Evelyn J. Hadden helped us get rid of  our lawns with her inspiring book Beautiful No Mow Yards, and now she has found a new place for us to plant a garden - the hellstrip - that area between the street and the sidewalk. I have just started reading Hellstrip Gardening: Create a paradise between the sidewalk  and the  curb. I found the title slightly misleading in that I found  that Hadden's topic opened up  considerably when she…

  Mother Nature whispered new life into our wisteria. By May 21, when the wisteria should have been in bloom, I gave up and took this photo, a closeup, hoping I could see some sign of life. My conclusion? No life. I mourned the shade I had been looking forward  to. Still, I kept watering it. Wisteria is a very thirsty plant. No other incentives. In just over a month life has been restored. The piazza and the…

Dear Friend and Gardener - I am going to have to go back a bit  to give you  the history of the  60 x 40 fenced Potager to explain why my main crop appears to be woodchips. Originally this garden began as a 12 x 12 foot veggie garden tilled and planted before I had my hip operation in 2003 and had to limit (try to limit) my garden activities. After my successful hip replacement I added a…

I'm a person who enjoys talking about plants anytime, but sometimes I do it officially. Last weekend I spoke about Sustainable Roses at the little e. I was able to explain that you could grow roses without poisons and fungicides. Hybridizers have created many rugosas that are just naturally sustainable. Texas A&M declared a whole group of roses to be sustainable and calls them Earth Kind. Look for that label when you go rose shopping. I'll be writing…

I am often asked if I always loved roses. The answer is no. My desire for roses began when I was living and working in New York City. There amid Manhattan’s concrete towers I developed a hunger for roses. What flower is more ancient and more romantic? When my husband and I, and our three daughters (the two boys were already out of the house) moved from the noisiest apartment in Manhattan on November 28, 1979 to the…

The Bridge of Flowers opened today. There was a delay while  the new irrigation system was installed. Now the beds on both sides of the path can be watered, without a water brigade. The volunteer Flower Brigade was on duty, raking and bringing the debris to the Franklin County Waste Management Dumpster. The debris will eventually come back to the Bridge as beautiful  nourishing compost from Martin's Farm in Greenfield. There aren't many flowers yet, but more will…

In the Pink is the theme of the annual Smith College Bulb Show. Every day from March 1 - 16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. visitors can bask in the fragrance of pink hyacinths and spring  as they wander through the greenhouse stuffed with thousands of bulbs: daffodils, tulips, scillas, and hyacinths as well as blushing azaleas, cyclamen and camellias.  For me pink is the color of spring. Pink is also an important fashion color. Currently the…

Sastrugi is the word for the snow waves and caves. It comes from the Russian. Sometimes it makes very large, much larger than here, waves. I think it has been too cold and the snow has been too dry for that to happen with our latest snow fall. Sometimes the sastrugi takes the form of gentle ripples. For more (almost) Wordlessness this Wednesday click here