Promises of glory at Smith College Bulb Show Mary McClintock, with her Root for Your Favorite Root project, has made me think a lot more about the root vegetables I plant than usual. I’ve also been thinking about root crops in general because many of them are good keepers. They can be stored in the fall without a lot of laborious processing if you have a cool cellar, or can provide the necessary root…
One year a friend, just returned from London, gave me a copy of the Financial Times that contained an article about rhubarb. Rhubarb season comes earlier in England, but it is one of the first harvests here in New England and the article had all kinds of fascinating information.Robin Lane Fox, Financial Times columnist, explained that rhubarb has been cultivated for about 4500 years. There are records of rhubarb being used medicinally in China since 2700 BC. It…
Julie Moir Messervy, the well-known landscape designer and author of books like The Inward Garden, Outside the Not So Big House, and most recently, Home Outside, is coming to town. Messervy will be the keynote speaker the Western Massachusetts Master Gardeners Spring Symposium, Feeding Soil, Self and Soul, on March 21. Messervy knows that our homes are probably the most important spaces in our lives. We celebrate at home and refresh ourselves at home. We…
This is the time of year when our gardens are at their best – growing, blooming and ready for harvest in our mind’s eye. These visions are inspired by the catlogs mounting on the kitchen and coffee tables. Their bright pictures and lush prose encourage us to think that we will have the best garden ever this year! There are organizations that work to make those best gardens possible by testing plant varieties to let us…
With chatter about the bad economic conditions continuing unabated, many people are thinking about the ways a vegetable garden can save them money. I’m always a little leery about this motivation, especially the first year of a garden’s life when there may be necessary capital expenses for tools and soil improvement, but I would never discourage anyone from planting a vegetablegarden and discovering the unexpected pleasures there. I do have some advice for those who…
When I drove into the Greenfield High School parking lot last Saturday morning at 10:30 the parking lot was already full. Fortunately, I saw a couple with full canvas shopping bags get in their car and drive away; I took their spot. When I walked into the school lobby it was clear Winterfare 2009 was in full swing with more local farms represented than I knew existed in our area. One of the largest booths…
Ode to Tomatoes “come on! and, on the table, at the midpoint of summer, the tomato, star of earth, recurrent and fertile star, displays its convolutions, its canals, its remarkable amplitude and abundance, no pit, no husk, no leaves or thorns, the tomato offers its gift of fiery color and cool completeness.” Ode to Tomatoes by Pablo Neruda (1904-1973 Nobel Prize winner) (translated by Margaret Sayers Peden) It seemed appropriate that a friend sent me this…
Beverly Duncan is known to her Ashfield neighbors, and colleagues at Mohawk Trail Regional High School as a friend, as a helpful worker, as a gardener, and as an artist who sells cards and sketches of flowers and other plants at Elmer’s Store. Some know her as a freelance artist and illustrator for books and magazines, but many are not aware of her reputation as a fine botanical artist whose work has been exhibited at the Denver Botanic…
The seed catalogs are filling my mailbox. I’m starting to make lists of vegetables to grow, paying particular attention to those that can be stored with the least amount of trouble and energy, including winter squash and root vegetables like beets. Of course, I need lots of veggies like lettuces, green beans and tomatoes, too. Many of the vegetables I plant get seeded right in the garden, but I usually buy a few flats…
Yesterday, February 2, was the day the whole United States celebrated the groundhog. TV cameras were set to watch Punxsutawney Phil come out of his burrow to determine whether or not spring is upon us, or whether we will have six more weeks of winter It is recorded that about 90 per cent of the time Phil does see his shadow which means spring is only six weeks away. While the United States, or at…