Kate Bailey is the lucky winner of the froggy sundial. Kate, send me an email with your mailing address. I'll send that off to Teak, Wicker and More and they will send the sundial directly to you. Congratulations. Enjoy all the hours, sunny or not.
Cooks are known for guarding their secret recipes. Gardeners are known for giving away plants, seeds and advice to anyone who seems moderately interested. This is the time of year when their generosity is most evident, the kind of generosity that benefits the community as well as any individual gardener. Last weekend I volunteered at the annual Shelburne Falls Area Women’s Club plant sale that featured many divisions from the Bridge of Flowers, as well as plants from…
Midsummer Morning One big white peony enough for a bouquet. by Carol Purington My tree peony blossom is pink, but it is big enough for a bouquet. Carol's haiku are so evocative that I must include another on this Muse Day Monday. End of the row The child's strawberry basket still empty. This haiku seems to me a perfect depiction of a child's innocent greediness and the sweetness of summer. Thank you Carolyn…
I was flattered to get an e-note from CSN Stores saying that the commonweeder had the kind of readership that they were trying to reach. They proposed a Giveaway and I am very happy to pass that on to you. Their website Teak, Wicker & More offers a whole range of outdoor furniture which includes just about everything you need to make your gardens hospitable and comfortable. They have firepits and grills, planters, and of course, patio furniture. They…
The stone wall is a New England icon. Our soil is rocky and early farmers spent a lot of time clearing planting and grazing fields of stones and piling them at the edges to make walls of varying durability. Actually, we New England gardeners are still pulling stones out of the soil and piling them where they won’t be in the way, or using them as another resource. Here at End of the Road Farm we…
What a celebratory weekend. All due honor has been paid to our veterans, and even the tree peony has joined in those solemnities. Appropropriately, she is named (in translation) The Face of the Goddess of Compassion. This year she has nine blossoms, each about 7 inches across. Next to Guan Yin is another tree peony, planted at the same time, about 5 or 6 years ago (the relevant journal has gone missing) but she is smaller and will have…
Who would not want to belong to a group of people who not only grow giant pumpkins, but like to smash them, wear orange tuxedos, sail in pumpkin regattas, tour pumpkin patches and compete at fairs for the honor of growing the biggest pumpkin? Recently I attended a meeting of the Franklin County Giant Pumpkin Growers Association who haven’t yet, done all of these things, but they are in touch with other growers across the country…
My friend Peter who reads this blog, and others, responded to the review of Covering Ground by Barbara Ellis with the following post and request. "I need some gardeners' advice. The two photos show the side area of our house. It was cleared and a lawn (of sorts) planted before we bought the place. We do not use the area, and our dogs don't go down there either. Its value is in providing a respite with open space…
Things are blooming here at End of the Road Farm. The Sargent crab in the Sunken Garden is magnificent. So are the dandelions. It is so wet we haven't been able to mow here yet. The lilacs are also in full fragrant bloom. On Saturday I worked at the Shelburne Falls Area Women's Club plant sale, which includes many many divisions from our famous Bridge of Flowers. Now it is time to plants my new beds. I also got…
When I woke up on the first Earth Day, nearly 40 years ago, gas for my old car cost about 29 cents a gallon, I had never heard of recycling, and I didn’t worry much about lights left on, or watering my lawn. Things have changed since then. Gas prices got up to over $4 a gallon and struck terror into all our hearts. Recycling is an everyday habit for many of us. I not…