Garden Conservancy in Houston

  • Post published:04/09/2011
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A garden is an ephemeral thing. It is created by the vision, knowledge, skill and passion of the gardener. When that gardener must give up the garden it will not last long without a careful intervention. In 1989 a group of passionate people who recognized the importance of gardens in telling the history of a time, place and culture founded The Garden Conservancy. Since then the Garden Conservancy has provided that intervention for ninety exceptional gardens across the…

Ruth Parnell and the Natives

  • Post published:03/26/2011
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“When you have such a huge list of native plants, [as we do in New England] you don’t need exotics,” Ruth Parnall said as she handed me pages of native grasses, wetland wildflowers, ornamental shrubs, vines and trees. Then she handed me a list of books that would give me even more names of natives. Her comment reminded me of the enormous traffic of our native plants to England in the 1700s. John Bartram, often considered the first…

Growing a Garden City

  • Post published:03/22/2011
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Sometimes a garden is more than a garden. Sometimes a garden is comfort, safety, job training, real good food for  the hungry and a supportive community. Growing a Garden City by Jeremy Smith (Skyhorse Publishing $24.95) has an all inclusive subtitle - How Farmers,  First Graders, Counselors, Troubled Teens, Foodies, A Homeless Shelter Chef, Single Mothers and More are Transforming Themselves and their Neighborhoods Through the Intersection of Local Agriculture and Community and How You Can, Too. Whew!…

The Grange – Then and Now

  • Post published:03/07/2011
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Sawyer Hall is our Heath Post Office, Police Office, and Town Library with Town Offices for  the Selectbord, Administrator, Tax Collector, Assessors, etc. upstairs, but  for for many years a good portion of Sawyer Hall was used by the Grange for suppers, and even for dramatic productions.  I remember when we moved here in 1979 the Library was closed because the building was being renovated.  Someone gave me a tour of the large open upstairs where a small…

First Mycotecture, Now Helioculture

  • Post published:03/03/2011
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Joule Unlimited is a biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It "produces clean, infrastructure-compatible fuels directly from sunlight and waste CO2 in a single-step, continuous process that requires no costly biomass intermediates, processing or dependency on precious natural resources." I become more fascinated by some new technologies at the same rate I become afraid of other energy technologies like 'hydrofraking.' We need to look at the implications of the whole system and hydrofraking puts our water supply at risk.…

Three Dreams for Thursday

  • Post published:02/24/2011
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Every year I add a few roses to my garden. The Rose Walk has expanded, the Shed Bed was added and now I have a Rose Bank. Many of the roses are shades of pink; Blanc Double de Coubert, Mount Blanc and Madame Plantier are white, but aside from the spiny Harrison's Yellow, yellow roses have been missing. I am trying to add  that range of color this spring. April Moon is a soft yellow Griffith Buck hybrid…

Worm Farm Review

  • Post published:02/21/2011
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In July of 2008 my grandsons and I put 1000 red wigglers into a bin we had prepared. We were worm farmers. I wanted worm castings, considered very fine compost, to use in my garden.  The process of making that compost has been a slower process than I expected. Red wigglers are not earthworms. They need to be kept warm - at least warmer than 50 degrees to thrive.  I did not want to keep the worm bin…

Two Garden Styles – Two Books

  • Post published:02/12/2011
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Every gardener is an individual with different dreams, desires, skills, interests – and constraints. Thus every garden is unique reflecting those differences.  William Robinson (1838-1935) was a British gardener who propounded a new flower garden aesthetic, away from hundreds of annuals being bedded out each season, to a wilder, more informal planting of perennials, shrubs and trees, many of them natives. He wrote several books, most notably the influential  The Wild Garden. That book went through several editions.…

Winterfare and Ice

  • Post published:02/08/2011
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Saturday dawn cold with another storm promised. I dashed right out to the Greenfield Winterfare to stock up, and I wasn't the only one. Every booth was busy. These young women from Wheatberry Farm and Bakery were selling the wheatberries AND delicious muffins. Ben and Adrie Lester, the founders of Wheatberry are also founders of The Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain CSA. At the Simple Gifts booth I bought lots of roots - and make a shredded vegetable slaw…

“Water” on Muse Day

  • Post published:02/01/2011
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Water What is the vitality and necessity of clean water? Ask the man who is ill, who is lifting his lips to the cup. Ask the forest. Mary Oliver from "Evidence" Water is almost everything. We are water. Water is essential. Water is so important that I cannot find the words to encompass it.  Right now the news is full of reports about devastating floods. Other times the news is of drought. We gardeners have our own experiences…