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!

Preparing the Planting Bed

I never seem to get a Before picture. I don’t avoid it on purpose, but I am usually so embarrassed at the state of my garden that I subconsiously don’t think of getting the camera until I am a little way into the job.  Just picture this as a weedy area after the spent broccoli has been pulled out. It is about 6 feet long and no more than 2 feet deep.

Almost finished compost

After pulling out all the weeds and roots I got a wheelbarrow full of almost finished compost from our compost bin. I usually start that bin with a big bag of fall leaves, then add some chicken manure of which we have a good amount, and then put kitchen refuse in it during the winter. I also added more leaves and more manure so this is pretty good stuff. I could see that some of the matted leaves hadn’t quite broken down.

There was enough compost to spread it on this bed about 2 inches deep.  I broke up any matted leaves into leaf dust.

Before digging in the compost I sprinkled on a cup each of greensand and limestone, which I do on general principles. My soil is acid of course, hence the lime. The greensand is an organic source of potassium (K) and I count on the compost to provide the nitrogen and everything else the soil needs.  Now the bed is all ready for planting.

Though this bed is in the vegetable garden I think I will divide a couple of perennials and put the divisions here for winter nursery where they will be easy to dig up and pot up in the spring for the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale in May.

I was happy to get all this done before 10:30 yesterday morning. This part of the garden is shaded by the roadside trees until about 11 so it was comfortable to work. In the afternoon the temperature got up to 90 degrees. Nothing to do but go inside and blog.

A New Blog

Wild boys in the wilds of Heath picking 'wild' lowbush blueberries

Just when I was preparing a handout for my Heath Fair talk on Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants, I learned about a new group blog www.beautifulwildlifegarden.com that is being written by some of my favorite bloggers, many of whom I got to meet in Buffalo.

Beautiful Wildlife Gardens will give you lots of information about the natural world around us – in different parts of the  country. Informative and engaging. Which is what you might expect from a blog written by Helen Yoest (Gardening With Confidence), Barbara Pintozzi (Mr. McGregor’s Daughter), Chris McLaughlin (Kid Safe Landscape), Kelly Senser, (the editor of (National Wildlife Magazine), Kathy Green (All Things in Nature), Ellen Sousa (Turkey Hill Brook Farm right in in Massachusetts), Lisa Gustavson (Soil Sisters) and Gail Eichelburger (Clay and Limestone) who invented Wildflower Wednesday. They have a number of desires from the general creation of sustainable landscapes to the particular, like encouraging more bugs. Douglas Tallamy,  author of one of my favorite books, Bringing Nature Home, says we need more bugs.

Here on our hill we are surrounded by wildlife. I had a most remarkable experience this summer with a newborn fawn, and last year’s visits by a porcupine.  Once I walked down to the vegetable garden and came upon a HUGE flock of turkeys. I surprised them, and they me! – and they immediately flew into the air and down the hill to the tree line. Usually turkey sitings are not so dramatic. We hear the coyotes at night, and at noon.  The next town has a noon whistle – which must wake up the coyotes because they respond with their own howl. We wait for it when the grandchildren are visiting.

We have wildflowers, and flowers that have gone wild. Never Plant  Tansy!

Needless to say, we have our own kidsafe, wildlife safe, caterpillar safe, bird safe landscape. I’m delighted to know that I have a new place to visit that will encourage us all to be more aware of the wonders around us.

While I am talking about the wild world, I should mention my ‘colleague’ at The Recorder, Bill Danielson, who writes a fabulous column Speaking of Nature with special pages for kids. He also has a website of his own. Click here to see his columns and hear about his upcoming books.

Family, Food and Farming

My Family Branch at the Reunion

Magical things happen at family reunions. The youngest set seems to bond almost instantly with their cousins two or three times removed (I don’t really know how that works) and even the oldest generation gets to hear stories about their parents that they never heard before.

My Aunt Doris, the only representative of her generation at this reunion, said she never knew that as a 15^th birthday present my grandparents arranged for me to accompany my grandfather on a business trip to Chicago. We went on the elegant Twentieth Century train and I had my own roomette. My grandfather was nervous about being accused of hanky panky as he traveled with a skinny girl, exactly 15 years old, but his business associate chucked me under the chin at dinner, winked and said he would be happy to be my sugar daddy. In 1955 I giggled a lot and barely knew what he was talking about.

My cousin, Peggy Larson O’Connor, and two of her daughters, Meg O’Connor  Nelson and Kelley O’Connor Shastany, organized this Gilford, NH reunion with lots of help from the rest of the O’Connor branch. The food was fabulous and endless. The swimming pool kept the young set cool while elders like myself chatted in the shade. One topic of conversation was about change. How fast the children change, and how we elders are changing and what these changes mean.

I chatted with my cousin Susan at lunch. Now that her two children are grown she is thinking about the changes she and her man are considering. Growing their own food.  Raising animals for meat. And moving out of Massachusetts.  To  Maine?  Or West Virginia?  Cold or warm?  Hmmmmm – lots more to consider in those conversations.

As we talked cousin Travis joined us. It turns out that not only is he doing all those ‘homesteading’ things in Burlington, Vermont, he works at Invervale Center (www.intervale.org) , the non-profit organization founded by Will Rapp, who earlier in his life founded Gardener’s Supply which became an employee-owned company in December of 2009.

Intervale’ s mission is “to strengthen community food systems. Since 1988, we have pursued this mission by preserving and managing 350 acres of land, supporting viable farms, increasing access to local and organic food, improving soil fertility, protecting water quality through stream bank restoration, and educating young people about agriculture and healthy food. Through these efforts, we have established an exceptional agricultural and environmental resource within the city limits of Burlington.”

I told Travis that many of Intervale’s initiatives sounded similar to our own local CISA (Community Involved in Sustainable Agriculture).  He is familiar with CISA and agreed, but I learned that Intervale combines elements of other organizations in our area.

We have Nasami Farm which propagates and sells a large number of native plants and provides education about the importance of native plants to maintaining a healthy ecosystem.  Intervale has a conservation nursery with the more limited  mission of growing native trees and shrubs for riparian  conservation, stabilizing river banks and buffer areas.

Intervale also takes 30,000 tons of kitchen, yard and wood waste every year and turns it into compost which is sold in bulk or in bags as potting soil or seed starting mix. It is considered Vermont’s leading compost producer.

Farmers cannot succeed without business skills as well as agricultural skills. CISA and Intervale both know this, and both provide training for farmers. Both also help with marketing initiatives.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Intervale Center is the acreage they have leased to independent farms in three categories: Incubator farms are the newest which receive training and help with equipment; Enterprise farms which have been operating for at least three years; and Mentor farms  which have been operating for at least five years and provide mentoring for those incubator farmers. I was happy to note that all Intervale farms follow the organic standards set by the Vermont Organic Farmers (VOF) organization.

CISA and Intervale are examples of the way our society’s attitudes about our food are changing.  Organic farmers are no longer considered a kooky  fringe  and more of us are thinking about food miles, and food security.

We are beginning to recognize that agricultural methods and food distribution have real costs to our environment and our health. This realization means we also have to pay attention to the way public policy  affects our food supply and examine the full costs of our food supply.

Who pays for the irrigated cattle pastures in the far west? Who suffers from shortages of clean drinking water in cities?  Why do big agribusinesses get government subsidies while dairy farmers can’t get make any profit on the milk they sell?

In 1939 my grandfather, an immigrant from Sweden, and Uncle Wally (then age 25) and Aunt Ruth bought a 300 acre farm on Lake Champlain outside Burlington where they raised five children.  My birth family spent a few years working on that farm as well. Those childhood years with my cousins remain important to me.

As I looked over the New Hampshire landscape, and thought about the Vermont farm landscape of my childhood I could not help thinking that while a farm is a significant part of my personal history, the future of farming will be important to my grandchildren and their cousins splashing in the swimming pool, and indeed to the future of our nation.

Between the Rows  July 31, 2010

Rain Garden at UMass

photo courtesy of UMass

I have to say how happy I am that my alma mater, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has just installed its first Rain Garden. It is 150 feet long, 20 feet wide and 18 inches deep.  It is near the new (and very green) Studio Arts Building, below North Pleasant Street. The rain garden will collect run off from the street,  protecting the wetlands and Mill River on the west side of the campus from pollution and sediment.  Rain water is not clean after it has run off roads, lawns with animal feces and other trash. This dirty water can harm sensitive wetlands, and the sediment the run off carries will shorten the life of wetlands.

Students in Michael Davidsohn’s landscaping construction materials class, along with 2010 landscape architecture graduate Maxwell Cohen, worked on the project during the spring semester, using many recycled materials to keep the cost down.  Staff from Building and Grounds and the Physical Plant assisted with excavating, which shows the university’s support of this environmental endeavor. Davidsohn estimates that  the rain garden, planted with rushes, sedges and other water loving plants, can accept 3000 to 4000 gallons of water at a time.

Two other rain gardens are being planned for the Amherst campus.  Even when rain gardens are not protecting delicate wetlands, they do protect our storm sewer systems and the waterways that feed our rivers. They also keep the rainwater on site – recharging the local aquifer.

Hooray UMass!

Cherokee or Prairie Rose

Rosa setigera

Rosa setigera, otherwise known as the Cherokee rose or Prairie rose is the only climbing rose native to North America.  Its range is from Canada to Texas, as far west as Nebraska and Kansas.  I bought my plant at Nasami Farm in Whately last year. My rose collection was calling out for a native American rose.  I was told that although this is listed as a climber most people let it just grow into a mounded tangle.

R. setigera foliage

I didn’t really know what this rose would look like, but the foliage was quite different from the usual rose foliage.

R. setigera

This spring the rugosas started blooming in early June and the other varieties followed. We had a good show  for the Annual Rose Viewing the last Sunday in June. But no Cherokee rose.  I wondered if I had watered it enough; it is in quite a dry spot.  Then when I finally got my feet under me after my return from Buffalo, there it was, in full graceful bloom. The single blossoms in shades of pink are about two inches across on arching branches.  I don’t know if this late bloom date is typical, or another manifestation of all the odd weather this year.

A Berry Blue Summer

Blueberries on the bush

Netting the blueberries was the big garden task of the weekend.  Between the heat, the thunderstorms, adventures with visiting grandson Tynan, picking raspberries and preparing to host the  Heath Gourmet Club on Saturday night, this job kept getting postponed. Finally, on Sunday, with the sun shining and a deliciously cool breeze blowing, we set to. The berries are just starting to  ripen here at the End of the Road, but the birds are starting to circle.

We planted our blueberry bushes at least 27 years ago. For many years we just threw nets over them to keep the birds away, but we finally got smart and built a PVC pipe cage. The cage covers the five bushes that are planted in a straight line. If we had thought of the necessity and practicality of a netted cage we would have planted the bushes in a block.

Black plastic netting goes over the pipe supports and is tied in place with twistees.  In the photo above you can see that two large bushes live outside the cage, providing a few early berries for us, and many berries for the birds. I may not supply the birds with sunflower and thistle seeds, but I do provide a good supply of blueberries.

The netted berries supply us with a long season of freshly picked berries that do not have to be picked daily the way raspberries do. They are the most considerate of berries, hanging on the bush for days without rotting or spoiling. In fact they are considerate of the gardener’s labor as well.  Once these bushes were planted in our naturally acid soil, they have not needed any other care.  I occasionally cut out small dead branches; that is the only pruning required.

I pick my blueberries at my leisure and enjoy the these healthiest of fruits in the summer, and through the winter, pulling bags of them out of the freezer. At my leisure.

Daylilies for All

Siloam Double Classic

Daylily season is upon us.  Even those who can’t name many flowers recognize dayliles, those growing in glorious organce by the road side, and those in shades of cream and pink, coral, gold and deep reds and burgundies in cultivated gardens. Some daylilies have the classic simple trumpet shape and some are ruffled.  Because daylilies are so hardy as well and beautiful in their variety, many small growers sell them in full bloom, dug out of the garden right before your eyes.

Richard Willard at Silver Daylily Gardens

I bought some dayliles from Richard Willard at Silver Garden Daylilies earlier this spring. He is having another digging day on Saturday, July 10 from 9 am to 4 pm. The daylily farm is on Glenbrook Road out towards the Greenfield Pumping Station. On July 17 Richard is holding his annual Daylily Festival which will include edible daylily treats dished up by Mary Ellen and Denise of Stockbridge Herb Farm.  Pre-registration for the daylily meal ($18) is required.

Lorraine Brennan's Daylilies

Last summer daughter Kate and I visited Lorraine Brennan on Rt 10 in Northfield and bought a carload of daylilies. She is selling daylilies on July 10 and 11 from 9 to 1 pm, and again the following weekend, July 17 and 18 from 9-1 pm. Lorraine will have a sign out on the road. Don’t drive too fast.

Last year I also bought a small yellow daylily at Shelburne Farm and Garden. It is named Happy Returns. One of my Buckland library patrons gave this daylily to the library. We thought the name was just perfect for a library.

Hyperion daylily

My tall clear yellow daylily is the classic Hyperion. It was given to me by Elsa Bakalar many years ago. We are deconstructing a daylily bed and moving my favorite daylilies to the new Daylily Bank. My husband will no longer have to mow that difficult area.

The beauty of daylilies lies not only in their color and form, but in their hardiness. They are not bothered by extremes in weather. They need only ordinary soil. They are not bothered by disease or bugs. Hybridizers are coming up with varieties that bloom early and late so you can have daylilies blossoms  all summer long.

Hurry to Hawley

Field of greens at Pen and Plow Farm

Who would not like to live on Pudding Hollow Road? It is clearly a road steeped in the history of Hawley, a town settled in 1760, and a unique pudding contest which took place in the late 1770s.  Farms and food have always been important parts of Hawley’s history and culture so I could not resist the opportunity to visit the newest farm and an old established garden, both on Pudding Hollow Road, and both a part of Hawley’s annual Artisan’s and Garden Tour which will be held on Saturday, July 10 from 10 am until 4 pm.

When you turn off Route 8A and cross over the new bridge you are on Pudding Hollow Road, Right across from the tiny town hall is the two year old Pen and Plow Farm, so called because the Velazquez family, Sheila, her son Jason and his wife have all been in the publishing/editorial business , but since early last spring have been turning their creative energies to sustainable farming.

Merlot lettuce at Pen and Plow farm

Sheila, who said she had farmed many years ago and has had varied careers since then, was delighted that her son gave her the nudge (push?) to go back into farming. The family found 21 acres, wooded and clear, with a year round stream. They have planted a large market garden, currently boasting ‘greens’ including reds like Merlot, Red Fire and Red Sails lettuces. These can be purchased among other places, at the new Charlemont Farmer’s Market held on Saturdays at the Hawlemont School.

In addition to the mangelwurzel (for animal feed) corn, squash, and other vegetable fields, they have two Scottish Highland Cows. “They are a good breed for the country,” Sheila said. “ They are hardy and eat brush, poison ivy and wild raspberries.”  I can see that would save on feed bills. They also have chickens and recently added a Jersey milk cow to their holdings.

Jason Velazquez

Jason took time out from his chores to show me how to sharpen and use a scythe, and to talk about his pleasure in being able to return to farming. “Values you learn in a rural childhood are applicable to many walks of life,” and this is one of the reasons he wanted to leave Boston and bring his wife and children to Hawley and to make a farm.

As he showed me all the projects, he explained that they want to learn to do more with less. “Everything we do is rooted in sustainability – what the land can sustain, and the amount of labor we can sustain as a family. We wan to provide our own food, but we plan to farm to a living. We have a commitment to being part of a community that sustains itself.”

As they move towards making a living on the farm they are paying attention to the vegetables that customers prefer. They also sell fresh eggs that have the brilliant yellow yolks that are typical of free range chickens.

Paul Cooper

Paul Cooper, retired neurosurgeon and serious cook, and his wife Leslie have been summering in Hawley since 1981, enjoying the magnificent views of the hills, and tending their gardens.

Cooper toured me around his hillside, showing me new fruit trees, apples, pears, a greengage plum, peaches, and quince. Several years ago they planted two copper beech trees which are still young, but already show signs that they will grow into majestic old trees. There is a special thanks due to people like the Coopers who plant trees that will not come into their noble maturity until they themselves are no longer walking the earth.

There are colorful flower gardens that Leslie tends, daylily borders, and pink honeysuckle vines, not an invasive variety. But Cooper’s favorite garden is the fenced vegetable garden which hints at his passion for cooking.  He grows several kinds of tomatoes, Big Boy, Sun Gold, Early Girl, Celebrity and Donna. Yukon Gold, Corolla and Kennebec potatoes, Fava beans, shallots, leeks, garlic, asparagus and eggplant, “but no peppers, because I hate them,” he said.

Mint is grown in its own circular garden where the lawn mower can keep it under control.  A small herb garden supplies much of the common herbs Cooper needs.

The lettuce was lush and Cooper sighed when he said, “It’s been a lettuce summer,” which is to say cool and damp.

Paul Cooper's lambs

Cooper hasn’t forgotten the main course, He also raises lambs – and he has a large collection of lamb recipes.

The blueberry, raspberry and red currant patches suggest that diners at his table do not leave until there has been a luscious dessert.  Maybe he will find one in The Pudding Hollow Cookbook, written by Tinky Weisblat, another Hawley resident.

Akebia covered pergola at the Cooper's

The Hawley tour includes visits to other farms, gardens and a lunch at one of Hawley’s Great Houses, also on Pudding Hollow Road.

This tour, A Collage of Arts and Gardens Throughout the Town of Hawley is sponsored by the Sons and Daughters of Hawley. Proceeds will help fund restoration of East Hawley Meeting House and the Grove Building. It is hoped that the new bathrooms in the Grove Building will be completed by tour day. For more information about tickets for the  tour call Cyndie Stetson 413- 339-4231.

Betweenthe Rows  June 26, 2010

Happy Birthday Chicks!

Month old chicks

Today the chicks are one month old!  We celebrated by moving  half of them down to their new home in The Dell with Sheila. She rebuilt their chicken house to make it snug and safe.  Three strong women, Sheila, her daughter Katelynn, and I squeezed into our henhouse to separate out the Buff Orpingtons, New Hampshire Reds, Silver Laced Wyandottes and Black Stars from the Barred Rocks, Dominiques and Araucanas.  Sheila lost count as Katelynn handed them off to be popped into a big cardboard box, but when they were counted out into their new space all 24 were accounted for.

Our chicks at one month

We are left with 18 chicks, but more will move out. BJ is getting six and Kate is getting four. The rest will refresh my flock of layers.  I have a good setup for brooding chicks, so I was glad to do it for the whole delivery.  I think the chicks feel more secure being part of a good sized flock.     Right now they are all happy with their new space. The brooding box has been upended and the chicks have more room to spread their wings. These are the flightiest chicks I have ever had. They are all layers, but will not be producing eggs until right about Christmastime.  A nice present for us.