With the Annual Rose Viewing only a week away, daughter Diane and her son Ryan came to help with preparations. There were big jobs like working with The Major to gett the tractor and wagon operational to fetch wood, and then be put out of the way. Ryan had to mow the lawns using the riding mower while Diane edged and weeded. And weeded. While weeding we discovered that deer had eaten my beautiful Casa Blanca Lilies that…
Yesterday I was sitting by the window with Holly the cat on my lap. Suddenly she stiffened. She sat up. She was on alert. I looked out the window to see what caused her to come to attention. And there, hopping down the drive was an Eastern hare. Our neighbor had reported sighting the hare the other day. I ran out screaming. The cat fell asleep. Henry set out the Havahart trap. This morning I looked out the…
Ev Hatch, now retired from farming, is a member of the Hunger Task Force and a member of the First Congregational Church of Greenfield. When the First Church began planning a special day of service they called ‘Feet, Hands and Voices to Faith’ he knew just what to do. He donated a half acre of his farmland, and his services to prepare the field. On May 16th he and a crew, that included Luella McLaughlin (aged 93), set…
Someone is dining out in the garden. Not slugs. The lettuce has been pulled out of the ground and eaten. Some has been eaten down to the ground. This row was attacked differently, but still, the lettuce is gone. I've never had bunny damage before, but this looks like what I imagine bunnies would do. Who has experience to share? On that assumption I took out the sample bottle of Deer and Rabbit Deterrent that Liquid Fence sent…
Saturday I went into Greenfield to buy plants at the Greenfield Garden Club Plant sale, but also stopped at the Greenfield Farmers Market to buy beautiful lettuce from The Kitchen Garden for Gourmet Club, and I bought a pot of beautiful double white petunias from LaSalles. The Farmers Market was full of vegetable starts, flats of annual seedlings, as well as the first greens of the season and huge bouquets of peonies from Hadley where spring has sprung…
The harvest has begun, but with the help of Mother Nature. Last night we had our first garden fresh salad, mostly with these self-seeded lettuces in the vegetable garden. The spinach in the Herb Bed needs thinning (and weeding) and I added the thinnings to the salad. The Red Sails lettuce directly seeded in the new Front Garden is also ready to be thinned. All of a sudden it is really taking off. I love being able to…
This was the view of the newly planted Front Garden yesterday morning at 6:30 am. It was still snowing and the temperature was 32 degree. Windy. You can't see, but my tiny lettuce and broccoli transplants appeared to be damaged. The herbs did not mind the snow and by 10 am the snow was gone and temperatures had risen to 40 degrees. All is well - as far as I can tell. Today dawned with brilliant sun and…
A wet snow was falling on Friday morning. It did not last long on the ground, but the day continued wet and chill and not suitable for gardening. I was happy that I had spent most of Thursday cleaning out, weeding and putting some semblance of an edge on the Herb Bed in front of the house. Since we added the Entry Walk to the Piazza and Welcome Platform, the Herb Bed has expanded to approximately 33 feet…
The main task for these past few beautiful days has been setting up the new garden in front of the house which gets protection from the wind, and sun early in the season. I thought I could plant hardy vegetables here and start my harvest early. Once again I used the lasagna method of starting a new garden. First I put down old chick house cleanings in lieu of finished compost. We did not get chicks last year…
I celebrated the arrival of my friend Kathryn Galbraith's new book Arbor Day Square and then I saw My Garden by Kevin Henkes on the New Book shelf at the Heath Library. As a former librarian I know it used to be difficult to find books for young children about gardening, whether real gardens with real information, or about imaginary gardens, but happily that seems to be changing. Kevin Henkes is one of my favorites authors and illustrators…