Who Makes the Bridge of Flowers Bloom? Carol DeLorenzo

  • Post published:05/18/2013
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For the past 12 years Carol DeLorenzo has been the guiding vision behind the changing bloom seasons on the Bridge of Flowers. However, she didn’t start her professional life thinking about flowers. “After I graduated from the College of the Atlantic, I got a fellowship that allowed me to spend a year traveling around the world, focusing on agricultural issues. When I returned to the United States I got a job as co-manager of a community based farm.…

Awesome Annuals for the Garden

  • Post published:05/12/2013
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  If you have a flower garden, chances are you grow a few annuals. For a while perennials were the fashionable family and annuals were almost forgotten. At least they were forgotten in conversation and garden articles, but to keep a garden in bloom from spring into fall annuals are essential. Each perennial will bloom for its three or four week period, but an annual will bloom all summer. It is no wonder that some of our favorite…

Daffodils, Daffodils, Daffodils

  • Post published:05/08/2013
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All of a sudden this year I realize I have lots of daffodils, and lots of kind of daffodils.  I thought I could try to identify some using the Brent and Becky's Bulbs catalog, where I bought many of the daffodils, but that system is not working. Some of my daffodils will not bloom until later in the month. Do I know all the variety names? No. I can't identify the 'weed' in my flowery mead of a…

Spring Chores in the Garden

  • Post published:04/21/2013
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It is time to begin spring chores. But exactly how do we know when spring is beginning? A tough question. The only sure answer is that it did not begin on March 20 this year when the temperature was 16 degrees at 7 in the morning and remained cold and cloudy all day. It was a very different story last year when the snowdrops were in full bloom and my first temperature record was 54 degrees with sun.…

Plant Hunters – John Bartram and Chinese Wilson

  • Post published:03/01/2013
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Where do the plants in our garden come from? How did plants get from the heights of the Himalayan mountains, or the Appalachian mountains, to our gardens? It would be hard to count the number of plants in our gardens that were first seen by the intrepid explorers of the last three centuries. John Bartram (1699-1777) of Philadelphia was possibly the first American botanist and plant hunter. Bartram was a farmer with little formal education, but he was…

Spring Symposium at Frontier High School

  • Post published:02/22/2013
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Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in our Gardens, one of the best books ever written on how the food web works in our gardens, is coming to our part of the world. He will be the keynote speaker at the Annual Western Massachusetts Master Gardeners Association Spring Symposium scheduled for Saturday, March 16 at Frontier Regional High School in South Deerfield. In his book Tallamy powerfully and engagingly explains how important…

Hydrangea in Winter

  • Post published:01/07/2013
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  Very pretty hydrangea blossom. But I don't think it will count on Bloom Day.  

Stone Harvest at Goshen Stone Company

  • Post published:01/05/2013
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New England is famous for being a stony place. The stone walls that line our roads are a testament to the stones that farmers have been pulling out of their fields for centuries. We gardeners complain about constantly hitting stone as we dig in our gardens. On the other hand, most of us admire the beauty of stone patios and walkways, and dry laid stone walls built by stone masons. Gary Warner, of Goshen Stone Quarry, has been…

Square Foot Gardening Answer Book

  • Post published:12/21/2012
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Mel Bartholomew came bursting on the garden scene over 30 years ago with his technique of Square Foot Gardening. I have visited many gardens that use his raised bed, grid organized system out here in the country, and I have seen it in front yards when we have visited our son in Cambridge. This year Bartholomew has come out with the Square Foot Gardening Answer Book (Cool Springs Press $16.99)  that he says was inspired by the questions…

December Sale – The Roses at the End of the Road

  • Post published:11/30/2012
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  For the month of December I am selling my book, The Roses at the End of the Road for $12 with no shipping costs. All ordering information is here.  The book is filled with characters and our adventures here at the end of the road. To give you a taste, the Rachel's Rose chapter follows below. There is a rose in my garden named Rachel. One summer Rachel Burrington Sumner, one of Heath’s grand dames, who knew…