This fall I mentioned to my husband that I was amazed at how many beeches there seemed to be in the woods all of a sudden. How had I not noticed all these beeches before when so many of them grew right along the roadside and still retained their leaves when most of the other deciduous trees were bare. I knew that beeches kept many of their leaves until the old leaves were pushed off by new leaves…
This fall we have truly been having a 'golden season.' The weather has been relatively mild, if rainy, and the usual flame of the maples was muted. But a golden glow shone on every sunny day. But today we got rain - and a surprise. This photo was taken around 4 p.m on Thursday.
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In our part of the world we are surrounded by trees. We are so used to seeing trees that we don’t really look at them anymore. When we do attend to them we see them in their entirety, trunk and an undifferentiated mass of leaves. As autumn approaches some of us pay a little more attention, the flame of maples, the sheen of dark oaks and the gold of birches, but still we are not seeing the whole…
Our house is surrounded by fields, and the fields are surrounded by woodlands. Trees are an important part of the New England Landscape and I just learned that Massachusetts is about to join Connecticut, Vermont, Maine and 34 other states in an online organization called The American Grove. Their website is full of useful information about planting trees, even coming at how to choose a tree in an unusual way. We have planted trees for our each of…
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I haven't seen Seeing Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo, but I have seen some of the gorgeous photographs by Robert LLewellyn. This book promises to give many ways of recognizing trees in the most delightful way, through all the tree's stages. Timber Press, which publishes some of the most distinguished garden books around is holding a contest. A signed, 16"×20" print of a Robert Llewellyn photograph from Seeing Trees, custom matted and framed (see contest site for image)…
A visitor on the Franklin Land Trust Farm and Garden Tour last weekend noted that one of the benefits of local garden tours is they allow us to see what lies hidden behind the beautiful flower beds, fields and forests: creativity, art, industry, history, and strong community. On the weekend of July 9, all of these elements will be in full view as the artisans, conservationists, and creative gardeners of Hawley, Colrain and Greenfield open their worlds to…
Topiary as an art dates back to ancient Roman days. Over the centuries it has been used as symmetrical or whimsical ornament in the garden, as gardeners snipped and clipped various sorts of plants from large evergreens to small herbs into geometric or animal shapes. Pearl Fryar of Bishopville, South Carolina, creates his sculptural topiary by clipping with a power hedge clippers. For the most part his designs do not resemble those classic designs of old. He feels…
The Holiday Weekend started for me on Friday afternoon when I visited the Heath School's Garden Day. The classes have been working before now, of course, but on Garden Day, the whole day is given over to planting, weeding, mulching - and learning. I am impressed with their energy, which I expected, but also with the quality of the child-sized tools they are using. Many hands make light work was certainly the motto on Friday. You may wonder…