A Berry Blue Summer

  • Post published:07/19/2010
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Netting the blueberries was the big garden task of the weekend.  Between the heat, the thunderstorms, adventures with visiting grandson Tynan, picking raspberries and preparing to host the  Heath Gourmet Club on Saturday night, this job kept getting postponed. Finally, on Sunday, with the sun shining and a deliciously cool breeze blowing, we set to. The berries are just starting to  ripen here at the End of the Road, but the birds are starting to circle. We planted our blueberry…

Daylilies for All

  • Post published:07/06/2010
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Daylily season is upon us.  Even those who can't name many flowers recognize dayliles, those growing in glorious organce by the road side, and those in shades of cream and pink, coral, gold and deep reds and burgundies in cultivated gardens. Some daylilies have the classic simple trumpet shape and some are ruffled.  Because daylilies are so hardy as well and beautiful in their variety, many small growers sell them in full bloom, dug out of the garden…

Hurry to Hawley

  • Post published:07/03/2010
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Who would not like to live on Pudding Hollow Road? It is clearly a road steeped in the history of Hawley, a town settled in 1760, and a unique pudding contest which took place in the late 1770s.  Farms and food have always been important parts of Hawley’s history and culture so I could not resist the opportunity to visit the newest farm and an old established garden, both on Pudding Hollow Road, and both a part of…

Happy Birthday Chicks!

  • Post published:07/02/2010
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Today the chicks are one month old!  We celebrated by moving  half of them down to their new home in The Dell with Sheila. She rebuilt their chicken house to make it snug and safe.  Three strong women, Sheila, her daughter Katelynn, and I squeezed into our henhouse to separate out the Buff Orpingtons, New Hampshire Reds, Silver Laced Wyandottes and Black Stars from the Barred Rocks, Dominiques and Araucanas.  Sheila lost count as Katelynn handed them off…

Hydrangeas Love Water

  • Post published:06/30/2010
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Yesterday the Toronto gardeners and sisters Helen and Sarah Battersby, reminded me that hydrangeas like a lot of water.  "Hydra" is right there in its name so it shouldn't be too hard to remember.  Fortunately, my 'Mothlight' hydrangea purchased a number of years ago from Nasami Farm (before it belonged to the New England Wildflower Society )  was planted where I do some watering. The bush itself got much bigger than I expected! I bought 'Mothlight' because I…

My Hero, Griffith Buck

  • Post published:06/23/2010
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Dr. Griffith Buck (1915-1991) is my hero because when he was working at the Iowa State College after the Second World War he began hybidizing roses that were hardy and disease resistant. At that time (and still today) rose gardeners knew they had to spray and coddle their roses.  Buck was a man ahead of his time; nowadays many poison sprays for roses are being banned for environmental reasons and other hybridizers are working on disease resistant rose…

Designing with Thought

  • Post published:06/19/2010
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Last week I was privileged to be invited by Paul Hellmund, Director, to the Conway School of Landscape Design for the presentations of term projects by this year’s class.  I was particularly interested in two of those projects: a feasibility study for the Davis Street School site and plans for a Botanical and Geological Garden at Greenfield Community College. I have long been an admirer of the Conway School of Landscape Design with its emphasis on environmentally sound…

Dream Housing

  • Post published:06/05/2010
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When I first met my husband in 1971 we used to dream about our ideal home. Inspired by a Beetle Bailey comic strip, we called this mythical place Pork Corners. There was nothing porky about my house on Grinnell Street in Greenfield, but there in the tiny side yard I planted my first vegetable garden. I kissed the friend who came to dinner and brought a load of old horse manure as a thank you.  He sent a…

How to Plant a Shrub

  • Post published:05/19/2010
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In the olden days planting wisdom said you needed a $5 hole for a fifty cent plant.  Inflation is everywhere. Now when I guy my $35 Proven Winners Pinky Winky hydrangea I know I need at least a $50 hole. This was a lesson I gave my daughter last weekend when I learned she was much given to taking out a shovelful of soil, sticking a plant in and considering the job done.  My $50 hole is 24…

Local Lunch at The Academy

  • Post published:05/12/2010
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Jeannie Bartlett, a senior at The Academy in Charlemont, has many interests including “farms, food, the environment, health and community” which she put together in a delicious way. Local Lunches, her Independent Senior Project, fed Academy students a monthly lunch composed of local ingredients all year. Todd Sumner, Academy Headmaster, explained “Senior projects are intended to extend a student’s classroom learning to provide service, and to apply and implement their learning. Students have to be responsible for a…