills the circular drive where buses and cars drive up to, and then away from the entry. Right now it looks all neat having just been given a back to school trim, but in the spring it is a hazy blue meadow of lupines, followed by a bouquet of summer wildflowers.

Heath School Vegetable Garden

The newest addition to the school landscape is the vegetable garden, punctuated by some bright annuals. This has been producing for three or four years now and the soil gets better every year.  There are some apple trees, too. I’d like to be able to tell you that the kids enjoy some of those vegetables at lunch but I am sure, absolutely sure, that they would never break the law which forbids this kind of activity. Isn’t the law interesting? There might be another lesson there.

This school with its gardens doesn’t come about just because it is a small school out in the country. It takes devoted and energetic parents who volunteer time, labor and money, and creative teachers who find a hundred ways to integrate the garden and the landscape into the Mass Curriculum Frameworks.  Heath is pretty lucky!

Two Lasagna Gardens

Kara's lasagna herb garden

My neighbor Kara read my directions for making a lasagna garden – followed them, and this is what she got. A beautiful lasagna herb garden.  She will not need to add another layer of cardboard and soil to maintain this next year.

Kara's other lasagna bed

On the other side of the grass path, wide enough for a lawn mower, Kara planted mostly annuals. After the harvest she may want to add another layer of cardboard, water it well, and add a new layer of good soil. It will be ready for planting.

My lasagna beds

I followed my directions and planted two lasagna beds. One is a small cutting garden with zinnias, ornamental amaranth (partly eaten by deer), cornflowers and scarlet bee balm.  The sweet peas did not climb the white trellis but sprawled on the ground.  The other bed is summer squash and one winter squash. Other seedlings were eaten by earwigs.

My question is, why do my gardens always look out of control?

Important Dates

All for the Belly Bus August 2009

August 13  3-5 pm  The Belly Bus will be at the Town Common in Greenfield. You can bring non-perishable foods to the Common which will then be distributed to area food pantries. Unfortunately, more and more families are suffering from food insecurity, not knowing if their own pantry will last out the week, or the next day.  Please help.

August 14 & 15   9 am-2 pm Mary Kay Hoffman of E. Hawley MA is offering  a dig in her large perennial garden  to benefit Sons and Daughters of Hawley and their capital projects:  The 1846 Meetinghouse and The Hawley Grove.  The dig is  Saturday and Sunday Aug 14 and 15, 9 am – 2 p.m. at 7 Watson Rd. Hawley.  Call for directions –  413-339-4430.  An appropriate donation to the Sons and Daughters of Hawley is requested.  I know this garden and there are MANY beautiful perennials. Bring your own shovel and containers.

August 17 & 18 – Local Hero Restaurant Days Participating restaurants will highlight dishes featuring locally grown products. Show your support for local agriculture and great food by dining out at one of the 44 participating Local Hero restaurants.

“Our Local Hero restaurants are excellent supporters of local agriculture because they are committed to buying produce and products from local farmers: this past year, Local Hero restaurants spent over $1,250,000 on local farm products and have been able to prepare menu items with the freshest ingredients of the season. In total, these restaurants serve over 39,000 people each week. When you look at those figures, it’s easy to see how much of an impact restaurants can have on our food system when they purchase locally, ” says Local Hero Membership Coordinator Devon Whitney-Deal.  click here for a list of all participating restaurants.

Waatermelon Contest 2009

August 20-22 Heath Fair The Exhibit Hall.  Ox Draw. Friends of the Heath Library Book Sale. Pie!  Fireman’s Barbecue. The best Fair ever.

Sunflowers at Berkshire Botanical Garden

August 21 – Sunflower Contest sponsored by The Recorder and the Greenfield Garden Club at the Energy Park in Greenfield. Bring your sunflower entry, tall, multiflowered, big, heavy or beautiful arrangement, to the Park between noon and 2 pm.  Then the judging will begin! There are two classes: Youth – Under 16 and Adult – 16 and over.  Ribbons! Prizes!  Winners will get their photos in the Living/Arts section of the Recorder.

Free Harvest Supper 2009

August 22 – Free Harvest Supper 4:30 to 6:30 pm in Greenfield – This fabulous meal donated and served by volunteers to lively music is totally free – but feel free to make a contribution to the Farmer’s Market Coupon Project for the Center for Self Reliance which makes it possible for those using the food pantry to buy their own favorite fresh veggies at the Farmer’s Market.

August 22  -  World Kitchen Garden Day The most local food we can eat is that grown in our own gardens. Although we don’t often think about it, an amazing amount of the food we eat around the world is grown in our own kitchen garden. Kitchen Garden International supports and encourages us all to grow some of our own food.

August 22 – 28 – Massachusetts Farmer’s Market Week Blogathon hosted at In Our Grandmother’s Kitchens - Loving Local: Celebrating the Flavors of Massachusetts  This week long celebration of local food and farmer’s markets is sponsored by the Mass Dept of Agriculture and the non-profit organization Mass Farmers Markets.

Robert Dane Loves the Blues

Robert Dane's Blueberry Bud Vases

Bob Dane loves the blueberries Heath is famous for. He also loves the blueberry fields where they are grown which is why he has donated these sweet blueberry bud vases to the Franklin Land Trust to use as a gift for all those who donate $250 or more to the FLT and ear mark that gift “The Benson Place” to support the Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR)  and trail easement that has been awarded to the Benson Place Blueberry Farm in Heath. These covenants will ensure farming and passive recreation on that land for years to come.

Robert Dane's Tutti Frutti Goblets

Heath is famous for blueberries, and Bob is famous for his blown glass. His tutti frutti goblets, beautiful and whimsical, are one of his trademarks.  He sells his work, and that of the country’s most noted glass artists at the Dane Gallery on Nantucket. Hillary Clinton has shopped at the Gallery when visiting Nantucket!  His wife Jayne, is co-owner and Director of the Gallery.

But Bob is not  only an amazing  and skilled artist, and supporter of land preservation (he is on the Board of the FLT) he is a gardener! His tiny vegetable garden is right outside the back door adjacent to the stone terrace.  He needs to keep it small because of his work schedule.  It contains winter squash, kale and beets that he doesn’t have to worry about until late in the season.  On the other hand, his second planting of arugula is coming along nicely and he continues to enjoy stuffed zucchini blossoms – as well as the zucchini squash. Bob is a great cook, too.

Tiny thyme

All of us in Heath have a good time in the summer, but we can feel we are on a tight schedule. Time is always an issue.  However, Bob says he has “‘lots of thyme.” Between the stone pavers on the terrace he has wooly thyme, creeping thyme, tiny thyme and regular common thyme. I’ve been feeling the need for more time, but Bob has shown me how to have more thyme.  Thanks, Bob.

Could You Blog Here?

Designed by Michael Devine of Michael Devine Home

This Garden Blogger’s Retreat, designed by Michael Devine, is one of the sheds in the Living Stylishly in Nature: Re-Imagining the Humble Garden Shed special exhibit at the Berkshire Botanical Garden. in Stockbridge.  Wouldn’t you love to walk out your door and through your garden to this ’shed’ to begin your post for the day?

Blogger's Antique Desk with Natural Linen Top

Can you tell that two thirds of the back wall is covered with tall mirrors? Swagged with handprinted fabric?  However, I noticed that there is no chic, slim laptop on the writing table. Can it be there is no wi-fi? Neither is there the least sophisticated point and shoot camera.

Oh well, if I have no laptop, or camera (surely there really is wi-fi if only I had the computer) I guess I’ll have to lounge on my comfy sofa and leaf through the books on my faux bois bookcase and think.  Thinking is a very important part of writing and blogging, you know.

These sheds are for sale. Well, not this one. It already sold for $5000. The accoutrements cost extra.

This exhibit at the Berkshire Botanical Garden will run through September as will Sitting Pretty: The Garden Bench as Sculpture. The Benches are for sale, too.  I have to tell you, the gardens are looking their best this year. It is worth the trip.

Michael Shadrack and His Hostas



The ‘long bus’ turned so sharply off the paved road and onto a dirt track that all 40 of us garden bloggers collectively held our breath. Fortunately our driver was a real pro and soon we were driving through the woods where Kathy and Michael Shadrack, hosta experts, awaited us.

When the bus stopped Mike Shadrack leaped on to welcome us to his home and gardens.  With a nod to Frank Lloyd Wright Mike calls his house Fallingwater North because it is literally set over a stream. Its broad decks provide a deliciously dangerous view of the stream plunging into a deep wooded ravine.

In front of the house a marquee (that’s British for tent) had been set out with a proper cream tea. China cups, tea pots, milk, lemon and British scones (not the big dry kind you get in upscale bakeries) with clotted cream and strawberries were ready to help us restore our tissues before we set out to explore the shade beds planted with Mike’s hostas, and the sunny hill planted with scores of his wife’s daylilies.

Everywhere we looked were hostas of every size and hue, hostas in the woods, in beds and in pots. Shadrack explained that putting hostas in pots was one way to cut down on slug and snail damage. He also said that putting copper tape tied around the pots would act as a further deterrent. He also puts whole arrangements of min-hostas in a single pot.

I looked at the hostas growing in the dappled light of the woods and  wondered if there were no deer in New York state. In his ebullient and charming manner Shadrack told us all to be careful because we might bump into his “unique, patented deer fence.” He described this as a kind of web of monofilament fishing line that went from tree to tree.  I had heard that a single strand of  fishing line could be run around a garden at chest height to deter deer. The idea is that the deer cannot see the fishing line, but they will feel it. The touch of this invisible thing will confuse or frighten the deer and they will advance no farther and leave.  I haven’t tried this, but the idea fishing line going up and down and across from fence post to fence post, or from tree to tree sounds more dependable.

I certainly do know that hostas are deer candy. I have a few common plants growing by the Cottage Ornee and they are nibbled at all season long.

Michael Shadrack

Since most of the Buffalo gardens we had been visiting were small urban gardens, they had a fair amount of shade. And where gardeners have shade they will have hostas. In the small Timber Press Pocket Guide to Hostas ($19.95) by Diana Grenfell and Michael Shadrack, there are descriptions of 800 hostas  from mini to giant, and in every shade of green, yellow green, gold, and blue greens. Some are variegated and some are crinkled and some have fragrant flowers. There are hostas to please every taste.

In this book Shadrack and Grenfell  point out that  hostas can be a “foil early in the season to strap-shaped hemerocallis . . . later on, sun-tolerant hostas . . .  can accentuate the spikiness of yuccas.”

Shadrack reminded us that hostas are shade tolerant, not shade loving, meaning that high or dappled shade is best. Hostas need protection from the strongest sun of the day.  They need fertile soil that is moist but well drained, and a site that is protected from strong wind.

With Diana Grenfell, Shadrack has put all his knowledge and advice about hostas in the big New Encyclopedia of Hostas (Timber Press 49.95) and in November Timber Press will release The Book of Little Hostas: 200 Mini and Very Small Varieties. Just in time for holiday giving. Shadrack said he once took a photo of 100 potted mini hostas on one of his deck benches to show that every one of us has room for a substantial collection of different hostas.

Mini-hosta collection

The Shadrack garden was the final stop of the third day of touring Buffalo’s gardens for 70 garden bloggers from across the country, and from Canada. The only thing you can say about all garden bloggers, who write about their gardens online, is that they are passionate gardeners. We are also journalists, garden designers, garden coaches, garden magazine editors, and garden lecturers. If you would like to ‘meet’ some of the gardeners I met in Buffalo and see their posts and photographs of Buffalo’s gardens, logon to www.Buffa10.blogspot.com. I love the idea that Buffalo’s gardens have become an important tourist attraction.

Of  course when I returned home from Buffalo I found my own garden had undergone a growth spurt. Why is it that weeds don’t mind drought, and grow twice as fast as anything else?

I also saw that the Community Harvest has begun at Ev Hatch’s Field for the Hungry on Plain Road. If you would like to help with this harvest call Mark Maloni at Community Action 413-376-1181.,    If you cannot help with the harvest there because your own harvest is keeping you so busy, remember you can bring any extra produce to the Salvation Army or Center For Self-Reliance, or the Survival Center or any other food pantry near you.  Log on to www.parwmass.blogspot.com for more information about the Plant a Row program. ###

Between the Rows   July 24, 2010

For Henry

White Henryi lily

Last year I bought 3 golden Henryi lilies and 3 white Henryi lilies from Old House Gardens. The reason is obvious. My husband’s name is Henry.  When I was in Buffalo I saw a golden Henryi in Elizabeth Licata’s garden – but I didn’t recognize it because it was at least 6 feet tall!  I guess I have a lot of work to do on my  soil.  My lilies are barely three feet tall and the stems are not very sturdy. So far only the white Henryi is blooming; I can’t wait to see the gold.

A Field for the Hungry

Ev Hatch's tomatoes for a Community Harvest

Ev Hatch will never forget the seed salesman who talked to him about his upcoming retirement.  Instead of selling seeds, he was  going to plant a lot of vegetable seeds, tend the plot and donate all the vegetables to food pantries.

Over his career Hatch has planted a lot of seeds, in the ground, and in the community as he worked for the Cooperative Extension Service and 4-H. After his  retirement in 1977 from these agricultural state enterprises  he began farming out on Plain Road in Greenfield.  At first he grew a little bit of everything including strawberries, but eventually he focused on strawberries. Hatch’s Patch supplied beautiful berries to the cooks and happy eaters of the area for many years.

Four years ago he gave up farming, but continues to grow his own garden. His land is rented to Kyle Bostrom who uses Hatch’s greenhouses to grow and sell vegetable starts and bedding plants. A new sign for The Patch still welcomes gardeners in the spring.

With his farming days finished the words of that seed salesman came back to Hatch.  He had land available, and he had labor available at his church, First Congregational Church in Greenfield, as they planned their Feet, Hands and Voices to Faith project.

He plowed up a quarter acre and he had a flashback.  When the tiller broke he remembered that what he hated most about farming was equipment that broke down just when you needed it. Everything had to stop while you figured out how to repair it. Nothing was broken in the hearts or hands of a crew from the church who helped with planting the field on May16th.

He speaks with such passion about the aggravation of farm equipment that I had to ask what he liked about farming. That was easy, he laughed. “I like the independence. You can do what you want.”

I allowed as how Mother Nature had something to say about what you needed to do at any given moment, and he agreed that was true. “But a farmer can figure out what the market wants, and how he can fit into the system. There is always a challenge, and you figure out how to meet the challenge yourself. No one is telling you what to do.”

If fixing equipment is his least favorite farm chore, he said his favorite is hoeing. “I love to hoe. I just stand there and zonk out.”

However, we have come to the season where there is no time for zonking out.  When I first  talked to Hatch about the field of tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers, winter squash and broccoli I asked how could he ever manage the harvest and get the produce to the food pantries. He said he would need help.

Help is being organized now, as the harvest season officially begins on July 12.  Mark Maloni, Projects Coordinator at Community Action is scheduling volunteers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 9 to 11.  You don’t have to be an experienced gardener who has been picking vegetables for years, but you do need to call Maloni and let him know when you can come, or when he needs volunteers. He hopes that most volunteers will be able to commit to two or three (or more) sessions,  but if you can only come once, any help is welcomed.

Packing crates will be located in the greenhouse. When filled they should be moved across the street to the Hatch home where they can rest in the shade.  The Franklin Area Survival Center will pick up the harvest one day a week, the Center for Self Reliance will pick it up another day, and the Orange Food Pantry will take the harvest on the third day. Volunteers should bring their own drinking water, hats, and sunscreen.

If you cannot help harvest Hatch’s field, but have a productive garden, you can donate any extra produce to any one of the area food pantries or meal sites. Open hours and coordinators’ names for at least 11 food sites are listed on the Plant a Row website: www.parwwmass.blogspot.com.

The number of families in our area who are enduring food insecurity continues to grow. An indication of the severity of this problem is the growth in the Eat 4 Free program. This federal program for communities with more than 50% of children eligible for free and reduced meals in the schools has been operating for 20 years. “The number of children being served has tripled in the last eight years,” said Bernie Novack, Director of Food and Nutrition Services for the Greenfield Schools.

Novack said that after the long Fourth of July weekend 750 breakfasts were served, and 1250 lunches. “Many of these children hadn’t had a good meal since Friday,”

I have seen Eat 4 Free signs posted at some of the meal sites as I’ve driven around town, at Federal Street School, Greenfield Gardens, Greenfield Swimming Pool and 10 other sites. Depending on the site, the program will run for between six to nine weeks. All a child has to do is walk in. No questions asked.

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The only question asked at local daylily sales this weekend and next is “How many do you want?” Lorraine Brennan on Rt 10 in Northfield is selling daylilies July 10, 11, 17 and 18 from 9-1 pm.  Richard Willard at Silver Garden Daylilies on Glenbrook Road is digging daylilies on July 10 from 9 am – 4 pm, and on July 17 he is holding the Annual Daylily Festival with edible daylily treats. Logon to www.silvergardendaylilies.com for full information.

Between the Rows   July 10, 2010

Doozy of a Dahlia

One of the gardens on the Buffalo Garden Walk had many dahlias – familiar varieties in familiar colors. But this dahlia is a doozy!  I’m going to have to research a source.  Has anyone seen this in a catalog?

Mirrors in the Garden – a Trend?

The first mirror in the garden I saw this past weekend was in one of the first gardens. I had already seen gardens with high brick walls that had ‘windows’ cut into them. When I glimpsed shining light in the wall in this garden I thought it was another windowed wall, which I thought was a charming idea.  When I scrunched down to get a better idea, and a photo I realized I was looking at a mirror. The photo is a little crooked because I had to bend down and under the dripping foliage to see the mirror clearly.  There were other mirrors in this garden. These urban Buffalo gardens all have walls, perfect for vines – and mirrors.

The second  mirror in the garden I saw was in Gordon’s rain drenched paradise. You have to look close to see the mirror because it is reflecting the variegated hostas.  There were other mirrors in this garden as well.

This is one of a series of three mirrors against a vine covered wall in Jim Charlier’s garden.  He said the mirrors are inexpensive so he doesn’t mind that they will rot away in the rain.  He has also built a kind of soffit out from the wall, which not only holds some of the vines, it hides a rope light (light rope?) which makes for a delightful effect at night – as do the three tiki lights reflecting in each mirror.  We garden bloggers were invited to lunch at Jim’s and we couldn’t see this effect, but everyone who has a copy of the current issue of Fine Gardening can see it in the Spice up the Night feature.

There is a saying that if you see three unusual things, or hear about the same odd thing three times in a row you are seeing the birth of a trend. I like this trend and I am going to look for a suitable wall.

Of course, if you happen to take a trip to the famous Buffalo Garden Walk, the country’s largest free garden tour, the last week in July, you might be able to notice other trends.  Have you noticed any new trends in your neighborhood gardens?