For the past 40 years I have gardened. Which is not to say that I was a skilled gardener. Even so, it was my excitement about my new garden on a hill in Heath that led me to the Greenfield Recorder. I did not present myself as an expert but Bob Dolan took me on. Previous gardens were very small. My first garden as a young mother in my first house was a little bed of zinnias. There…
It has been so hot and dry in these past weeks that I have been particularly devoted to watering the begonia on my porch. I have been worried that the pot is now too big for the pot and thought at least I could keep it well watered. It has thrived on the porch where it get a little sun, mostly enjoys the shade. I was quite amazed yesterday when I was watering the begonia to see beautiful…
David Sund’s elegant and productive garden was on the Greenfield Garden Club’s Tour earlier this summer. On the tour map he described his garden as having undergone changes and updating over recent years. Last weekend we visited and talked about the lives of gardens. When he was just a lad in 1973, Sund’s father took the family to Tennessee to live, but it did not take long to find out Tennessee was not the place for them. Instead…
The days have been hot and muggy. It’s time to stay inside after 10 a.m. and turn to new books. It’s time to think about what fall chores will need to be done. The first book is useful to me now that our shrubs have matured. When we designed our Greenfield garden we wanted to make it easy to care for.We knew that meant choosing easy care plants – like shrubs. A trio of hydrangeas promising generous size…
It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day and although it has been a very hot and dry summer Thomas Affleck is never bothered very much. He is into his second bloom season and doing very well. Some roses are sending out a few blossoms, but they dry up rapidly. The Coral Drift rose is making a midsummer comeback but Paprika is not. Fire Light is one of my three hydrangeas which include Lime Light and Angel Blush. Fire Light…
H is for Hellebores. This spring the time came for me to add hellebores to my garden. I had the perfect new space - a new wooden fence that made two new planting beds. One side provided sunny space for new roses, and a shady side for epimediums and hellebores. A friend invited me to see her hellebores, of which this is one. It is inspiring to think about adding hellebores to the new planting bed. Hellebores welcome…
Amy Moscaritolo It impossible to show you all the garden tour gardens at once, so we continue today with three very different gardens. My husband and I visited Amy and David Moscaritolo’s garden after the official tour day. We turned off the road and onto an iron bridge to cross over a small river that used to be used for ice production. Amy greeted us and we chatted in the shade admiring the graceful expanse of lawn with…
The Greenfield Garden Club Garden Tour has come and gone. This was a wonderful event – even though we all had to be aware of Covid 19. We all wore our masks, including the very youngest set who had some fun on the curves of our strolling garden. Social distancing was quite well followed. There was a holiday feel about the day and I am grateful that the Greenfield Garden Club gave us this day of pleasure. The…
Over the weekend I visited some fabulous gardens, and you will be hearing more about them soon. What surprised me about many of these gardens was the amount of vegetable gardening going on in our town. I saw small vegetable gardens, big vegetable gardens, pretty vegetable gardens, and vegetable gardens in hoop houses. Wow! I also have a very small vegetable garden this year, only 10 x 8 feet. This garden was prompted by the pandemic which has…
The Greenfield Garden Club is holding its Garden Tour today July 12 – and my garden is one of the ten that will be showing off all kinds of flowers, shrubbery, and trees. I am very excited, and I have been thinking about whether a garden is a natural thing. Or is it a construction? Our small garden is celebrating its fifth birthday. This was a very new experience for us. In Heath we had acres and acres.…