Nasami Farm in Whately, the nursery of the New England Wildflower Society, will open for the season tomorrow, Thursday, April 14. Hours are 10 am to 5 pm from Thursday through Sunday every week.The Nursery offers about 400 nursery propagated native wildflowers and shrubs. I go every year to buy groundcovers like barren strawberry and shrubs like Rosa setigera. What will you need from Nasami this spring?
The sun was shining when I walked across the Bridge of Flowers last Friday. The Flower Brigade, those devoted volunteers, were raking and weeding. They were nearly done when I arrived and the Bridge looked terrific. Gone were all the wisteria seed pods, and the crocuses were in their glory. The Bridge of Flowers Committee is very busy right now planning the Annual Plant Sale, the season's big fund raiser, and a great opportunity to buy some modestly…
Temperatures soared above 60 degrees and this was the first weekend we could actually work outside, so let me give you a brief tour to set the scene. The snow is still melting and revealing that the winter has been kind to the rhodies. No breakage. Lots of buds. The "Limelight" hydrangea was not so lucky. The snow plow dumped a lot of our enormous snowfall at the edge of the lawn and broke more than half this…
A garden is an ephemeral thing. It is created by the vision, knowledge, skill and passion of the gardener. When that gardener must give up the garden it will not last long without a careful intervention. In 1989 a group of passionate people who recognized the importance of gardens in telling the history of a time, place and culture founded The Garden Conservancy. Since then the Garden Conservancy has provided that intervention for ninety exceptional gardens across the…
During our visit our son-in-law took us to view the playing fields, the woodland trails and the new community garden that are a part of Sienna Plantation, where they live. There were no children on the playing fields, but we were stunned by the flock of buzzards enjoying their own game. In this case a dead armadillo. There were over 50 buzzards near the dead animal which did not seem like a very good ratio, but maybe they…
Colleen Plimpton is one of those fortunate people who is smart enough to learn from all the people - and sometimes the animals - who come into her life. In her charming, conversational book, Mentors in the Garden of Life, she tells us about relatives like Aunt Louise and friends like Kathleen, and expert gardeners like Sydney Eddison who have been important to her in life, and in her garden. Each vignette that captures a personality and time ends…
For more Wordlessnes this Wednesday click here.
During our visit to Missouri City Anthony, my 14 year old grandson, volunteered to do a Flash project for my blog. He took four of the flower photos I took during the Garden Conservancy's Open Days Tour and at Cindy's garden in Katy and turned them into a twirling delight. You can see each photo 'full size' by clicking on the thumbnails at the bottom. If only he lived closer we could collaborate more often. [swfobj src="http://www.commonweeder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Grannys-Picture-Viewer1.swf" align="left"…
Butterfly gardening is becoming very popular. Schools are having their students plant butterfly gardens, and adults can find more than a dozen books devoted to gardening in a way that will attract butterflies to their landscape. Butterfly gardening could just as well go by another name, pollinator gardening. Everyone knows that bees are pollinators, but butterflies along with many other creatures like wasps and bats are important pollinators. Planting a butterfly garden helps support pollinators. Most of us…
We left sunny Houston yesterday at noon, and got into sunny Nashville, but by the time we arrived in Hartford at 6:30 the rain was falling. Our son drove us to Greenfield where our car waited for us at his house. Quick! A few groceries! Quick up the hill. The snow is falling. And still falling this morning. My plan was to plant spinach today, but I guess that will not happen. The only flowers in my view…