Cider Days and Biodynamic agriculture

  • Post published:11/17/2018
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The 24th Annual Franklin County Cider Days came with splashes and torrents of rain, but those who love hard cider, and sweet cider and apples too, drew visitors from far and wide.

Greenfield Bee Fest with Bee Spaces Awards

  • Post published:06/12/2018
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This past Saturday Greenfield celebrated the 10th Annual Bee Fest at the 250 year old Second Congregational Church. The seventh minister of the church in the mid-19800s was Lorenzo Langstroth who, in his spare time, invented the modern moveable frame bee hive. The Bee Fest provides the occasion to remember and celebrate Langstroth and the way he changed bee keeping. There were lots of outdoor activities for the children who were learning about bees, most especially not to…

Wedding Voyeurs at Mendota Lake

  • Post published:06/04/2018
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After spending our first day  in Madison at the Olbrich Botanical Garden, we settled in at the Edgewater Hotel and planned the rest of our stay, but got something unexpected - not just one wedding, but three

Tovah Martin and Terrariums

  • Post published:05/21/2016
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Tovah Martin, gardener and author, has devoted a good part of her life to houseplants. Most of us have a limited view of what houseplants we might put on our windowsills, but when she found herself working at the wonderful Logee’s Greenhouse in Connecticut she fell in love with the hundreds of houseplant varieties put into her care. Over the years Martin has written books like Well-Clad Windowsills: Houseplants for Four Exposures, The Unexpected Houseplant: 220 Extraordinary Choices…

Special Events Coming Soon

  • Post published:02/11/2016
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The ground is covered with snow, but we gardeners can feel our hearts beating faster as we sense spring and the special events that will remind us of the delights and work waiting for us. Here are the dates for some enjoyable and instructional special events. February 17, Wednesday 7 pm - The first event is my own talk on The Making of a New Garden at the Shelburne Grange, Fellowship Hall, 17 Little Mohawk Rd, Shelburne. I'll…

Master Gardener Spring Symposium March 21, 2015

  • Post published:03/13/2015
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Creating Your Own Eden is the name of this year’s fact and delight loaded Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Spring Symposium on Saturday, March 21 at Frontier Regional High School in South Deerfield. I can imagine a garden Eden where all the trees welcome insects to take a modest banquet from their leaves, where birds eat some of those insects, where weeds and flowers grow to provide food for caterpillars, some of which also get eaten, and where butterflies…

Franklin County Fair – Int’l Year of Family Farm

  • Post published:09/08/2014
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The Franklin County Fair is always a celebration of family farms and gardeners. This view from the balcony gives only a hint of the perfect produce, creativity and business acumen of local farmers and gardeners. Red Fire Farm is just one of the area's most successful small farm, a testament to farmer Ryan Voilland's farming skills, but also his people management and business skills. The dairy farm is not yet dead in Western Massachusetts and these young people…

Forbes Library Garden Tour June 14 in Northampton

  • Post published:06/13/2014
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Time for the Forbes Library Garden Tour June 14 10 am - 3 pm. The time comes for many of us gardeners when we think we cannot carry on with our gardens, or houses, as they are. We are older, the children have gone, and we are not quite so energetic or willing to toil for hours in the summer sun over our weeds and slugs. The time comes to think about a smaller house and a smaller…

Full Weekend Monday Report – June 1, 2014

  • Post published:06/02/2014
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On this Monday morning I can report on a full weekend beginning with a New England Wildflower Society member Plant Swap at Nasami Farm. I brought waldsteinia and tiarella and came home with Jacob's ladder, an unusual epimedium, more tiarellas, a spicebush plant (very tiny) and an unusual native sedum. There  was a big crowd and a big tent for for the Greenfield Community College graduation Saturday afternoon. Granddaughter Tricia was graduation with honors and an Associate Degree…

New England Wildflower Society Plant Swap

  • Post published:05/27/2014
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As a member of the New England Wildflower Society I have been invited to the Plant Swap at Nasami Farm in Whately at 9 am on Saturday, May 31.  While the invitation said bringing native plants was encouraged, it was not necessary. Invasive plants would be sent away ignominiously! At least one identified plant is required to participate. By bringing 6 plants I can bring home six new plants. I bought my original Waldsteinia fragarioides at Nasami some…