Three perennials that get A plus grades in my garden are achillea, otherwise known as yarrow, antirrhinum or snapdragon and astilbe. My first awareness of achillea was the roadside weed, or wildflower, depending on your point of view. Roadside yarrow is usually white with the typical achillea flat topped cluster of tiny flowers. The ferny green foliage is pretty even when the plant is not in bloom. When I began to learn about perennials from my garden mentor…
Greenfield Garden Club members opened their gardens to the public in a fund-raising tour on July 9. Water seemed to be everywhere in those gardens, fountains, pools and streams. One of the most important water features was in Marcia Stone and Norm Hirschfeld's garden - a rain barrel. They plan to add more. The rain off their garage roof fills the 55 gallon drum almost instantly. The Greenfield Garden Club raises money to fund many school projects.
Bread is called the staff of life and bread means wheat. With our huge wheatfields in the midwest we take wheat for granted. We don't think about the possibility of the supply diminishing or about the changing nutritional value of the wheat. Eli Rogosa and the Heritage Wheat Conservancy,which she founded is collaborating with the Northeast Organic Wheat and UMass Extension to hold a Grain Conference on July 14 and 15. The first day will be held at…
The rains began Wednesday morning. Two and a half inches by the end of the day. You all know what happens to peonies in pounding rains. They droop. Even those who are supported by wire rings. Will they perk up before visitors come on the Franklin Land Trust Farm and Garden Tour on Saturday and Sunday? Will the roses have any petals left? Another half inch yesterday - and showers promised for today. No matter, the landscape is…
Applejack is the first Griffith Buck hybrid I planted and it has thrived, greeting visitors at the top of our hill as they turn to our house. It is a large graceful shrub. Griffith Buck became a student at Iowa State College in 1946 after serving in the U.S. Army during WWII. He was in the horticulture program and after graduating with his Bachelor's degree in 1948 and his Master's in 1949, he went on to his Ph.D.…
Rain. Downpours. But the intrepid Garden Club of Amherst members were undaunted. I met them for a tour of the Elsa Bakalar/Scott Prior garden. In the background you can see that the old rhododendrons in back of the house near the woodland path are still blooming. The daffodils are long gone It's iris season in the garden right now. The Siberians don't mind how much rain they get. Of course, there are other bloomers right now like these…
The old joke goes that if you don’t lock your car doors in August you’ll return and find the back seat filled with zucchini. You might be happy about this if you don’t have a vegetable garden, after all zucchini is a versatile vegetable that can be used in a number of delicious ways, is nutritious supplying protein, vitamins A and C and numerous other good elements but no cholesterol, and contains only 20 calories per one cup…
The large Luna Moth is a beautiful creature. The Luna Moth (Actias luna) here was badly damaged and missing its long tail, but it was alive when my friend found it in her back yard. She put it in a casserole dish and began her researches. Her moth was a female and even in its ravaged state it began to lay eggs. Ordinarily females will lay between 100-300 eggs about 4 to 7 at a time on the…
I hope this photo give some sense of the amazing bloom of the Sargent crabapple. It is not 15 feet tall, but it is at least 15 feet wide and was planted about 15 years ago. It thrives in the Sunken Garden even though it is very wet in the spring. It is now in full flower - almost a single tree-sized blossom at this point. This apple tree, name unknown, produces apples but they are not the…
There was a time when peony roots for planting were only available in the fall, the best time for planting. Today I saw several pink peony plants that are going to be put in the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale on Saturday. I know I will also see peony plants in local garden centers. No one can resist the thought of having a peony bloom almost as soon as you plant it. June is peony season in my…