The rains began Wednesday morning. Two and a half inches by the end of the day. You all know what happens to peonies in pounding rains. They droop. Even those who are supported by wire rings. Will they perk up before visitors come on the Franklin Land Trust Farm and Garden Tour on Saturday and Sunday? Will the roses have any petals left? Another half inch yesterday - and showers promised for today. No matter, the landscape is…
Over the past couple of days three of my 6 fancy chrysanthemums and some morning glory seedlings in my little circle garden (which guards our mower from a huge boulder) have been eaten or pulled out. At first I couldn't figure out who would pull two of the mum babies out and hide them, but we have got bunnies around this year - for the first time. I never thought bunnies liked mums. Or morning glories. When I…
Rain. Downpours. But the intrepid Garden Club of Amherst members were undaunted. I met them for a tour of the Elsa Bakalar/Scott Prior garden. In the background you can see that the old rhododendrons in back of the house near the woodland path are still blooming. The daffodils are long gone It's iris season in the garden right now. The Siberians don't mind how much rain they get. Of course, there are other bloomers right now like these…
The old joke goes that if you don’t lock your car doors in August you’ll return and find the back seat filled with zucchini. You might be happy about this if you don’t have a vegetable garden, after all zucchini is a versatile vegetable that can be used in a number of delicious ways, is nutritious supplying protein, vitamins A and C and numerous other good elements but no cholesterol, and contains only 20 calories per one cup…
The first excitement last night was dodging the raindrops to harvest enough "Tango" lettuce from the Front Garden to make up our dinner salad. The first garden salad of the year. They are not very big, but I had to thin out those two French Breakfast radishes as well. A single spicy bite. The second excitement was watching the sky - and the TV reporting on the tornado that tore through Springfield, less than 50 miles (as the…
There isn't much to report about progress in the garden. This report is full of rain, showers, downpour, drizzle, rain, spitz and fog. Fortunately a showery day did not deter the Yestermorrow crew who came to Katywil to hold an Earth Oven Building workshop. The stone foundation had been completed two weeks ago and Saturday was going to see building of a wood fired oven. The workshop participants had to get deep into the mud (earth) and…
The garden centers are putting out their trays of blooming annuals, many of which will find their way into planters and containers of all sizes and shapes. They’ll be hung on porches, set out on decks and placed by doorways. It is hard to resist all that color and frilly form. Fortunately for us we don’t have to resist because those familiar annuals, impatiens, petunias, begonias and geraniums are inexpensive and put on a good and cheerful show…
Because I wrote about the Founding Gardeners by Andrea Wulf here, a friend just sent me The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine. I was fascinated at the way that Wulf described how the agricultural techniques of the Founding Fathers reflected their politcal and philosophical views. I should not have been surprised that men who spent so much time in their gardens and thinking about their garden and their land would also have thought…
We live in a fortunate part of the world. Recently my husband and I were counting our local blessings: good neighbors, relatively benign bureaucracies, easy traffic, and beautiful landscapes with hills and streams, woodlands and meadows. Those landscapes have changed in a major but subtle way over the 30 years since we moved to Heath. The dairy farms that were here in Heath have all disappeared as have many dairy operations in other towns. A few farm stands…
In spite of Saturday's snow and sleet which continued most of the day, after a warm night with temperatures constantly increasing, Easter Sunday dawned warm and sunny and blissful. This is all that was left of the snow. The breeze was gentle and it was a perfect Easter Sunday. One of the first fences we removed over the past months was the wire fence that formed the 'fourth wall' of the Sunken Garden. These dayliles grew along the…