A Pandemic Thanksgiving calls for all manner of celebratory tricks. Of course, I had spent all Wednesday afternoon, and Thanksgiving morning (beginning at 6 am) doing more cooking to prepare the feast scheduled for 3 p.m. It seems it doesn't seem to matter if the holiday meal is for three people or the more routine crowd of 25. There is a lot to do. Once we got the turkey in the oven Henry and I stopped for a…
Slowly, slowly, the leaves and fallen and now it is time to get serious about cleaning up the leaves. We have two river birches and many large shrubs, but they are not the only ones responsible for all the leaves in our garden. The garden to the south sends us many leaves from three large oaks. The house to the north has an enormous maple and we have not really begun to clean up these leaves. Now is…
The brilliant colors we have enjoyed this fall have been glorious, but with all the rain and wind, snow and frost, the landscape is quieter. Field Maloney was out in the orchard on October 30, picking the last of the apples for West County Cider. Maloney is of the school that requires cider be made from fully ripe apples. Field Maloney is the son of Terry and Judith Maloney who arrived in Franklin County from California back in…
The autumn colors of the yellow twig dogwood are very different from summer colors. Now the foliage is golden yellow, brilliant when the sun is shining on it. Though it is named "yellow TWIG" I have always found the yellow twigs to me are more chartreuse or lime when the winter sun is shining on it, but now the autumn colors of the foliage are definitely yellow and gold. We love this shrub because the shrub loves water…
If you have trees you will have leaves in the fall. When you start raking it can look like an endless job, with very little payback. Not true. The truth is that if you have a garden and trees you can have soil enriching compost. I harvest lots of leaves every fall. We have lovely neighbors on both sides of our garden and they both have trees. Our Northern neighbor has a beautiful giant maple right next to…
As I write this morning (Saturday, October 17) I am in my so-called office enjoying the view of my garden from the western window, and the lush asparagus fern hanging in the sunny southern window. In this part of the week I am usually trying to make sense of any notes I have written, or finding a whole new topic. Time is running out and I have a deadline. However, today I have a topic but having trouble…
Winterberry, Ilex verticillata, is clearly not a wildflower. It is a native plant that is known as a swamp plant which means it is very happy in our garden. It does not need full sun which is another blessing. The thing to remember is that winterberries are dioecious (separate male and female plants). Only fertilized female flowers will produce the attractive red berries that are the signature of the species. The white spring blossoms are very tiny and…
Saturday, October 3rd was an exciting day for tree lovers. Word had gone out from the Greenfield Tree Committee inviting people to join the tree planting party at Lunt Field starting at 8:30 a.m. My husband and I dawdled over our Saturday breakfast and then got in the car with bucket and spades. We arrived at 10 a.m. and realized that most of the work was done. How could this happen? When I spoke to Mary Chicoine after…
My flower gardening did not seriously begin until we moved to Heath and I began with roses. That might seem odd, but as we prepared to leave Manhattan in November of 1979 I read Onward and Upward in the Garden by Katherine S. White, who was married to E.B. White, one of my favorite authors. The first chapter is titled A Romp in the Catalogues. The artistic image that went along with that chapter is “Roses of Yesterday…
On this Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, a number of flowers like the Alma Potchke aster are beaten down by 24 hours of rain, often heavy rains. Even so we are enjoying Alma Potchke and other flowers and celebrating that much needed rain. I love the winterberries because they provide so much lasting color as other plants fade away and prepare for their winter sleep. The other two hydrangeas, Lime Light and Angel's Blush are also blooming - and…