I left home Tuesday afternoon, racing the storm, because I was planning on having lots of educational fun in Cambridge while I was staying there visiting with my son. I had scheduled a visit on Wednesday to see the Glass Flowers at Harvard's Museum of Natural History and then a meeting with other garden writers on Thursday. The storm stopped, but so did a lot of traffic in town. The Museum was closed! The Museum was closed but…
It didn't take long to use up all the wonderful fresh veggies I bought at the Northampton Winterfare, but the Greenfield Winterfare, a winter farmer's market is coming up on Saturday, February 5 from 10 am - 2 pm at Greenfield High School on Lenox Avenue. In addition to all delicious food, bread, fruit, veggies, meat, yogurt, jam, pickles, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, there will be a variety of workshops on canning, growing grain, seed saving and more. There…
I have no affection for groundhogs, but Groundhog Day is one of my favorite movies. Made in 1993 it has come to be lauded as one of the best movies ever made. "The film is number thirty-four on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies, and was named the number eight Fantasy film inAFI's 10 Top 10. Roger Ebert has revisited it in his "Great Movies" series. After giving it a three-star rating in his original review, Ebert acknowledged in…
Water What is the vitality and necessity of clean water? Ask the man who is ill, who is lifting his lips to the cup. Ask the forest. Mary Oliver from "Evidence" Water is almost everything. We are water. Water is essential. Water is so important that I cannot find the words to encompass it. Right now the news is full of reports about devastating floods. Other times the news is of drought. We gardeners have our own experiences…
Last May I went on a fabulous tour of some of NYC's parks beginning with Battery Park. There I saw Amsonia, which some bloggers had been raving about. I looked at this mass planting and did not see what all the raving was about. The flowers seemed inconsequential. I was not impressed. Now I read that Amsonia hubrichtii has been named the Perennial Plant of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association. How could this be? The PPA…
Nancy and Haynes Turkle have been concerned about the environment and the ways we affect it for a long time. Nancy’s graphic design company even worked for the Department of Environmental Protection for 15 years creating educational recycling materials. During their 20 years living in Groton they were involved in many community activities including helping to found a community garden. As the garden thrived so did cooperation between the members of the garden and the wider community. They…
As I surround myself with rose catalogs and make my final decisions about this year's purchases, I can't help remembering all the roses I have bought and killed. When I was a new gardener I was ashamed of every failure and knew, rightfully so, that it was caused by my lack of knowledge and skill. It took time to realize that knowledge and skill grow from our failures. We learn about proper planting, proper siting, and proper maintenance.…
Another snowfall left another 5 inches of powdery snow. The plow was here at 6:30. No excuse for a lie in. This is the view from my south bedroom window. With all these frequent snows the fields remain pristine and white. This is the view from the west bedroom window. This is how I spend the first half hour of the morning, winter or summer, with my coffee and a book. My chair is right near the woodstove.…
Many of us probably don’t fuss very much when we are making a flower arrangement for our dining table. We run out into the garden and cut a little bit of whatever is in bloom and a few leaves, put them in a vase with little fuss and we are done. However if we are make a more important arrangement for a special party, for a friend’s wedding, or the church altar, we will need more flowers and…
Constance Spry found beauty in places others had not noticed. The unexpected drama of the plants she used surprised and delighted people. She turned to the vegetable garden and found one of her favorite plants – kale – but used other vegetables and fruits to brilliant effect. Her arrangements would not have the same startling effect today, because the ideas she propounded, her cry to forget about the rules and have fun, to see beauty in the commonplace…