When we returned from our trip to Texas we found that all of a sudden the garden had bloomed. The shy primroses were glowing, there were elegant white bloodroots, dainty yellow Fairy Bells, and sunny wood poppies lighting up the shade. The winter had been long and now the beginning of a season filled with blooms and fragrance had arrived. In The Garden in Every Sense and Season by Tovah Martin sings about the perfumes in a spring…
I nearly forgot Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, so I raced out in the dawn to take photos (not very good ones) of what is blooming in the drizzle. Thomas Affleck is a rose we grew for many years in Heath, and one of the first we planted in Greenfield. It is doing very well indeed. No real fragrance though. At least I think this is Polar Express. I'll have to wait till the other roses are blooming to…
This past Saturday Greenfield celebrated the 10th Annual Bee Fest at the 250 year old Second Congregational Church. The seventh minister of the church in the mid-19800s was Lorenzo Langstroth who, in his spare time, invented the modern moveable frame bee hive. The Bee Fest provides the occasion to remember and celebrate Langstroth and the way he changed bee keeping. There were lots of outdoor activities for the children who were learning about bees, most especially not to…
Recently Amy Donovan, Program Director of the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District (FCSWMD), invited me to a Compost Tour at the Academy of Early Learning where three, four and five year old children begin their academic studies. The Compost Tour began with Donovan’s power point presentation about recycling. I was impressed by the children’s attentive engagement. The children were familiar with the idea of recycling. They were already using the recycling system Donovan had set up in…
After spending our first day in Madison at the Olbrich Botanical Garden, we settled in at the Edgewater Hotel and planned the rest of our stay, but got something unexpected - not just one wedding, but three
Jeff Budine, Manager of the Greenfield Farmers Cooperative Exchange, now celebrating its Centennial Anniversary, told me that the plant nursery with its current offerings of everything from trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, vegetables and herbs began about 50 years ago in the open space where the warehouse now stands. In those days there were fewer nursery plants, and they were all sold out by Memorial Day, he said. Nowadays, the plant nursery is a big operation and includes a…
A Texas garden may be different from New England gardens, but gardeners all share the desire to create beautiful spaces. I spent a week in Texas visiting my daughter and her family, and joining ninety-two other garden bloggers touring gardens in the Austin area. We visited big public gardens like the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the Zilker Botanical Garden. We also visited unique private gardens. The garden created by David and Jenny Stocker appeared to be a…
While on my recent weekend of touring amazing gardens in Texas, I found that three of my fellow tourists, from New York and Rhode Island, had visited the Bridge of Flowers. Not only did my new friends appreciate the beauty of the Bridge in joyous bloom, they admired the way the Shelburne Falls Area Women’s Club, and their Bridge of Flowers subcommittee, have cared for the Bridge, and enlisted the support of a wide community to create a…
The Texas sun seemed to be shining on these glowing golden primroses on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. The garden had hardly any blooms when we left for Texas on May but our return on May 8 was astounding. I am going to give a thorough pictorial record of our May 15 blooms. I'm behind on my spring clean up and weeding so you'll likely see plenty of weeds. These primroses are increasing nicely. The tall Japanese primroses will…
Greenfield’s Energy Park is a gem in the center of town. Main Street is all bustle and work, but a short stroll down Miles Street takes you to the peaceful gardens and shade of a town park created in 1999. Sandy Thomas was the director of the Northeast Sustainability Energy Association (NESEA) housed in the former railroad switch house building in the blighted area left by the demolition of the railroad station. In 1999 the town had a…