Gray and chilly. Temperatures in the 40s with winds gusting at 14 miles and more. There is still one pile of snow in The Sunken Garden. Still, I got a lot done over the past week. First I found out that the old daffodils growing here when we bought our house in 1979 are Van Sion, a heritage variety. I have Kathy Purdy of Cold Climate Gardening to thank for the ID. Van Sion is a beautiful frilly…
My chives on April 6 Cooks need herbs. Since the media is filled with articles about the thriftiness of a vegetable garden in these difficult economic times it suddenly struck me that one of the thriftiest and easiest gardens to start is an herb garden. I get dizzy when I think of the money I spent (before I had an herb garden) on bunches of parsley, cilantro and basil and less common herbs that are even…
This morning I am beginning my Monday Record - noting as completely as I can what is doing in the garden. The snow is nearly gone everywhere, except in the Sunken Garden. The weedy grass is just beginning to green up. I was tempted by a 6 pack of lettuce seedlings a couple of weeks ago when the weather was very mild. On March 31 I could wait no longer and set them out in the herb bed…
After my time away from home, tending my daughter with her broken ankle and her two sons, I have come back home to find the first real signs of spring. The herb bed next to the piazza in front of the house faces south and is very protected. It doesn't look like much from a distance, but if you get up close . . . Here is autumn crocus sending up leaves as early as spring crocus, but…
I left my daughter, her broken ankle and crutches, in the loving care of her sons and friends for the weekend. I came home to attend the Wesstern Mass Master Gardeners Spring Symposium. I was giving a presentation about my worm farm, but I also was eager to hear landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy speak about her new book Home Outside, and to attend a workshop on garlic growing and cooking. While I was home my husband and I…
I left my daughter and her broken ankle in the loving care of her sons and friends and made it home for the weekend and the wonderful Western Mass Master Gardeners Spring Symposium. I was giving a presentation about my worm farm, but I was eager to hear landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy speak about her new book, Home Outside, and attend a garlic growing and cooking workshop. I'll post more about the Symposium later this week.While I…