Jan over at Thanks for 2day is asking us to write about our current and or planned efforts to garden and live sustainably by April 15. There are prizes! And a chance to learn more about each other, and more ways to live a greener life. Check out Jan's blog for all information and don't forget - Earth Day is coming up - for the 40th year! I have been documenting, to some degree, our attempts to live…
Last Sunday was muddy and dreary but the group that gathered in front of the blazing fire at Curtis House in Ashfield was as bright and sunny as a summer day. We had all gathered to have Jeff Farrell, Gloria Pacosa and Lisa Newman, the newly formed Trillium Workshops, teach us how we could all have cutting gardens to fill our houses with fresh flowers while leaving our flower borders intact. These three friends came together hardly more…
As the gardens green up and come into bloom special events are also popping up everywhere. Tower Hill Botanic Garden will have its Free Spring Open House on Sunday, April 11 from 10 to 5 pm. For the first time visitors will enter through the new Reception Gateway. Right now the famed field of 25,000 daffodils is in bloom. Read about my trip to Tower Hill last summer here. Next weekend IKEBANA--the Japanese art of floral design--will be…
The historic Bridge of Flowers is in bloom! When I ran across yesterday admiring all the flowers I met three visitors from Australia, taking lots of photos - and who could blame them. I took photos too. First there is the new sign on the Shelburne side. It was painted by Jane Wegscheider of The Art Garden and hangs from a structure created by Bob Compton of Rising Sun Forge. The flowers begin even before you step on…
Yesterday I went to Greenfield to hear a talk by the charming Ed Himlan of the Massachusetts Watershed Coalition talk about rain gardens, but we didn't have to stand out in the rain to enjoy it and learn. Did you know that the major cause of pollution in our waterways is from rainwater runoff? More on that later. During my drive about town I admired the forsythia in bloom everywhere. It hurts me to see bushes pruned severely…
These daffodils are growing into a rose bush - or the bush is growing into the daffs, I'm not sure which. These bulbs were here when we moved in 30 years ago. They are unusual in the slim pointed 'petals' of the perianth, and the fluffy doubleness of the cup. There is also a slight greenish tinge in some petals which I enjoy. I have Kathy Purdy to thank for identifying these daffs which are an heirloom variety…
The main task for these past few beautiful days has been setting up the new garden in front of the house which gets protection from the wind, and sun early in the season. I thought I could plant hardy vegetables here and start my harvest early. Once again I used the lasagna method of starting a new garden. First I put down old chick house cleanings in lieu of finished compost. We did not get chicks last year…
On April 1 I made it down to 'The Orchard', a term we use very loosely, and found that the snowdrops were up. But the snow lingers in the orchard, and we rarely go down there early in the season so . . . . I dug them up, in flower, and moved them to the Herb Bed in front of the Piazza. Deborah at Kilbourne Grove recently posted about getting a gift of snowdrops 'in the green'…
Finally, I was able to use the solar clothes dryer! The sun shone and temperatures are rising. The daffodills under Miss Willmott lilac have started to send up shoots. When I cleared away dead foliage I could see that the Lady's Mantle, alchemilla, has a lot is going on. The snow is gone from below the vegetable garden, and there was only moderate squelching across the lawn to see the snowdrops. My very first blooms.
April 5, 1974 The air was soft, the ground still cold. In the dull pasture where I strolled Was something I could not believe. Dead grass appeared to slide and heave, Though still too frozen flat to stir, And rocks to twitch, and all to blur. What was this rippling of the land? Was matter getting out of hand And making free with natural law? I stopped and blinked, and then I saw A fact as eerie as…