Life is a Fiesta with Lucinda Hutson in Austin, Texas

  • Post published:07/06/2018
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The garden bloggers Austin Garden Tour took us to a variety of gardens but when you pull up to a purple and pink house, you know you have come to a remarkable and outrageous garden. Lucinda Hutson named her house La Casita Moradita, or the little purple house, and it is filled with many references to lands south of the border. The Casita sits on a small urban lot that is probably a little smaller than my own…

Hawley Garden Tour Takes you East and West.

  • Post published:06/29/2018
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It’s June and I am looking forward to the Hawley Garden Tour on June 30. Kim Fitzroy will host just one of the gardens on this special tour. She set her garden at the base of a sunny hill but she created “her own bit of heaven” in the shade. Fitzroy began planting her garden about 15 years ago. Except for two old birches there were no trees, but now a thornless honey locust, four sumacs, a magnolia,…

A Texas Garden with Rooms, Blooms – and Art

A Texas garden may be different from New England gardens, but gardeners all share the desire to create beautiful spaces. I spent a week in Texas visiting my daughter and her family, and joining ninety-two other garden bloggers touring gardens in the Austin area. We visited big public gardens like the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the Zilker Botanical Garden.  We also visited unique private gardens. The garden created by David and Jenny Stocker appeared to be a…

Deep in the Heart of Texas Garden Tour

  • Post published:05/08/2018
  • Post comments:3 Comments

I am returned from Austin, Texas Garden Tour where we saw succulents small - and LARGE. This agave was at the Nature's Garden organic nursery. We didn't even mind that it was still raining (pouring)  as we wandered among the gardens - and the plants for sale. We saw Art in the garden - LARGE and small. I am just teasing now but  soon I'll show you wonderful public gardens like the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and…

Northampton Garden Tour – June 10, 2017

  • Post published:06/09/2017
  • Post comments:4 Comments

It is Garden Tour season! So many gardens to see, to enjoy and to learn from. It could be said that every garden is designed around the flaws – I mean challenges - of the site. E. Bruce Brooks and his wife Taeko stood with me in front of his Northampton house and garden and we looked up at the tall brick building. “Our design aims to minimize the too tall house that sits on a too small…

Franklin Land Trust Garden Tour – June 27

  • Post published:06/20/2015
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Ruah Donnelly’s house overlooks a wooded ravine, a tapestry of shades of green and shifting light. There is not a flower in sight. Donnelly says that over her years as a gardener she has experienced a growing struggle between wanting art in the garden and wanting to conserve the landscape. While she thinks conservation is winning the battle, any visitor to this garden and landscape will see no struggle, only beauty. Donnelly’s garden is only one of the…

Forbes Library Garden Tour – June 13, 2015

  • Post published:06/12/2015
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Virginia Rechtschaffen has always loved trees. She and her husband Rob even once owned a house in Belchertown that came complete with an orchard. Lots of trees. For the past 20 years she and Rob have lived in Northampton and accomplished something I would have thought impossible. Their in-town garden is embraced by a ring of large trees with a heart of sunshine at its center. How did they do it? Virginia said when they moved into the…

Mary Lyon Church Garden Tour – July 19, 2014

  • Post published:07/19/2014
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Garden tour season continues! The MaryLyonChurch garden tour is scheduled for Saturday, July 19 from 10 am to 4 pm and includes seven gardens in Buckland and two gardens in West Hawley. I had the good fortune to visit Shirley Scott and Joe Giard’s garden ahead of time. This has one of the most challenging sites I have ever seen for a garden. The main challenge of her site has been the very steep slope to the left…

Greenfield and Hawley Garden Tours – Saturday. June 28

  • Post published:06/27/2014
  • Post comments:3 Comments

Tomorrow, Saturday June 28 is Tour Day! Next weekend will be filled with an embarrassment of garden riches. On Saturday, June 28 the Greenfield Garden Club and the Sons and Daughters of Hawley will be hosting unique garden tours. The Greenfield Garden Club Tour includes gardens where lawns have been removed, pollinators have been welcomed, fruit trees have been planted, perennials bloom lushly, and water and sculpture create a beautiful space. There is also a special opportunity, for…

Forbes Library Garden Tour June 14 in Northampton

  • Post published:06/13/2014
  • Post comments:2 Comments

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…