Rain. Downpours. But the intrepid Garden Club of Amherst members were undaunted. I met them for a tour of the Elsa Bakalar/Scott Prior garden. In the background you can see that the old rhododendrons in back of the house near the woodland path are still blooming. The daffodils are long gone It's iris season in the garden right now. The Siberians don't mind how much rain they get. Of course, there are other bloomers right now like these…
The old joke goes that if you don’t lock your car doors in August you’ll return and find the back seat filled with zucchini. You might be happy about this if you don’t have a vegetable garden, after all zucchini is a versatile vegetable that can be used in a number of delicious ways, is nutritious supplying protein, vitamins A and C and numerous other good elements but no cholesterol, and contains only 20 calories per one cup…
The first time I was given this rose it came with warnings to plant it somewhere it could be mowed back and kept under control. Unfortunately, it died. I tried again and I now have two clumps, but the mower has not be necessary yet. I love that this early bloomer reflects the June sunlight which encourages all the growth on the hill. Harrison's Yellow rose presents its small double blossoms only in June. Its small leaves and…
The large Luna Moth is a beautiful creature. The Luna Moth (Actias luna) here was badly damaged and missing its long tail, but it was alive when my friend found it in her back yard. She put it in a casserole dish and began her researches. Her moth was a female and even in its ravaged state it began to lay eggs. Ordinarily females will lay between 100-300 eggs about 4 to 7 at a time on the…
For the past couple of weeks I have been looking at a budded plant in the Lawn Grove. It seemed to have lily foliage, but I couldn't remember planting lilies in that spot. And I never found time to go back and check my records for last fall. The other day the buds opened into these beautiful martagon lily blossoms. But the plant was not quite three feet tall. Is there such a thing as a miniature martagon?…
My Monday Record is a day late because I have been so busy with all the weeding, trimming, pruning and planting. There is so much left to do that it seems I am not making progress, but I am! The roses are making progress too. This is a rose bush given to me by the Purington family on Woodslawn Farm in Colrain. The flowers are small, about one and a half inches across, but intensely fragrant - and…
It is one thing to know about the life cycle of a tree. It is quite another thing to know about the life of a pine cone. Today we parked our car near some low hanging branches of a Norway Spruce, and I could not help noticing little groups of tiny cones. Then I looked down and saw six inch cones under my feet. I had never thought that 'pinecones' did not start out at mature size. Did…
My Swedish grandfather said he could never get horseradish to grow. His troubles made me think horseradish must be a difficult crop. Not so. His failure was just one of those garden mysteries. Some people seem to have a chemical antipathy towards a particular plant, failing with that one while having success everywhere else in the garden. Our first spring in Heath I sent out my seed order and included an order for three horseradish roots. Then, with…
People are always asking me what is blooming on the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls. It changes every day but here are some current views. These azaleas are as sunny as our June days. The tornadoes that went through Springfield and beyond on Wednesday didn't do any damage up our way. Azaleas have their own season, but the annual osteospernums will bloom all summer long. That is what makes annuals so valuable in any planting. Blue is…
The first excitement last night was dodging the raindrops to harvest enough "Tango" lettuce from the Front Garden to make up our dinner salad. The first garden salad of the year. They are not very big, but I had to thin out those two French Breakfast radishes as well. A single spicy bite. The second excitement was watching the sky - and the TV reporting on the tornado that tore through Springfield, less than 50 miles (as the…