Finally, I have been able to start my spring garden chores. The temperature got up to 50 degrees yesterday and there was some sun. I raked the front lawn and beds, including the Daylily Bank. I can never decide whether it is good or bad to cut down daylily foliage in the fall, but whatever I thought, I didn't do it last year. Fortunately, a steel rake is all it takes to pull out most of the dead…
Dry shade is a challenge in the garden, but epimediums and hellebores, two very different plants, both turn dry shade into an opportunity. For years I admired epimediums in other gardens, always asking the name of the beautiful low plant with heart shaped leaves. Sometimes I got no answer, but even when I did I was incapable of remembering the word epimedium. I finally saw a pot of this plant at the Blue Meadow nursery in Montague and,…
The Bridge of Flowers opened today. There was a delay while the new irrigation system was installed. Now the beds on both sides of the path can be watered, without a water brigade. The volunteer Flower Brigade was on duty, raking and bringing the debris to the Franklin County Waste Management Dumpster. The debris will eventually come back to the Bridge as beautiful nourishing compost from Martin's Farm in Greenfield. There aren't many flowers yet, but more will…
Before she began painting flowers Susan Valentine was a gardener. "Focusing on what each plant needs and what it produces if it gets what it needs was what I thought about most of my waking hours. Painting their portraits came very naturally out of that process," she said when I asked how she came to paint these translucent blossoms. Flowers have always been a popular subject for painters. They are varied in color and form - and they…
The view from my bedroom window on March 1 was snow covered and cold. 5 degrees at 7 a.m. March 9 and the view wasn't much different. 20 degrees at 7 a.m. but daytime temps haven't gotten much above freezing. Because it is so cold the snow is not melting. No reason to take more photos. It remains cold and the view doesn't change much. 22 degrees at 7 a.m. and windy. 30 degrees at 7 a.m. but…