When I called Old House Gardens to order some bulbs last week I feared I might have missed their shipping season, but they reassured me and on this perfect morning I found my order in the mailbox. It took only a few minutes before I was out in the garden. I knew just where to plant the ivory Beersheba daffodils - right under the Miss Willmott, a white flowered lilac Jerry Sternstein gave me last year. To say under…
The Monday Record was intended to show what I had accomplished in the preceeding week, possibly including Monday itself. However, this week I spent a lot of time looking out the window at rain, and wind, and even snow muttering that if I were a Real Gardener I wouldn't let poor weather stop me from attending to all the chores that needed attending to! After five days of below freezing tempeatures, the low temperature today was 27 degrees. After the…
This Columbus Day weekend the dawns were beautiful, if only briefly, but it was a nice change after a cold, dreary, damp week. This is the view from our bedroom window. The long weekend means a short but intense Bake Sale Season. There were bake sales everywhere. Henry took my apple pie down to the Shelburne Falls Area Women's Club Pie Sale, and dodged 6th graders in the parking lot at Avery's. They weren't quite ready to sell, but…
It might be more genteel to say a harvest of worm castings, but no one ever knows what I'm talking about when I use that term. Castings or manure, I took advantage of the warm day to bring my worm farm out of the basement and begin the harvest I dumped the whole bin full of worms, bedding and manure out onto a plastic sheet, and let that rest and give the worms time to dive deep into…
After a chilly, even cold, week we are now enjoying a sunny warm spell. Autumn begins tomorrow but the fall into the golden season is now a gentle one. I am looking forward to a mild week because there is a lot to do in the garden. In spite of the chill, I did get to observe the eradication of the Mile-a-Minute vine in Greenfield, and visit some other gardens last week. I cannot stress how dangerous this…
Replicas of The Roundhouse, built in 1899 were everywhere at this year's Franklin County Fair which celebrated its 161st anniversary. This edible version was a prize in the raffle supporting a major renovation of the roundhouse. It is a beautiful icon of the Fair which has shown off the handiwork and skills of farmers and residents of the county for 110 years. Nowadays there is a midway with games and rides, but for me, the heart of the Fair is…
Last week some friends and I declared a Girls Day Out and set off to the Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boyleston, MA. There is so much to see and enjoy and learn at Tower Hill. I always come away inspired. Some people manage to arrange several plants in a single pot for a beautiful arrangement. But it might be just as easy to get that beautiful arrangement by massing several pots with different plants together. A lesson…
By the time the Heath Fair is done, the family has departed and the leftover books from the Friends of the Library book sale are taken care of, I am tired. The excitement, family noise and general chaos are all great fun, but last week I was feeling the need for some quiet. Some Serenity. Fortunately for me, my friend Kate's parents were renting the Serenity Stone Cottage for the month and they invited me over for tea and…
Pulling Together was the theme of this year's Annual Heath Fair organized by the Heath Agricultural Society and supported one way or another by just about every one of the town's 800 residents so that thousands of area people can enjoy a day in the country and gain a sense of the abundance around us - even in these hard times. It would not be pushing a metaphor too hard to say that it takes a lot of people …
The Belly Bus came to Greenfield Town Common on Friday. When I dropped off my donations Sara Cummings of Franklin County Community Action told they had already collected almost TWO TONS of non-perishable foodstuff and more food was still coming in. Families First brought in their cartons of donations and other groups were waiting to drop theirs off. The Belly Bus helps stock local food pantry shelves; at this time of the year pantries are nearly empty. And this…