Green manure is a crop that is planted in the fall; its purpose is to improve soil fertility and tilth in the spring. I have just seeded a fall green manure mix from Johnny’s Selected Seeds in three of my newly weeded and watered (thanks to the rain) garden beds. This mix contains annual seeds like crimson clover, annual rye grass and yellow peas, as well as winter rye and hairy vetch that will go dormant but begin…
How long does it take for a vision to become flesh? Or in this case patios, stone walls, cool shady flower beds and a koi filled pond? For Bruce Cannon who found and bought a hilly wooded site on South Mountain in Northfield fifteen years ago, the vision was complete in only three or four years, but the building took a little longer. The house came first, set on the only bit of flat land on this steep…
Spring planting did not go happily for me what with the rabbits coming along and eating each little shoot as it came up. Since spring we have added new resources – a big fence around the vegetable garden, and row covers. Therefore I am going to try for a fall crop in ways that I have not before. I took a look at the seeds I have leftover from the spring and realized that many of them can…
We’ve all faced the spring task of combing through the seed catalogs trying to decide which squash, or tomato or whatever variety to buy. Will it be dark green Raven zucchini, the light green Magda or the striped Safari? We might be considering days to maturity, disease resistance and spininess of the plant. If we agonize over our few choices, can you imagine what a seed company has to take into consideration? Recently I spoke with CR Lawn,…
“O beautiful, for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain . . .” These words, written by Katherine Lee Bates in 1895 capture an image of our country that we still treasure today. However, there are differences between 1895 and 2012. The tall waving wheats that gilded our midwest in 1895 are now only a foot tall, barely shuddering in the breeze.. The early 1940s saw the beginning of the Green Revolution, an agricultural shift that used technological…
One of the benefits of the summer garden tour and event season is the chance to meet new people with unique passions and knowledge. When I attended the Western New England Japanese Iris Show in Shelburne Falls at the end of June. I saw exhibition blossoms of beautiful Japanese irises grown by local gardeners, stunning arrangements, and was inspired. Japanese iris bloom from mid-June into July, coming into flower when the Siberian and then the bearded iris seasons…
When news of the impending arrival of Tropical Storm Irene hit the airwaves last August, West Hawley residents Lorraine and Jerry McCarthy quickly packed up their car and dashed to their house on Long Island to batten down the hatches. However, the storm bypassed Long Island and hit Hawley with ferocious energy, destroying roads, flooding the Chickley River, and leaving the McCarthy’s land with up to three feet of silt and sand in two large areas of the…
Denise Leonard, current chair of the Greenfield Agricultural Commission, past president of the New England Border Collies Association, and chief farmer at TANSTAAFL Farm is one of the featured farmers on the Greenfield Garden Club’ annual garden tour which is including farms for the first time this year. THIS VERY DAY! July 7! Denise explained that her husband David came up with the name of their farm when they were still living in Leverett more than 25 years…
Can roses, Knock Out Roses kill butterflies? That is the question asked by a reader in Colrain. Knock Outs are a fairly new hybrid family of roses bred to be disease and insect resistant. I had never heard that Knock-Outs had this potential for killing butterflies so I set out to do some research. I was quickly reminded that butterflies are not much interested in roses of any sort because they supply nothing they need, not a site…
The rugosa rose may strike many New Englanders as the quintessential American rose, hardy and trouble free, but this rose is a native of Asia. Long before it made its way halfway around the world it grew and bloomed on the coasts of northeastern China and Japan. It had to make its way to Europe first, and did not arrive in the United States until the mid-1800s when it was imported for the nutritional value of the hips.…