It  was on a snowy December 6 in 2007, the feast of St. Nicholas, that I inaugurated my Commonweeder blog. On this anniversary I’m taking a  look at the last nine years, on the blog, in the garden, and in my life. That first post gave a hint that I was not only a gardener but a reader. I mentioned Eleanor Perenyi’s wonderful book Green Thoughts, and a chapter that talked about the house and garden that was owned by Henry James and E.F. Benson at different times. James and Benson were both writers whose works were very different. And so were their gardens. It is the differences in all our gardens that I have especially come to appreciate and love.

My First Blogaversary was quiet and uneventful but on the December 12, there was a terrific and very beautiful ice storm that left the town encased in ice for more than three days – brilliant sun but near zero temperatures. I wrote about that excitement here. There were meals prepared at the Community Hall because so many didn’t have power or heat. The National Guard came to help clear the roads and they slept on the floor in the Community Hall.

This 2009 photo became an iconic view of Christmas at our house, Henry tramping through the snow with a tree cut from our snowbreak. I was following  with the camera and the tree cutting tools. We are now in a new in-town house and this is my favorite photo of the Heath house. Three years of blogging have passed with thoughts about gardens, gardeners, garden books, Bloom Day, and all t he directions down the garden path that all gardeners travel, history, myth,and art.

In 2010 Layanee Merchant of Ledge and Gardens fame, and her mother visited my garden, Elsa Bakalar’s garden (although it no longer had her hand at the helm) the Bridge of Flowers and The Glacial Potholes. They said the trip to  the Bridge of Flowers alone was  worth  the trip. Their visit was a highlight of my year. Blogging brought me so many new friends and widened my world.

It’s 2011 and I  think this is the fourth year of the Daylily Bank and it is finally looking pretty good. I don’t know why it took us decades to  find this solution to the steep bank right in front of  the house. No mowing and beautiful color.

In 2012 I attended my first Winterfare, a winter Farmers Market. We are fortunate to live where there are so many small farms bringing us wonderful fresh vegetables, fruit, eggs and even meat. It has been exciting to see this renaissance of farming. Gone is the tobacco and here is the goodness of fresh, organic foods from potatoes to the honey wine called mead and an array of ciders, sweet and hard.

In 2013 our great-granddaughters, Bella and Lola came to live in Massachusetts, not far from us. We put them right to work cleaning out the shed and then helping prepare for the Annual Rose Viewing. A garden grows and so do families.

The Rose Walk grew and grew including the Queen of Denmark  and Madame Hardy, but I also had a collection of Farm Girls, roses from local farms that had often been tended for many decades. There was Rachel’s Rose and more recently this sturdy, dainty and sweet Purinton Rose, given to me by those at Woodslawn Farm in Colrain.  If you want you take a Virtual Tour of the Rose Walk.  In 2014 we held the penultimate Rose Viewing. We were thinking about leaving Heath for life in the town of Greenfield.

In early spring of 2015 we bought a house in Greenfield and started our new garden with plants  from the Heath gardens. The Greenfield house had no gardens at all and we were eager get to get started right away. A gardener’s blank canvas cannot be left blank for long. We began with the South Border which was drier than the backyard which we knew was wet from the moment we saw the house.

In 2016 this February flood showed us just how wet our garden could get.  You can also see the fence we put up, a mate to  the fence in  our neighbors garden. I was dubious about the fence, but it gave the garden definition.

In 2016, having sold the Heath house, and begun settling in at the Greenfield house we learned that our new garden was not only wet, it could become a pond. But we were undaunted and chose our plants, shrubs, trees, and perennials that tolerated, or even loved, water.

Now that I have arrived at my 9th year of blogging I am thinking of all the benefits the Commonweeder has brought me, visits to many gardens across the country, new friendships, and the most delightful ways to learn about plants. Now I am moving into a new stage in my life and on my blog. Here a few photos of my summer 2016 new garden.

Only a few roses can be planted in the new garden, but the Greenfield climate allows for more tender roses like this Lions Fairy Tale disease resistant rose which began blooming in late May and continued through October. Now we are on to a new season in the garden.