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…
June is the most important month in my garden, especially this year. The last Sunday in June is traditionally The Annual Rose Viewing, my version of Garden Open Today. I send out an open invitation to anyone who wants to stop and smell the roses, visit with friends and have a glass of lemonade and some cookies in the comfort of the Cottage Ornee. This year is different. This year our garden is part of the Franklin…
Andrea Wulf's fascinating book The Founding Gardeners provides a drawing of George Washington's Mount Vernon site plan. I wrote about this book here. Sunday's Washington Post had a story about the restoration of his gardens based on a 13 month archeological dig led by Esther White. Now visitors will be able to see the garden as George himself laid it out. Every garden is ephemeral. Every garden changes over time. Finding evidence of original planting plans revealing the…
The Holiday Weekend started for me on Friday afternoon when I visited the Heath School's Garden Day. The classes have been working before now, of course, but on Garden Day, the whole day is given over to planting, weeding, mulching - and learning. I am impressed with their energy, which I expected, but also with the quality of the child-sized tools they are using. Many hands make light work was certainly the motto on Friday. You may wonder…
One of the joys of having a garden is being able to give away plants. Last weekend a number of gardeners gave away divisions of their plants to the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale, helping the Bridge and a lot of other gardeners. That is one way. Another way is to give plants to friends or acquaintances who are starting a garden and might not be able to tell a bean from a bachelor’s button Still another is…
I hope this photo give some sense of the amazing bloom of the Sargent crabapple. It is not 15 feet tall, but it is at least 15 feet wide and was planted about 15 years ago. It thrives in the Sunken Garden even though it is very wet in the spring. It is now in full flower - almost a single tree-sized blossom at this point. This apple tree, name unknown, produces apples but they are not the…
I thought I pinched off the buds of the roses that were delivered early this month. I guess I was wrong. "Agnes" a rugosa from High Country Roses is hardly more than a foot tall, but she has two more buds. I better pinch them off. I want this new rose on the Rose Bank to put all its strength into good roots. Yellow is a very unusual color for rugosas. I hope it will be hardy. Many…