Autumn is a good  time to collect leaves to make compost to feed the garden. We have found different  ways to do this. The photo shows a wire ‘barrel’ which we pack with leaves every fall. There is also a regular store bought bin where I put kitchen scraps and leaves along with some soil periodically, which helps make very good compost. Behind that bin is another bin that we can use to wait for the first bin  to finish the compost. You will also notice that the bottom sheet on top of that bin has holes, evidence that rats were eating through it to get to food they like. (more…)

A few weeks ago, after reading Garden Refresh: How to Give Your Yard Big Impact on a Small Budget, I was inspired and told my husband  that we really needed to take down a large viburnum to provide sunlight. Having an obliging husband makes it easy to spend very little money to give more plants needed sunshine.  But this book provides many ways to help choose plants, and how to care for them. (more…)

The 104th Heath Fair takes a lot of people to provide great events and pleasures. Ned is just one of  the people who works at the Heath Fair.  He is watching the attendees look at all the equipment that has found a place in the Solomon Temple barn including books about Heath, and items like a loom that has been used over the years. There is also a raffle – I’ve  got my eye on that quilt! (more…)

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota) grows wild throughout our country.  These lovely wild biennials produce a carrot-like taproot, hence its proper name. One of the stories of this flower is about the British Queen Anne II (1665-1714) who was tatting white lace with her needle and pricked her finger. A drop of blood fell on the lace, and sometimes a dark red flower appears on the center of the flower. (more…)

Mayapples ((Podophyllum peltatum) are not a fruit I would eat. And though I have never  heard of anyone else eating them you can eat the bland fruit, but not the seed. This year is so dry that the plants started shrivelling in early July. (more…)

Jean Vernon has  written an amazing book, Attracting Garden Pollinators, unlike other books about the importance of garden pollinators. She has gone beyond talking about butterflies and bees. (more…)

In this dry summer, I’m thinking about the wet, swampy flowers, like the Cardinal Plant. Early on I read that Cardinal flowers love the wetlands, next to streams, ponds, swamps, and anywhere that will stay moist – which includes my garden.

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In 1988 my friend  BJ said we  should visit the Olallie Daylily Gardens. I’d get a great story for my column. We met Chris Darrow, who tended the ever growing fields of flowers.  The first of these daylilies were sent to Vermont by Dr. George M Darrow, a geneticist who worked for the USDA as a breeder for small fruits, blueberries, strawberries and more in Maryland.  He wanted to share these daylilies with the rest of his family in Vermont. He explained that Olallie is a west coast native American name which translates loosely to Place Where Berries Are Found, providing a name for what became a great collection of daylilies. (more…)

Our two dogwoods grew amazingly in 5 years!  Sara-Evelyn said from now on we’d need to be  doing substantial pruning every year. Sara-Evelyn came to our garden in March to trim our little redbud. We were happy to watch its spring beauty. Time passed and things seemed to be going well, but a day before her second visit to us arrived, one branch broke off because of heavy winds.  Sara-Evelyn took time to talk about the Redbud and give it a little extra trimming. (more…)

Jenny Rose Carey is just the woman to write the Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Guide. She is a hands-on gardener but she has worked for long periods at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Meadowbrook Farm, lectured, and more. Now she has brought us a new book that is amazingly helpful for every gardener. Certainly for me. (more…)