O is for Orchid. I have never kept an orchid alive long enough to bloom again, but giving it another try is on my To Do List. I know it can be done because my daughter Betsy does it all the time. When her work mates get gift orchids they always give them to Betsy after they finish blooming. She keeps them and brings them back into bloom again and again. Last year I went to the Orchid…
It doesn’t seem so very long ago that no one gave a thought to pollinators. People were afraid of bees and stings, but they never thought about the hundreds of bee species that kept vegetable and fruit farms producing. Perhaps that was because so much of our food came from far off places like California where we were never aware of what farms, farmers and crops needed. Nowadays, with people we are more sensible of the benefits of…
N is for Nasami Farm, the propagating arm of the New England Wildflower Society which was founded in 1900 and is oldest plant conservation society in the U.S. I have shopped for many plants at Nasami Farm, last year purchasing several water tolerant if not water loving plants. I planted Buttonbush in the wettest part of our new garden because it can often be growing in a river, not just on its bank. I also bought winterberries, viburnams,…
M is for Mirrors in the garden. A tour of Buffalo gardens a few years ago were filled with ideas that were new to me. This mirror was one of several mirrors in the garden with lush plantings that were carefully pruned to keep the mirror mysteriously visible. I was particularly taken with the function of this mirror in the garden, set as it was in back of a tiki lamp, acting to reflect firelight at an evening…
L is for Literature. In the A to Z Challenge I am referring specifically to Garden Literature which covers a lot of ground. I cannot garden or do much of anything without books. There are general garden books and specific garden books. I’ll mention just a few of my favorites with links to earlier columns that will have more information about each of them. One of my oldest and most useful vegetable garden books is How to…
K is for Kalmia latifolia, the beautiful mountain laurel, is a hardy broadleaf evergreen that blooms in May. It should be deadheaded after it blooms. Kalmia prefers acid, moist but well drained humusy soil, and some shade. In nature it is an understory shrub in the woodlands. It tolerates deer and rabbits. The native Kalmia used to bear white flowers tinged with pink, but now hybrids bring an array of colors to the garden from a pure white…
J is for Joe Pye Weed, Eutrochium purpureum. Joe Pye Weed is one of the plants I have chosen for my new garden because it tolerates wet clay sites so well that it can be used as part of a rain garden. But that is not the only reason. Many people considered Joe Pye Weed as nothing more than a road side weed. However, nowadays we realize that this native plant with its showy tall flower inflorescences in…
I is for Irises. I fell in love with Siberian irises. A white one and a blue one were growing at our house in Heath when we bought it. They had not had any care for a couple of years and yet they bloomed looking like clouds in the sky - effortless. Siberian irises are not particular about soil or watering so I never realized how much they liked wet sites. One year I noticed a big clump of…
Why do we need compost farms? On October 1, 2014 the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection made a requirement that all businesses or institutions that created more than one ton of organic waste a week find a source to accept and recycle that waste. This rule affected schools, colleges, hospitals, prisons, restaurants and more. Although compost farms already existed the rule created a need for even more places that would accept and use these organics. Massachusetts has…
H is for Hemerocallis - otherwise known as daylily. This is my day for resting my typing fingers and showing you some pretty pictures. Ann Varner was one of many hemerocallis growing on The Daylily Bank. I have moved from this garden, but I did take a few divisions with me to Greenfield. And that's it for today's A to Z Challenge. Hemerocallis which mean beautiful for a day - and very little work for the…