Cranberries in the Garden

  • Post published:11/20/2010
  • Post comments:6 Comments

As I was baking cranberry bread yesterday, I remembered an interview I did  with Wil Kiendzior and his wife Louisa Sapienza about their cranberry beds. Cranberries are another perennial crop that can be added to your edible garden. Wil Kiendzior started gardening when two things converged in his life.  His two daughters were born and he started teaching high school courses on ecology and the environment, using Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring as a text. His first gardens grew…

Ellen Sousa in The American Garden

  • Post published:11/19/2010
  • Post comments:8 Comments

The November/December issue of The American Gardener: The Magazine of the American Horticultural Society arrived the other day. As I was browsing through it last night I was surprised, but thrilled, to see Ellen Sousa, who lives in Central Massachusetts, quoted in Kris Wetherbee's article Garden Cleanup Reconsidered.  Ellen's own landscape is not only a Certified Wildlife Habitat, it is a Monarch Waystation so it was no surprise to hear her say, "instead of doing the traditional fall…

Elise Schlaikjer

Elise Schlaikjer has named all the houses she has lived in Phoenix House, but when she moved to Greenfield, just two years ago, the name was especially apt. It took a fall and a head injury, but Schlaikjer decided that after 23 years in Michigan it was time to move nearer her daughter Laura, in Greenfield. At the age of 73 she was ready to start a new life, like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, reborn and…

A New Reservation

  • Post published:11/06/2010
  • Post comments:2 Comments

What is a community? A group living in the same area? Yes, but more. A group sharing similar interests? Yes, but more A group sharing similar concerns? Yes, but more. A group sharing friendships? Yes, and when you add all of these attributes of a community you have the Highland Communities Initiative (HCI), a project of  The Trustees of Reservations. Last Sunday members of many communities gathered to celebrate the opening of the Bullitt Reservation, the newest of…

Voting Season

  • Post published:11/02/2010
  • Post comments:4 Comments

Today,  just for today, I have nothing on my mind but getting to the polls to vote. I hope that is on your mind, too. In Heath we voted at the Community Hall, in the handicapped accessible downstairs which is also the Senior Center. A lot goes on at the Community Hall, Senior Lunches, Food Coop distribution, meetings, forums, parties - and voting. We use a low tech approach, using a 'machine' that counts the number of ballots,…

Two Kinds of Pleasure

  • Post published:10/25/2010
  • Post comments:1 Comment

Saturday afternoon was perfect for a golden drive to the new Bullitt Reservation for its grand opening.  This is the newest project of the Trustees of Reservations, preserving 262 acres of meadow and woodland, and retrofitting the old caretakers cottage to meet Gold Leed standards. This building will soon be finished and will serve as the new offices of the Hilltown Communities Initiative and the Hilltown Land Trust. The soon-to-be office building is super insulated, and yet breathable,…

Holy Shit!

  • Post published:10/23/2010
  • Post comments:5 Comments

When I was a child being driven from New York City to my uncle’s dairy farm in Charlotte, Vermont, I was sure I knew the minute we crossed the state line because I could smell the scent of manure in the air. For me, Vermont meant a perfumed cow barn and manured fields; I could think of no lovelier fragrance. I still feel that way. Gene Logsdon, farmer, anthropologist, cultural critic and author of Holy Shit: Managing Manure…

Bulb Planting Season

  • Post published:10/19/2010
  • Post comments:6 Comments

Not all my bulbs have arrived, but I spent all night dreaming about where to plant these from Brent and Becky's Bulbs. I have never grown ornamental alliums before, but there were so many beautiful varieties in gardens this year that I decided the time had come. Brent and Becky offer 26 varieties of allium.  I ordered A. aflatunense 'Purple Sensation' which has a slightly airy globe of tiny violet purple flowers on a 20 to 30 inch…

Water and Livestock – Blog Action Day 2010

  • Post published:10/15/2010
  • Post comments:8 Comments

Water is beautiful. Our Frog Pond is beautiful. We can't drink this water, but in July of 1990 it helped keep our house from burning down. The previous owners of our house used Conservation funds to enlarge the pond enough to qualify as a Fire Pond. We are so glad they did. Mostly, though we just use it for fun, swimming, catching (and releasing) newts, and ice skating in the winter. Water is essential. Out here in the…

Growing Garlic With Rol

  • Post published:10/09/2010
  • Post comments:3 Comments

“I do everything wrong,” Rol Hesselbart said as we looked over his garlic harvest. And, he pointed out, he did everything wrong in Michigan and Virginia before he started doing everything wrong in Heath. Hesselbart, naturalist, educator and retired national park ranger, is known locally for the size and quality of his garlic bulbs. I am one of the lucky few who scored a few to plant myself this month.  His growing techniques have evolved slightly since he…