Fall Dandelion – Leontodon autumnalis

  • Post published:09/06/2013
  • Post comments:3 Comments

The fall dandelion is making a great show this year, especially at the edges of the lawn where it meets the gravelly driveway. I don't ever remember quite so many in bloom. The fall dandelion is not really a dandelion at all, although the strong similarity explains the name. The fall dandelion is properly known as Leontodon autumnalis, while the common dandelion is Taraxacum officinale. The difference is that the fall dandelion has more narrowly cut leaves with lobes that…

Charles Dudley Warner on Purslane

  • Post published:07/26/2013
  • Post comments:6 Comments

  Purslane July 19, 2013Purslane is a common weed, which some find edible, and some find despicable. Charles Dudley Warner in his delightful book My Summer in a Garden has a few choice words to say about 'pusley.' Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900) spent part of his childhood in Charlemont, just down  the hill from Heath. For many years he was a writer and editor with the Hartford Courant. In 1870 he published My Summer in a Garden about his travails in…

Surprising Blossoms

  • Post published:05/03/2013
  • Post comments:2 Comments

There are surprising blossoms in the garden right now. Yesterday I found my first dandelions growing against the house foundation. None in the lawn but it won't be long. I never know when the neglected orchid cactus in the guest room will bloom. Surprise! The orchid cactus is loaded with buds waiting to come into bloom.  More surprises to  come

September Gold

  • Post published:09/07/2012
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September gold fills my garden at this time of the year. I have whole fields of goldenrod. It's a good thing that goldenrod is not responsible for allergies. "One of the most colorful plants we see blooming in roadside ditches and gardens in late summer is goldenrod (Solidago sp.). Hay fever symptoms seem to be worse when it is in bloom so it often accused of causing hay fever. One look at goldenrod and a little logical thinking…

Planting the Wild Garden by Kathryn Galbraith

  • Post published:09/05/2012
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My friend Kathryn O. Galbraith was recently presented with a Growing Good Kids 2012 award from the American Horticultural Society for Excellence in Children's Literature. This book, beautifully illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin depicts the myriad of ways that we all, people, birds, and animals as well as the wind and the rain plant the beautiful and fruitful gardens that grow along the roadsides, riversides and meadows. I wrote about Kathryn and her book when it first came…

Galinsoga parviflora – Weed of the Day

  • Post published:08/06/2012
  • Post comments:4 Comments

Galinsoga  parviflora is a major player in my garden this year. If only it were desirable, and not a weed.  Like all the other vigorous weeds shown here in my garden this year it seems to love the drought. I tried to get a clearer photo of my Weed of the Day, but you can get many images by clicking here. The flowers are very tiny with a golden center and five tiny white ray petal surrounding it. This…

Weeds or Wildflowers?

  • Post published:06/13/2012
  • Post comments:4 Comments

Weeds or wildflowers? What do you think? For more wordlessness this Wednesday click here.

Fall Chores Begin

  • Post published:09/22/2011
  • Post comments:3 Comments

While in town yesterday I met a friend who said he was busy cutting back the peonies and generally trying to close up the garden because he is leaving for Paris in a week or so. Until the end of October. Poor baby. So I came home and looked at my peonies, which will need a lot of weeding as well as cutting back. Of course, the tree peonies which produce large blossoms like Guan Yin Mian on…

Monday Record 5-23

  • Post published:05/23/2011
  • Post comments:3 Comments

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…

My Logo

  • Post published:03/25/2011
  • Post comments:5 Comments

When I began my blog, slightly more than three years ago, I had just finished reading The Uncommon Reader, a delightful short comic novel by Alan Bennett.  I am a reader and understood the reference to Virginia Woolf's Common Reader essays so the phrase 'common reader' was whirling around in my brain  when I thought of that most common of weeds - the dandelion.  I thought the dandelion was a perfect flower to refer to me; I am…