Mountain Mint for Pollinators and for Tea

  • Post published:08/09/2013
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Mountain mint was one of the fascinating new plants I saw yesterday when I visited the beautiful and inspiring Wildside Cottage gardens in Conway.  According to an Illinois Wildflowers page    "Many insects are strongly attracted to the flowers,   including various bees, wasps, flies, small butterflies, and beetles. Typical   visitors from these groups include honeybees, Cuckoo bees, Halictid bees,   Sphecid wasps, Eumenine wasps, bee flies, Tachinid flies, Wedge-shaped beetles,   and Pearl Crescent butterflies. Most of these insects…

Wood Chips – O frabjous day!

  • Post published:08/07/2013
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Wood chips from Asplundh before I even finished my first cup of coffee.  I need them to lay over cardboard on my garden paths. I can never have too many wood chips. I think I might even get a second delivery today! For more (almost) Wordlessness this Wednesday click here.  

Local Food Security Around the World

  • Post published:08/05/2013
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The August 4, 2013 issue of the New York Times included a fascinating story about food security by Damien Cave - "As Cost of Importing Food Soars, Jamaica Turns to the Earth." "Jamaica has always farmed- sugar and bananas , mostly - and imports have been a part of the mix since at least the colonial era because grains are had to grow in the region. But the balance tipped more significantly toward foreign food in the 1990s. From 1991…

Blueberries and Raspberries, Easy, Delicious and Nutritious

  • Post published:08/04/2013
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  Blueberries and raspberries  are easy food crops that can save you money and are amazingly nutritious. Berries are expensive in the market because they require so much labor to pick, are perishable and need to be shipped quickly. Yet it does not take much time or trouble to go out a pick enough for a family. Blueberries I think blueberries are about the easiest berry to grow. Blueberries are hardy, a native plant that loves our acid…

August Bloomers on August 1, 2013

  • Post published:08/02/2013
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Of all the August Bloomers, the Daylily Bank makes the biggest statement even though it has started to pass its peak. Other August bloomer are just beginning. The most notable in this photo is the classic Echinacea or coneflower, with Russian sage in front and pink and white phlox on the other side of the bed. The phlox is late, with light bloom, because the deer had been snacking on the buds. Only once clump of Paradise Blue…

Trash Transformed – Xu Bing at Mass MoCA

  • Post published:07/30/2013
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  Xu Bing, a noted Chinese artist, has transformed trash in the most stunning and delightful ways at Mass MoCA. We go to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams at least once a year, often bringing grandsons with us because there is always something weird and wonderful to see. I consider cigarettes, even unsmoked, as trash. For Xu Bing they are the raw materials of art. Xu Bing took this scroll as his inspiration, and…

Henry’s Lily and Others

  • Post published:07/29/2013
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Even if I didn't find this lily beautiful, I would have to have it, because my husband's name is Henry. I love the reflexed petals. I bought it from Old House Gardens who said  " We’re big fans of this willowy Chinese wildflower that was brought back by Irish plant collector Augustine Henry from remote limestone gorges in Hupeh. Enhanced by green nectaries and chestnut brown “whiskers,” its golden-orange petals swoop back like the wings of a falcon.…

Welcome Pollinators

  • Post published:07/27/2013
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When we think of pollinators we think of honeybees, being trucked to orchards in the spring or to pollinate vast mid-western fields in the summer. The decline of the honey bee, because of disease, mites, and the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), has been in the news for some years. The concern is that crops will be threatened by insufficient pollination and our food supply will be in danger. Knowing all this, Tom Sullivan, a former bee keeper,…

Charles Dudley Warner on Purslane

  • Post published:07/26/2013
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  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…

Daylilies at Sunset

  • Post published:07/24/2013
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The other night the sunset set the Daylily Bank aglow. The daylilies are a joy all day long.   For more Wordlessness this Wednesday click here.