Rose at Ramble 0n Rose has won The Perennial Gardner's Design Primer by Stephanie Cohen and Nancy Ondra. Congratulations! I want to thank everyone who has helped me celebrate three years of blogging this month. And thank you Storey Publications for being so generous in making this Giveaway possible.
On a day like today I bitterly regret the lack of a windbreak to the northwest of our house where the wind roars down the hill. Only a single white pine, the sole tree to survive a windbreak planting more than 20 years ago, impedes the blast. My husband and I have been studying that pine and thinking it is time to try again. Therefore, it might not be pure coincidence that I arranged to meet with Sue…
not from China 'cross the Bay, but from the east in glorious array. I almost missed the photo, the colors change so rapidly. This morning the sunrise was more pearly, but then came a pink glow over our fields. Very mysterious and beautiful. To see more beautiful skyscapes logon to host Skywatch Friday.
Local chicken lovers have tended to make good use of extra lumber, roofing, and even old shower doors, but Sheila's hen house has a long history. While a young Sheila was still living at home with her parents her father gathered up the lumber from a bridge that was being dismantled to make a shed. When Sheila and her husband moved to Heath something more than 30 years ago they dismantled that shed to build a goat shed.…
It isn't quite Christmas so it is no surprise that the Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii) is mostly fat pink buds. As usual my angelwing begonia has a very few pink blossoms. Along with my dependable and ever blooming abutilon these plants are now in our bedroom in the beneath the west window, but very near the south window. This room is very bright during the day, and very cool at night. We had to move plants from the…
My friend Bob is a jack of all trades, and most irritatingly, a master of most. His building skills are very useful here in the country and since he is always building something, here - or there - he has lots of left over materials. He used those leftover materials, lumber, metal roofing, door and windows, to make his hen house. I was most fascinated by his use of a shower door to make a large frosted window…
I remember when I first learned about perennials and thought - what a great idea, I'll never have to replant again. LOL. Even if pernnials didn't have to be divided, or die, most of us still have to move plants, add plants or remove plants in our attempts to have a garden that pleases the eye and the heart. For my full review you can click here, but I can tell you briefly that The Perennial Gardener's Design…
Chosen by a random number generator Ellen Sousa of Turkey Hill Brook Farm is the winner of Recipes from the Root Cellar! In her comment she mentions that there is a passageway between her garage and basement that maintains a consistent temperature that allows her to store winter vegetables so she'll be able to put this cookbook to good use. Congratulations, Ellen. I will get Ellen's address and send this book right out. I'm sure she will find…
Fragrance in the garden is very important to me. This is easy to arrange in the outdoor garden where I can grow lilacs, dianthus, mock orange, Oriental lilies, night scented stocks and honeysuckle as well as my hardy roses. Fragrance in the indoor garden is a little harder to come by, but scented pelargoniums, commonly called geraniums, provide many fragrances. It is not the flowers that are fragrant; indeed most scented geraniums have modest flowers. It is the…
My youngest daughter Kate, formerly known as Kathy, requested that I reprise this column. I am amazed that I found hard copy; it was written on my old Kaypro and published in 1985. The year 1971 was important for me. In January I was a suburban housewife, busy with PTA, chaufferring the children, the Ladies Literary Circle, chauffering the children, and chauffering the children some more. By September I was divorced, settled in Greenfield with my five children…