We love our Sycamore, in spite of all the little branches it throws down at this time of the year. A few leaves have also blown down but not enough to start raking. The unpleasant thing about sycamores is that in the summer the sycamore develops fine dust on  the underside of its leaves. This dust is a respiratory irritant which affects some people more than others. My husband wears a mask and goggles when he is raking up leaves and twigs in the fall. That work can be quite unpleasant. (more…)

Hurricane Ida took her time getting to Greenfield but on September 2, 2021, we woke up to flood.  Now I can’t fully blame the flood on Ida. When we bought our house six years ago we knew that there was occasional water in the back yard. Our strategy was to create a stroll garden by bringing in yards and yards of good soil (we love Martin’s Farm Compost) to build raised beds. (more…)

Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum) is not a weed! It is a native plant that tolerates some shade and blooms late in the summer. This year there has been so much rain that the Joe Pye Weed is not looking quite itself. Even so, it is continuing to flower and attracts bees, butterflies and provide seeds for overwintering birds. (more…)

One of the main reasons I planted Cardinal flowers is because they love water. My garden is very wet, and I have chosen these water-loving flowers that keep it colorful from July into September. These are growing five feet tall  and more. They are welcoming to butterflies and hummingbirds. (more…)

Over the years I saw mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum) growing around trees making a great ground cover. For several years I admired the large leaves but never saw any apples so the name mayapple seemed very odd. Even  so I planted a few on our hugel. They flourished. But I never saw a flower. Mayapples emerge from the ground in April. This photo was taken on April 26, 2020. (more…)

The Limelight panicle hydrangea was one of three very large hydrangeas we planted in our new garden six years ago. We planted them along our next door neighbor’s driveway. They provided us with a ‘friendly fence’, and gave her the view of beautiful flowers instead of the side of our house. (more…)

Griffith Buck, a professor at Iowa State University, was ahead of his time. He bred 80 roses over many years. I was quick to fall in love with Buck roses because I was living high on a hill with very cold winters. Carefree Beauty was one of the first Buck roses I bought and planted.  It tolerated the cold, rarely had trouble with insects or disease, and wasn’t fussy about the soil. I was a new rose gardener and Buck roses were  the perfect way to start. (more…)

Yesterday, on our way home from a Heath party, we stopped at the Bridge of Flowers to see what is blooming. It is such a gift – the Bridge is not only blooming, we are now allowed to walk across the Bridge and see the ever changing flowers. (more…)

From our kitchen window we have happily been watching birds splash around in our birdbath. We wash out the birdbath every day,  but we have just gotten bad news from Mass Audubon. (more…)

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day is late for me this July, but we will begin anyway, in spite of all the rain. The plants mostly seemed to enjoy the rain – as you can tell from this array on the hell strip. There is golden achillea (yarrow), echinacea (coneflower), daylilies, and if you look very very closely you can see one of the bee balm blossoms. Many of these plants are in the main garden behind the house. (more…)