I am familiar with Independence Day, but I did not know about Constitution Day. Neither did I know that there was "I am an American Day." That day was suggested by William Randolph Heart - and others - in 1940. Congress then designated the third Sunday in May as "I am and American Day. I can imagine there were a lot of people in that year, and continuing, who wanted to declare their love of the United States.…
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day brought a great gift – six (and I stress SIX) Monarch butterflies dancing on the Joe Pye Weed. This is very unusual. Until yesterday we have only had one Monarch at a time, but yesterday THREE monarch were dancing on the zinnias. With six Monarchs we are in a celebratory mode. (more…)
The Alchemy of Avalon storefront on Miles Street in Greenfield, prepares us for a very new business. Suzanne O’Gara is the entrepreneur, welcoming all those who are interested in tea. She makes many types and flavors of tea, and O’Gara can help visitors to the shop choose a tea to help heal, as well as familiar kinds of tea to delight. (more…)
We love our Sycamore, in spite of all the little branches it throws down at this time of the year. A few leaves have also blown down but not enough to start raking. The unpleasant thing about sycamores is that in the summer the sycamore develops fine dust on the underside of its leaves. This dust is a respiratory irritant which affects some people more than others. My husband wears a mask and goggles when he is raking up leaves and twigs in the fall. That work can be quite unpleasant. (more…)
Hurricane Ida took her time getting to Greenfield but on September 2, 2021, we woke up to flood. Now I can’t fully blame the flood on Ida. When we bought our house six years ago we knew that there was occasional water in the back yard. Our strategy was to create a stroll garden by bringing in yards and yards of good soil (we love Martin’s Farm Compost) to build raised beds. (more…)
Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum) is not a weed! It is a native plant that tolerates some shade and blooms late in the summer. This year there has been so much rain that the Joe Pye Weed is not looking quite itself. Even so, it is continuing to flower and attracts bees, butterflies and provide seeds for overwintering birds. (more…)
One of the main reasons I planted Cardinal flowers is because they love water. My garden is very wet, and I have chosen these water-loving flowers that keep it colorful from July into September. These are growing five feet tall and more. They are welcoming to butterflies and hummingbirds. (more…)
Over the years I saw mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum) growing around trees making a great ground cover. For several years I admired the large leaves but never saw any apples so the name mayapple seemed very odd. Even so I planted a few on our hugel. They flourished. But I never saw a flower. Mayapples emerge from the ground in April. This photo was taken on April 26, 2020. (more…)
The Limelight panicle hydrangea was one of three very large hydrangeas we planted in our new garden six years ago. We planted them along our next door neighbor’s driveway. They provided us with a ‘friendly fence’, and gave her the view of beautiful flowers instead of the side of our house. (more…)
Griffith Buck, a professor at Iowa State University, was ahead of his time. He bred 80 roses over many years. I was quick to fall in love with Buck roses because I was living high on a hill with very cold winters. Carefree Beauty was one of the first Buck roses I bought and planted. It tolerated the cold, rarely had trouble with insects or disease, and wasn’t fussy about the soil. I was a new rose gardener and Buck roses were the perfect way to start. (more…)