Founding Foodies

  • Post published:05/20/2011
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Because I wrote about the Founding Gardeners by Andrea Wulf here, a friend just sent me The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine. I was fascinated at the way that Wulf described how the agricultural techniques of the Founding Fathers reflected their politcal and philosophical views. I should not have been surprised that men who spent so much time in their gardens and thinking about their garden and their land would also have thought…

Black Knot on My Plum

  • Post published:05/19/2011
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It's been raining for almost a week. This means the conditions are good for the spread of black knot. We have slowly been removing the plum trees from our orchard and the time has come to take down the last tree.  I loved the occasional harvests of Stanley plums which I mostly canned, but I think we will just content ourselves with the three semi-dwarf apple trees. This gall, one of several, is about 6 inches long and…

Another Lawn-less Garden

  • Post published:05/17/2011
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Yesterday I attended a reunion of the book club I helped found in 1965. The book club continues, and the book under discussion was Per Petterson's I Curse the River of Time.  I very much enjoy Petterson's books, and indeed many of the chilly books of the Scandinavian writers, but it is ironic that this book of lonliness and the failure of emotional ties was the topic among a group of women friends meeting over tea and cake…

A Devil of a Plant

  • Post published:05/16/2011
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I first noticed, really noticed, crocosmia or 'Lucifer' while visiting gardens in Buffalo last July with 70 other garden bloggers. Crocosmia is a stunning plant in a devilish shade of scarlet.  I came home and what did I find? Crocosmia growing on the Bridge of Flowers. Yesterday we sold several potted up crocosmia at the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale.  They don't look like much now, but just wait until July when they are three or four feet…

Bloom Day May 15, 2011

  • Post published:05/15/2011
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I don't think I have ever had this Bloom before on my blog. Several forsythia bushes were here when we bought they house : they are so old and entrenched that we have never been able even to contemplate the work it would take to pull them out. They rarely bloom, but they sure do grow.  But this year!  Not spectacular, but a regular profusion. A milder winter?  Global climate change? I have no idea why, but the…

The Flower Brigade

  • Post published:05/14/2011
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The Bridge of Flowers is a blooming wonder. Starting in April and through October it is in flower from the bright crocus and daffodils of early spring, through rose season and then dahlia season. I could not possibly give you a list of all the flowers that take their turn on the Bridge, bulbs, annuals, perennials, blooming shrubs and trees, all making life in Shelburne Falls a delight and attracting over 35,000 visitors from across the country and…

Trout Lilies

  • Post published:05/13/2011
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This patch of trout lilies, Erythronium americanum, is growing by the roadside on the edge of a drainage in the woods near my house. Trout lilies are so called because the mottled leaves are thought to resemble the markings on brook trout, but it has other common names: adder's tongue because of the look of the new unfurling leaves, and dogtooth violet because of the appearance of the white corm, but, of course, it is not a violet…

Spring Promises

  • Post published:05/12/2011
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More spring promises every day. The rugosas are the first roses to leaf out. This is Dart's Dash. The Thomas Affleck rose in front of the house is leafing out, too. But look what is budding up  . . . alliums - I don't remember which one. Lilacs. These are the old white variety here when we bought our house. Troillus.  I know there will be troillus at the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale on Saturday. Soon the…

Peonies

  • Post published:05/11/2011
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There was a time when peony roots for planting were only available in the fall, the best time for planting.  Today I saw several pink peony plants that are going to be put in the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale on Saturday.  I know I will also see peony plants in local garden centers. No one can resist the thought of having a peony bloom almost as soon as you plant it. June is peony season in my…