After soil building, mulching is probably the number two topic for gardeners. Kerry Mendez, author of The Ultimate Gardener's Top Ten Lists, talks about both these important topics in her talks and in her book. There was also considerable discussion at the Trillium Workshop I attended on Sunday. I mulch all I can, and have stories to tell myself. Last year our town left piles of wood chips all over town for us gardeners to use as we…
What a weekend. While I am waiting for the snow to melt I had a glorious weekend thinking about - and looking at flowers! On Saturday I got to meet Kerry Mendez, the spirited, humorous and knowledgeable keynote speaker at the Master Gardener's Spring Symposium on Saturday. She engaged the audience in lively conversation and talked about how to have a successful flower garden- choose the right plant for the right site - and gave great design tips. Fortunately, if…
Daylilies are as beautiful as the day, and come in all the colors of the day, pale pink dawns, watery yellows of a sunshower, brilliant golds of noon, and all the ruddy shades of sunset. Richard Willard who grows about 500 daylilies at Silver Garden Daylilies says that when people think about orange daylilies they think of the common roadside variety, and “yet there are beautiful big orange daylilies with seven inch blossoms that you can see from…
The calendar says it's spring, but I can drive past my snowy lawn and only DREAM of coltfoot growing at the side of my road. Coltsfoot, an herb, is one of the very first plants to bloom here on the hill. More dreaming - of daffodils - my celebration of the first day of spring. I'm off to the Western Mass Master Gardener's Spring Symposium. I will be sharing what I learn. On Sunday I'm off to the…
Although I am still surrounded by lawns and fields of snow, the sun has been shining with the predictable result. The snow is melting slowly and almost invisibly. Melted snow is running off and down the road. Have I ever mentioned that we live on a hill? Some of this water is actually coming from the hill that continues to rise behind our house. Is this water from the invisible melt beneath the snow, or is it coming…
Interior designer Charlotte Moss, writing in today's New York Times, says she "eschews matching dishes and serving pieces." I'm right with her. White dishes are a basic and table settings can be changed delightfully with linens and accessories, but my daughter bought me these befruited dishes for summer meals. And I always think if a chicken or two can be added to the table so much the better. Although it is hard to see the pretty glasses are…
Some people count the beginning of spring when farmers start sugaring. Up here in Heath the Berkshire Sweet Gold folks have been hard at it for a couple of weeks, but the snow is still deep in the fields and in the woods. It hasn't looked like spring. Hasn't felt like spring. But today the temperatures rose into the 50s and the sun was bright. I stopped at the Greenfield Farmers Coop for some potting soil and admired…
The name Constance Spry doesn't mean much to most Americans. Gardeners may know the Constance Spry rose, one of the first of David Austin's English roses, but not know the woman behind the rose. Constance Spry was born in 1886. She had varied careers in health, joined the civil service during World War I and was headmistress of a school teaching young teen aged girls who worked in factories. It was not until the 1920s that she began…
The Smith College Annual Bulb Show, always spectacular, is one of the ways some of us flower starved gardeners manage to get through the last bit of winter as we wait to get out hands back in the soil. The show opens today, March 6 and runs through Sunday, March 21, when spring will have officially arrived. This year’s Turkish garden and will feature many species tulips from Turkey. Robert Nicholson, Lyman Conservatory manager, who has been busy…
First you need to know that I raise chickens, and have for the past 30 years. I do not look like this, although I do have roses growing in the Shed Bed, next to the hen house. Peggy Ornstein in The New York Times today talks about "femivorism" and the part chickens play. I did not get my chickens because I thought it was part of good parenting practice. My five children were teenagers or older by the…