According to my records we had 4 inches of rain in August, more than half of that on August 22 and 23. No rain so far in September, at least not here in Heath. The result is incredibly dry soil, and a hose that ran dry last week while I was filling the chicken waterers. Granted, I had watered the vegetable garden with a sprinkler for 45 minutes before that, but this has never happened in the 30…
When my grandson Rory visited this summer he helped with chores, like getting woodchips for the paths in the potager. We were amazed to find something unexpected hiding in the pile. Mushrooms! At first we only saw the fine white roots but Rory kept digging very carefully and we came upon several groups of mushrooms. I don't know anything about mushrooms, so I don't know if these are edible. We didn't test them out. I've written about mushrooms…
I wasn't going to miss another Three for Thursday hosted by Cindy over at My Corner of Katy. Right now I have three pink natives blooming in my garden. I might be stretching a point to all this bee balm pink, but it is not brilliant scarlet so I am including it. Bee balm, Monarda, is native to North America as are the other two pinks in my garden. Bee balm is in my herb garden in front…
Lots of sowing was done in the last two years to bring about the harvest of a strong renovated Roundhouse at our wonderful Franklin County Fair. I was glad to be present for the re-dedication - during which many people were thanked, too many to list here, but I was glad that one of my colleagues at The Recoder, Irmarie Jones was thanked for all her help promoting the renovation and fundraising. While the Fair is 162 years…
Over at Garden Rant Mary Gray's guest rant bewailed the state of many school grounds, all concrete and lawn. I am very familiar with the school grounds that she describes, but I feel fortunate that the children in our small town have a very different school experience. The Heath Elementary School, which opened in 1996, was built in a pasture surrounded by woodland. When the school bus pulls off the dirt road onto the driveway it passes a…
I never seem to get a Before picture. I don't avoid it on purpose, but I am usually so embarrassed at the state of my garden that I subconsiously don't think of getting the camera until I am a little way into the job. Just picture this as a weedy area after the spent broccoli has been pulled out. It is about 6 feet long and no more than 2 feet deep. After pulling out all the weeds…
Just when I was preparing a handout for my Heath Fair talk on Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants, I learned about a new group blog www.beautifulwildlifegarden.com that is being written by some of my favorite bloggers, many of whom I got to meet in Buffalo. Beautiful Wildlife Gardens will give you lots of information about the natural world around us - in different parts of the country. Informative and engaging. Which is what you might expect from a…
Magical things happen at family reunions. The youngest set seems to bond almost instantly with their cousins two or three times removed (I don’t really know how that works) and even the oldest generation gets to hear stories about their parents that they never heard before. My Aunt Doris, the only representative of her generation at this reunion, said she never knew that as a 15th birthday present my grandparents arranged for me to accompany my grandfather on…
I have to say how happy I am that my alma mater, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has just installed its first Rain Garden. It is 150 feet long, 20 feet wide and 18 inches deep. It is near the new (and very green) Studio Arts Building, below North Pleasant Street. The rain garden will collect run off from the street, protecting the wetlands and Mill River on the west side of the campus from pollution and…
Rosa setigera, otherwise known as the Cherokee rose or Prairie rose is the only climbing rose native to North America. Its range is from Canada to Texas, as far west as Nebraska and Kansas. I bought my plant at Nasami Farm in Whately last year. My rose collection was calling out for a native American rose. I was told that although this is listed as a climber most people let it just grow into a mounded tangle. I didn't really…