Out here in the country where most of us have to communte to work in our cars, the state of our roads in winter is of paramount importance. However we are not only commuters, most of us in Heath worry about the environment and are always seeking ways to live more lightly on our beautiful landscape.This desire is not only felt individually. Last year and this the town is using a new method of 'salting' the roads to…
You can get alfalfa sprouts at every salad bar, and you can even buy them in little plastic boxes at the supermarket. If you spout seeds at home you can use a mix of flavorful seeds - radish, broccoli, clover, lentil and others inaddition to alfalfa.I used to have some plastic screened lids that were intended to be used on canning jars for sprouting, but I have been told that in order to give sprouting seeds proper air…
My Friend Elsa Though I haven’t read Dear Friend and Gardener I have my own great garden friend. When I moved to my Massachusetts hilltop, I found that one of our area’s most famous perennial gardeners, Elsa Bakalar, lived on a neighboring hilltop. She was a generation older, British, much more knowledgeable about flower gardens, and way more opinionated than I was about anything but happy to befriend a novice. She is a born teacher, and even now…
At this time of the year when the ground is covered with white snow, and yet the sun is brilliant and almost warm, the desire for something green growing in the earth is great. Even the sight of a weed would be cheering.Of course, it is the weeds that may be the first things that I notice when things start up in the spring. At least that is the way it usually is here at the End of…
The Wolf Moon, the January full moon, shone over our house this week. According to country wisdom you should still have half your firewood left when the Wolf Moon is full. We do! The wood pile is ornamented with snow and ice, but there is plenty to get us through the winter, and those cool, damp spring evenings.The freezer also contains a good ration of our blueberries and strawberries, as well as the chickens that we raise for…
After putting up the photos of two of my rugosas, 'Apart' and 'Mrs. Doreen Pike', and after turning away from the white landscape outside my window where temperatures have been in the single digits, I found solace in Roses: A Celebration. This book. a collection of 33 eminent gardeners talking about their favorite roses, is edited by Wayne Winterrowd. Not only are the rose fanciers like Peter Beales, Jamaica Kincaid, Michael Polan, Ken Druse, Julie Moir Messervy and…
Susan Harris of Garden Rant talked about trends for the year, including a link to Slate about roses. The thrust of the article was that it doesn't necessarily take a lot to get roses to thrive. I can speak to the hardiness of old shrub roses, albas and gallicas, and rugosa roses including the newer hybrids. The trick to growing roses, as it is for any plant, is the right rose in the right place and some care…
I have two strong associations with the name Viola. First it was my mother’s name. Growing up I never met anyone else named Viola and wondered whatever had possessed my grandmother to choose such an unfashionable name.When I got to high school I was amazed to find one of Shakespeare’s brave and passionate heroines named Viola. During a shipwreck she is separated from her twin Sebastian, and unbeknownst to both they wash up on the shores of Illyria.…
This is my first Bloom Day! I couldn't help getting a little headstart on Sunday with my previous post about my abutilon. See my previous post - and the blooms in back of the Christmas cactus. I don't have much in the way of houseplants. There is so little room in our house which is fairly cool in the winter. However, I cannot give up my Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus. This is the larger of my two Christmas…
My parlor maple (abutilon or flowering maple) is a delight all year long. There is rarely a time when it is not in bloom. Another of its gifts is that it is happy in a cool house. Abutilons are happy with temperatures down to 40F and some even a bit cooler, down to 35F.And for all its floriferous abandon it does not need much care. It needs full sun. Mine sits in front of an east window, but…