The wind and the rain have knocked the dahlias down, but the colds, night time temps in the 40s, don't seem to bother them at all. The cosmos are bowed down as well, but just as beautiful and healthy. We are at the beginning of the bloom season for Boltonia. The plants have very sturdy stems, about 4 feet tall, and the flowers are small and fringey. Great for autumn bouquets. This rose is also standing tall and…
Foliage-viewing – Annual failure to slake Winter’s color thirst. In her haiku Carol Purington captures a season and the necessity of trying to prepare for the monochromatic winter landscape. She captures the colors, creatures and songs of every season at Woodslawn Farm here in western Massachusetts. This haiku is from her book Woodslawn Farm. To see what other muses are abroad and inspiring us, visit Carolyn gail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago, the host of…
The pace is slightly more relaxed, but the fall season can be just as busy for gardeners as the spring season. Many of the same tasks are required, clean up, soil building, compost building, and planting. In the autumn, all gardeners, both novice and experienced, have another chance to launch the next attempt to improve their gardens. For flower gardeners this means a comprehensive new guide to perennial care might be in order. With The Perennial…
It is so pleasant to run errands at this time of the year when the landscape in turning into a jewel box. But, in fact, I only have to travel down the dirt road to our mailbox to see this glory.
It might be more genteel to say a harvest of worm castings, but no one ever knows what I'm talking about when I use that term. Castings or manure, I took advantage of the warm day to bring my worm farm out of the basement and begin the harvest I dumped the whole bin full of worms, bedding and manure out onto a plastic sheet, and let that rest and give the worms time to dive deep into…
The sun shone, the crowd gathered and the celebration began. Ground was broken for the new Buckland Public Library addition. I was there for this joyous occasion. For nine of the happiest years of my life I was the Buckland Librarian. The library is small, only about 900 square feet, but the Board of Directors was devoted to making it the best library possible, and the patrons were all devoted readers. While libraries are full of information of…
My father never felt dinner was over until he had eaten his apple. The apple was a ritual. He loved cutting an apple in half around the equator to show us, or any available children, the star hidden in the center of the apple. And he proved the adage that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. He rarely needed the services of a doctor until his short final illness. With news coverage of the H1N1…
No, we didn't have an ice storm here yesterday, but many residents of Heath did form a Flash Mob! We were photographed on the steps of Sawyer Hall waving signs and cell phones (which don't actually work here) and looking mad as part of the Wake Up Call we were sending our President and legislators. We want them to Do Something in Copenhagen in December. We were only one of about 2500 groups around the world telling our…
After a chilly, even cold, week we are now enjoying a sunny warm spell. Autumn begins tomorrow but the fall into the golden season is now a gentle one. I am looking forward to a mild week because there is a lot to do in the garden. In spite of the chill, I did get to observe the eradication of the Mile-a-Minute vine in Greenfield, and visit some other gardens last week. I cannot stress how dangerous this…
Mile-a-Minute vine is the latest threat on the invasive plants front. This nasty vine has moved up from the mid-Atlantic states and is now well established in Connecticut. Massachusetts residents should be on the lookout for this fast growing vine, up to six inches a day! It has arrowhead leaves and nearly invisible but really treacherous barbs. It flowers in August and starts setting seed which begins to ripen right about now. The seed is small and blue,…