Slow but sure is the gardener's motto when plants first go in. This is the beginning of the Daylily Bank in the Spring of 2009. We decided on this solution to a bank that was hard to mow. At my time of life five years pass in the blink of an eye. This succeeded beyond my dreams, with daylilies added row by row for four years. For more (almost) Wordlessness this Wednesday click here.
We all need to pay attention to the wisdom of the young. My husband was telling our visiting great-grandaughter Bella (age 7 1/4) that while Granny didn't make New Year's Resolutions, she did try to do a little bit of everything that she wanted to enjoy on New Year's Day. On New Year's Day Bella went to Eastern Heath to spend the afternoon with her good friend Hazel. They both returned to our house for supper. There was…
Happy New Year! We started celebrating on New Year's Eve Eve with Chinese. Thank heaven, and cousin Tricia for homemade gingerale. What's the point of snow? Sledding! Who cares if it's only 15 degrees? Not Bella! We can always warm up baking cookies - and taking them to a friend. A great beginning to 2014! For more (almost) Wordlessness this Wednesday click here.
New Year’s resolutions. The beginning of a New Year always has something of the seductive about it, no matter how dismissive we try to be, or how skeptical we think we have become. I look at the blankness of the calendar’s pages, matching the blankness of the winter landscape and think about the ways I will fill the days of the new year, fill my days in the garden. …
The View from the Bedroom is a new attempt to capture the passing of the seasons. Another dusting of snow which will disappear quickly. For more Wordlessness this Wednesday click here.
The Sunday Record of the Bedroom View shows winter is coming in on snowy feet. The 'first' snow came and went in pretty quick order, and this overnight snowfall is slightly more substantial. Do you think it means we might have a snowier, wetter winter this year? I will take precipitation in any form. 35 degrees at 8 a.m.
This perfect enough Cold Frame was assembled in 2010 as a temporary project. I think I will be using it again this year. We could have covered the temporary cinder block cold frame with an old window, but when the pyramidal skylight was delivered for our Cottage Ornee some years ago the delivery truck driver delivered it to my neighbor's house down the hill and took the big box out of the truck. My neighbor called me down…
I don't know what prompted my mother to make this Farmer's Arms sampler. It is true that her brother, my Uncle Wally, had a farm on the shores of Lake Champlain that our whole extended family considered Our Farm, and we kids/cousins were shipped up there for part of the summer. However, my father tried farming but quit suddenly one frigid winter day in 1948. Of all the 20 cousins, including my five farm cousins, I may be…
This gray Sunday I am alternating between a view of the swirling snow and my Christmas book Latin for Gardeners: Over 3000 Plant Names Explained and Explored. by Lorraine Harrison. I never took Latin in school but over the years, almost in spite of myself, I have picked up a fair amount of horticultureal Latin. I don't always remember the Latin names of the plants in my garden, but knowing some Latin has given me information about plants…
Garden journals are as individual as every garden. Some are elaborate and some, like mine, are usually more sketchy. Still, I have tried to keep a journal noting weather, and plants planted. There are many reasons to keep a garden journal and I have tried to keep some kind of record of each garden year. My system has varied over time. In our early years here on the hill I kept little 3 x 6 inch date books…