“The mission of the Garden Conservancy is to save and share outstanding American gardens for the education and inspiration of the public.” That is the simple mission of the Garden Conservancy. In practice, it means providing financial support to protect selected American gardens chosen for their beauty and significance. There are a number of these beautiful historic gardens not too far from us. Ashintully in Tyringham is the only one in Massachusetts. It is the creation of John…

June is National Dairy Month. I could not think of a better person to celebrate it with than Bob Purington. Purington is the eighth child of the late Herb Purington and his wife Barbara. He is also a member of the seventh generation to tend the Woodslawn Farm, founded in 1784 in Colrain. This 385 acre landscape includes woodlots, fields for corn and hay, and pasturage for about 75 cows, each one with a name.  For over 200…

The Friends of the Forbes Library Garden Tour ushers in the garden tour season in our part of the world. The seven gardens on this year’s tour (I’m counting four neighboring community garden plots as one garden) offer many different styles and features that make each garden unique. I cannot say that I was surprised by the number of gardens that are filled with plants that will support our pollinators, from the bees and bats to butterflies and…

"Earth has no sorrow that earth cannot heal," said John Muir known as the father of national parks. The three books I've written about this week surely prove the truth of his words.Three book reviews follow. Attracting Birds, Butterflies and other Backyard Wildlife Every day, in the newspaper or on the evening TV news, there seems to be a story about the continuing extinction of one million creatures and plants. The United Nations just released a report about…

In 1996 Ricky Baruch and Deb Habib got the biggest Christmas present they might ever receive. On December 28 they officially became the owners of a piece of rocky land in Orange. They were about to plant their own farm. I first met Baruch and Habib in early May of 2009 when I visited Seeds of Solidarity farm. Even though they had been farming for 13 years the land still looked rough and rocky. However, they had built…

When asked what they loved about the Greenfield Garden Club, the gardeners who attended the Annual Meeting at the John Zon Community Center last month had a lot of answers. They called out that they loved meeting other gardeners, learning from other gardeners, sharing plants, socializing and going on trips together. Club members liked learning more about the environment and how our gardens benefit the environment. They also loved giving gardening grants to local schools, and making the…

In 1908 a new trolley bridge started bringing milk, cotton products and passengers from Colrain to Shelburne Falls. In 1929 the trolley was no longer needed and the bridge became the Bridge of Flowers. The transformation began when Antoinette Burnham looked at the neglected bridge and thought that surely a bridge that could grow so many weeds, could grow flowers instead. That was the beginning of the conversion from industry to garden. Julius Blassberg bought the bridge and…

Invasive plants can be beautiful but they are also destructive. Gardeners are becoming more aware of the dangers of invasive plants, as well as the benefits of pollinator plants. We are now realizing there is more to designing our gardens than aesthetics. We have to consider our environment, how plants and wildlife interact. One of the most common and often used invasive shrubs is Burning bush, Euonymus alatas. It is popular for its beautiful red foliage in the…