Most of us go to the drugstore for all manner of over the counter remedies, but it wasn’t so long ago, that people turned to plants for their remedies. Even now, some of us know that poppies and foxgloves still provide us with medicines, but others are quite forgotten. Coltsfoot grows along my road. Its yellow dandelion-like flowers mean spring is here. It often grows along roadsides where the soil has been disturbed. The brilliant flowers are quite…
Finally I have blooming flowers other than houseplants to report on Bloom Day. I planted scillas and a few Glory of the Snow (Chionodoxa) in the grass a few years ago. Yesterday, when I tramped through all the dead tansy stems from last year, out to the new Potager my eye caught these two tiny plants pushing up through the rough stems and weeds. I can tell you that I have never planted any little bulbs in this…
It is early in daffodil season in my part of the world. This photo shows part of a low stone wall in Charlemont, the adjoining town, fronted by a show of daffodils, among the earliest I see. The wall faces south, providing protection and warmth, and cheering those of us who pass by and are weary of winter gray. Charlemont is also the home of the Mystery Daffodil Planter. Several years ago, small clumps of daffodils popped up…
My chives on April 6 Cooks need herbs. Since the media is filled with articles about the thriftiness of a vegetable garden in these difficult economic times it suddenly struck me that one of the thriftiest and easiest gardens to start is an herb garden. I get dizzy when I think of the money I spent (before I had an herb garden) on bunches of parsley, cilantro and basil and less common herbs that are even…
With the sky so blue, and the pussywillows so fat, I can almost believe spring is coming. But the Weather Station recorded a temperature of 29 degrees at 7 this morning. At 11:30 we are up to 46 with gusting breezes of up to 15 mph. The skies were not so blue yesterday on Easter Sunday, but we were inside most of the time feasting and visiting. On Saturday we got some chores done outside, mostly working on…
I went into Green Fields Market yesterday, and there was Governor Deval Patrick glad-handing the lunch crowd, accepting thanks for the good work he is doing, and probably taking some criticism, too. Massachusetts, like the country, is suffering from the economic crisis. The State is cutting budgets in almost every area. People are not happy.However, yesterday's headlines in our local paper, The Recorder (for which I write a garden column) were heartening. At least when it comes to…
I don't pay enough attention to this orchid cactus, even though it makes its presence felt in the house, to remember when it blooms, but the two huge scarlet flowers that opened yesterday were quite a surprise. This epiphyllum lives on an old black kitchen step stool so that the 3+ foot long drooping stems have sufficient room. The stool is near a big south window and gets lots of light. Our house just naturally gives it the…
Worms alive! “I used to say that one ton of worms could eat one ton of garbage. I was always thinking big like that. Then I found out that Seattle had distributed four thousand worm bins. I did some figuring and realized that worked out to ten tons of garbage going into worm bins. That’s when I realized—it’s happening! It just isn’t happening the way I originally thought it would.” Mary Apelhof, author of Worms Eat My…
L is for lilies, liatris, lilacs and lemon balm and lettuce.One of the joys of an herb garden is the way perennial herbs appear so very early in the spring.Lemon balm, Melissa officinalis, has beautiful crinkled bright green leaves and the delicious sweet fragrance of lemons. It is hardy; a strong grower that allows me to give divisions to anyone who admires it in the garden.I love having lemon balm in the garden for the simple pleasure of…
Today I have a guest posting from my friend Peter Beck, who is less than devoted to making a complex garden, but who appreciates and encourages gardeners enthusiastically. Six years ago neighbors Mary Kay and Earl Pope, tired of their annual carting of several enormous and weighty agapanthus indoors, gave three plants to us. The plants were indeed enormous and weighty, and they only grew larger and heavier. Eventually we transplanted the agapanthus into five pots. The size…