Greenfield Community Farm on Blog Action Day

  • Post published:10/16/2013
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Accessible healthy food is a basic human right. The Greenfield Community Farm helps insure this right to the Greenfield Community. The Greenfield Community Farm out on Glenbrook Road is actually comprised of four gardens. First, there is a production market garden, operated by grant-funded David Paysnick and his assistant Daniel Berry, that grows produce for sale through the Just Roots CSA, at the Farmers Market, and Green Fields Coop. This garden includes a greenhouse where seeds are started…

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day – October 2013

  • Post published:10/14/2013
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  On this Garden Blogger's Bloom Day in my Massachusetts hilltop garden we have  come through only one good frost, but the garden is slowly falling to sleep. Thomas Affleck is still blooming, and sporadic blossoms are still being thrown out by The Fairy, Meideland red and white, Hawkeye Belle and Knock Out Double Red. Grandpa Ott is a morning glory that is still blooming, in front of the house and down in the Potager, as we grandly…

Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

  • Post published:10/12/2013
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When I began reading The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, the famous author of the autobiographical Eat, Pray, Love, I expected a story that would involve  herbal medicine. Instead I got an nineteenth century story that included a highly profitable pharmaceutical business, a passionate botanizing heroine, desire, travels around the world, a charismatic man named Tomorrow Morning and a struggle between science and religion. Like many gardeners I enjoy novels that include a garden, whether in a mystery, or in some…

Apple Harvest – Disease Resistant Liberty Apple

  • Post published:10/11/2013
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My apple harvest is at high tide. The whole neighborhood has been talking about what a great apple year this is, so I am not alone. Right now I am harvesting Liberty apples. We planted this Liberty tree in 1983. I think. We chose it because of its disease resistance. We have taken very little care of it, except for some not very expert pruning. This self-fertile tree continues to bear, and the fruit is remarkably unblemished with…

Krishna Amid the Autumnal Sumac

  • Post published:10/09/2013
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Krishna is the eighth incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is often shown with his flute with which he seduces milk maids, but my Krishna's flute has been lost to the ages. He is no less seductive. For more Wordlessness this Wednesday click here.

Faviken – Magnus Nilsson – and Autumn Leaves

  • Post published:10/07/2013
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Swedish chef Magnus Nilsson has found a use for autumn leaves in his kitchen where he has been known to boil up a broth of autumn leaves that he thinks "tastes like a season." So, think again about the autumn leaves flying through the air with dancing autumnal breezes. Autumn leaves are falling and collecting on the ground where they are now being washed by gentle autumnal rains.  They are beautiful, and Magnus Nilsson has found a use for them beyond the…

Beaver Lodge on NESEA Green Buildings Open House Tour

  • Post published:10/04/2013
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“I’m a designer. I’ve always been absorbed by fashion, interior and landscape design,” Marie Stella said when she began my tour of Beaver Lodge in Ashfield. Her current and ongoing design project is the landscape surrounding her beautiful house which has been give a Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating. This is very unusual for a residence. LEED designations require that materials be as local as possible, that recycled materials be used when possible. For…

Brilliant Autumn Color is Flooding Heath’s Hills

  • Post published:10/02/2013
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All of sudden the autumn color we hope for and wait for has appeared. Every hour it seems more brilliant.     Down with invasive Burning Bush. Up with blueberries. Delicious berries and delightful autumn  color. Deep autumn color on the oakleaf hydrangea is stunning and unusual. For more Wordlessness this Wednesday click here.

Autumn Crocus and Other September Surprises

  • Post published:09/30/2013
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I was surprised to find these autumn crocus in bloom right out in front of the house next to the wisteria trunk. And under overgrown lemon balm. I keep promising to move them to a better spot, but invisible as  they are in July when that move should occur it never happens. Maybe next year. Since I have not been out to weed or care for the garden in what seems like weeks, there were other surprises like…

The Monks Garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

  • Post published:09/28/2013
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Last week I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to meet the noted landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburg and hear him speak about how he approached the challenge of redesigning the Monks Garden. He said that Isabella Stewart Gardener herself acknowledged that she was never satisfied with the small walled garden she called the Monks Garden. “That gave me the confidence and courage . . . to make a garden for the future of the Museum.” Certainly the…