“When you have such a huge list of native plants, [as we do in New England] you don’t need exotics,” Ruth Parnall said as she handed me pages of native grasses, wetland wildflowers, ornamental shrubs, vines and trees. Then she handed me a list of books that would give me even more names of natives. Her comment reminded me of the enormous traffic of our native plants to England in the 1700s. John Bartram, often considered the first…
When I began my blog, slightly more than three years ago, I had just finished reading The Uncommon Reader, a delightful short comic novel by Alan Bennett. I am a reader and understood the reference to Virginia Woolf's Common Reader essays so the phrase 'common reader' was whirling around in my brain when I thought of that most common of weeds - the dandelion. I thought the dandelion was a perfect flower to refer to me; I am…
I wish I had known about Saint Gertrude of Nivelles in Belgium (626-659) last week. It is National Women's History Month and Saint Gertrude with her cats could have shared the stage with St. Patrick and his snakes on March 17. At the age of 10 Gertrude stated she would have no other bridegroom but Christ. In 639, after her father died, her mother established a double monastery, one for men and one for women at Nivelles. She…
It is very hard to get a good photo of the chickens drinking at their new Avian Aqua Miser waterer, but the first chicken on the right had been drinking and the second chicken on the right is still taking good long sip. What you cannot see in the photo are the little 'nipples' that work on a similar principle to a hamster waterer. The 5 gallon bucket has water and the chickens poke at the nipples that release…
Sometimes a garden is more than a garden. Sometimes a garden is comfort, safety, job training, real good food for the hungry and a supportive community. Growing a Garden City by Jeremy Smith (Skyhorse Publishing $24.95) has an all inclusive subtitle - How Farmers, First Graders, Counselors, Troubled Teens, Foodies, A Homeless Shelter Chef, Single Mothers and More are Transforming Themselves and their Neighborhoods Through the Intersection of Local Agriculture and Community and How You Can, Too. Whew!…
There was a great crowd at the Master Gardener's Spring Symposium on Saturday. The arrangements were wonderful with a delicious and energizing breakfast buffet, fruit, muffins, juice, coffee and tea - all free. And later a yummy lunch and great conversation with our fellow gardeners. There were all manner of workshops from fruit tree pruning to roses! Naturally I went to hear Tracey Culver, who is a head gardener at Smith College, talk about the roses she grows…
Orra White Hitchcock was a college president’s wife, a mother of eight, and an artist. The art she created, drawings and watercolor paintings of flowers, grasses and other plants, were scientifically accurate yet transformed by a lyrical delicacy and artistry. An exhibit of her work, Orra White Hitchcock (1796–1863): An Amherst Woman of Art and Science, co-curated by Daria D'Arienzo and Robert L. Herbert, will run through May 29 at the Mead Museum of Art at Amherst College.…
There was a Giveaway over at Garden Rant and I won some Tropicannas from Tessalaar Plants! I'm not exactly sure what, but I think this new Tropicanna Gold is coming my way. Cannas are dramatic plants so I am very excited. I don't think they will be in bloom in time for the Franklin Land Trust Farm and Garden Tour on June 25 and 26, but it will be a great treat for mid-summer. They will not overwinter…
Fresh Possibilities are just what I am looking for at this time of the year, so it is no surprise that I have been spending happy evenings with Kim Smith's beautiful book that includes so many of her own delicate paintings of flowers, birds and butterflies. Kim Smith gardens, and paints, in Gloucester. Over the years her garden has grown, as has her concern about conservation and her delight in the roads to literature and art that her…
I don't have any unusual foliage, but I had to participate in Foliage Follow-Up this time because of all the vigorous growth I have seen over the past month. The days are longer and the plants have woken up. My scented geraniums are full of new foliage. This pelargonium is from a cutting I took. I think I'll move it to a regular pot in a couple of weeks. This jade tree is over 20 years old, but…