Beaver Lodge on NESEA Green Buildings Open House Tour

  • Post published:10/04/2013
  • Post comments:1 Comment

“I’m a designer. I’ve always been absorbed by fashion, interior and landscape design,” Marie Stella said when she began my tour of Beaver Lodge in Ashfield. Her current and ongoing design project is the landscape surrounding her beautiful house which has been give a Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating. This is very unusual for a residence. LEED designations require that materials be as local as possible, that recycled materials be used when possible. For…

Welcome to the Greenfield Garden Club Tour on Saturday, July 6

  • Post published:07/05/2013
  • Post comments:0 Comments

Welcome to the Greenfield Garden Club Garden Tour. Welcome seems to be the theme on the Greenfield Garden Club Tour which will be held on Saturday, July 6 from 9 am to 4 pm. This beautiful garden on a challenging slope in Gill has several garden rooms, from the small sunny garden with its fountain and pool surrounded by astilbes, ornamental grasses and bright coreopsis to the woodland garden with its gravel paths and colorful mushroom ornaments. Each garden…

Two Gardens on the Whately Garden Tour – June 15

  • Post published:06/14/2013
  • Post comments:2 Comments

  The Garden Tour Season is well begun. Next Saturday, June 15, the Whately Garden Tour sponsored by the Historical Society includes 5 five diverse Whately gardens that will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. rain or shine. There are woodland gardens, gardens that reflect other cultures, cottage gardens and gardens that welcome all kinds of wildlife. A Garden for Family and Friends Last week I visited Nicole and Joe Pietraszkiewicz  who bought a newly built…

An Unusual Rock Garden on the Forbes Library Garden Tour

  • Post published:06/10/2013
  • Post comments:1 Comment

The Forbes Library Garden Tour descripton of this garden included a 'rock garden'. This is not the kind of rock garden I expected, but it made a great edge between the road and the 'real' rock garden that is comprised of native plants, and larger stones. I thought it resembled a dry river bed. Though not intended to support flowers, it is possible to see some tiny wild flowers making themselves at home in this unusual rock garden.…

Forbes Library Leads Off Garden Tour Season

  • Post published:05/29/2013
  • Post comments:0 Comments

Julie Abramson' s garden  is just one of six garden that will enchant garden lovers on the Forbes Library Garden Tour on Saturday, June 8, from 10 am til 3 pm. Julie's is a collector's garden that features some notable trees, clematis, and a colorful array of perennials and a rock garden. I was intrigued by the description of a rustic arbor covered with climbinbing hydrangea, PLUS two other arbors covered with roses, honeysuckle and clematis. Pure romance!…

Houston Gardens in March 2011

  • Post published:03/26/2013
  • Post comments:4 Comments

Two years ago this week we left the cold and muddy landscape of Heath to visit Houston and our daughter Kate and  her family. Because the landscape of Heath is currently cold and snowy I needed to revisit those sunny Houston days. One day we drove out to Cindy's Corner of Katy to visit her beautiful garden. Flowers everywhere. Cindy's corner  garden is not large, but it is colorful and filled with every kind of flowers. Roses too. So…

Hawley’s Artisan and Garden Tour 7-14

  • Post published:07/13/2012
  • Post comments:2 Comments

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…

Athol Bird and Nature Club Garden Tour July 15

  • Post published:07/12/2012
  • Post comments:0 Comments

As Athol celebrates its 250th anniversary, the Athol Bird and Nature Club celebrates the gardens of Athol, 12 in ’12 – a self-guided tour of 12 outstanding gardens on Sunday, July 15 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Four themes dominate this tour: the drama of glorious gardening and natural rock, the surprise of secret treasures, the bounty of home vegetable gardens and locally grown food, and the ecology of gardens that appeal to birds, butterflies and other…

Greenfield Garden Club Farm and Garden Tour

  • Post published:07/07/2012
  • Post comments:0 Comments

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…

It’s Summer – Viewing, Touring and Paddling

  • Post published:07/02/2012
  • Post comments:0 Comments

It's summer and I've been out viewing plants and gardens and then relaxing at a local pond. Summer doesn't get any more perfect than this. I went to the Annual Japanese Iris Show in Shelburne Falls and got to see the best and most beautiful examples of Japanese Iris grown in the area. Japanese iris are the last iris to bloom in our area. After seeing this display of irises, I had to run over to Fox Brook…