During these pandemic years I’ve done a lot  of reading – and a lot of cooking. A dear friend who also likes to read, and cook and eat gave me a marvelous book – an early Christmas gift. O frabjous day! I have already begun planning to make Louise Penny’s Madame Benoit’s Tourtiere, Harlan Coben’s Myron’s Crabmeat Dip, James Patterson’s Grandma’s Killer Chocolate Cake and Lisa Scottoline’s A Tomato Sauce for All Seasons. Cooking and baking is a great way to get through these pandemic days. We have just received the order to put our masks back on. (more…)

Once I consulted an astrologer. He examined my chart, hesitated and spoke with some puzzlement. “You have your whole family in your hands?” I was stunned. I had just come from a major family reunion and was fully aware of the vast numbers of aunts, uncles,  cousins, spouses and children surrounding me, their lives  leading in a hundred different directions. (more…)

Before the ground freezes I was determined to get my soil tested.  I think the result will be pretty good because we had to bring in 60 yards or more to create raised beds that would permit good planting spaces. As you all know, our yard/garden is a swamp when there is rain.  If we are  going to have a garden with lots of different plants we need to have good soil for raised beds.   Martin’s Farm (https://martinsfarmcompost.com/ was a dependable supplier of good soil and compost. (more…)

On this Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day I will begin with a familiar English Holly. Very prickery, but beautiful  red berries. Everyone is familiar with English Holly at this time of the year.  However – (more…)

Three years  ago I planted grape hyacinth bulbs in our new garden. I had never planted Muscari before and didn’t know it’s proper name – or how it would grow. The bulbs bloomed in the spring and I was delighted. The foliage continued after the blooms died, and then died itself in early summer. As  summer progressed I was shocked to see some weedy thing come up. Those shoots grew bigger and bigger and I  thought I must have planted them at the wrong time. I didn’t really pay attention to the notes that came with them. Surely they would be killed by the cold over the winter. (more…)

On Thursday morning I looked out into the dark morning and saw frost – first on the frosted  Knock Out red roses. Knock Out roses are very sturdy. This red rose bush has been blooming all season until now. It has been a hard year with intermittent rain and hot days, but this rose has persevered, though without its usual vivacity. I was worried if anything else had survived. (more…)

Marta McDowell gives us us a view of Frances Eliza Hodgson’s whole life, but the focus is on her book The Secret Garden and the gardens she created. When Unearthing the Secret Garden by Marta McDowell showed up in my mailbox I was thrown back into the past. My family moved from a Vermont farm to  an apartment in Stamford, Connecticut. I entered the John J. Ryle elementary school and fell in love  with my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Lupinachi, who read to us every day after lunch.  My favorite story was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and I have never forgotten Mary, Colin and Dickon who discovered  a secret, and untended garden. Now Marta McDowell has brought us Unearthing the Secret Garden – The Plants & Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett (more…)

Knock Out roses are famous for their dependability, the long bloom season and their  loveliness. My Knock Out Red Rose is a substantial bush and while it is not covered with blossoms there are more scattered on the bush. (more…)

For the third year the Greenfield Garden Club has offered a hard cider tasting. We have been learning about the difference between ciders. Sweet ciders that are available in supermarkets come straight from the apple press.  Hard ciders require fermentation.  The ciders at our party had about 5.7% of alcohol. Our part of the world has become an important place for those who enjoy hard cider. That is my husband carrying in a gallon of sweet cider, for…

I’m not sure how we got to October with blooms! It’s been hot! The rains have been torrential. Nothing was sure. We don’t have a lot of blooms, but we  begin Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day with my ‘Firelight’ hydrangea. The name is because it gets pinker and pinker in the fall. the ‘Fire’ in Firelight is slightly exaggerated, but it is wonderful to  watch the shades of ‘red’ increase through the  fall. (more…)