Every spring we gardeners stand in the sun as we breathe deep and fill our minds with plans for new projects, using new techniques and planting new plants. This year my new project is a small straw bale bed for vegetables. However, I have been reading Niki Jabbour’s new book Veggie Garden Remix: 224 New Plants to Shake Up Your Garden and Add Variety, Flavor and Fun (Storey $19.95) and my ideas about what to plant are shifting.…
The idea of using a straw bale as a planting medium attracted me a number of years ago. I bought a two straw bales, gave them a good soaking, punched holes in the bales with my Japanese hori hori knife, put a cup or so of compost into the hole, and then put my tomato seedlings in the holes. I watered the bale and watched the tomatoes grow. They grew slowly, and produced a very few tomatoes. I…
Richard Wilbur (1921-2017) winner of Pulitzer Prizes for Things of This World (1956) and New and Collected Poems (1988),was named the second Poet Laureate of our country and won many awards and prizes. I knew Richard Wilbur had long lived in our corner of western Massachusetts, but I never expected to get a letter from him. And for that I thank Carol Purington and Susan Todd who were longtime friends of his. Carol and Susan were putting together…
Lilies. There are all kinds of lilies: Lily of the valley, daylilies, water lilies, and sword lilies, but these are all fakes. True lilies belong to the very large Lilium family which includes more than 100 species. That means there are many colors, sizes and forms to consider for your garden. Right now the florists and supermarkets are offering potted Easter lilies, but these cannot be planted in our gardens because they are too tender. However, among those…
All through April people will be celebrating National Poetry Month, giving gift books of poetry and attending poetry readings. However, I think National Poetry Month (instituted in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets) was created as a response to the lack of attention to poetry and its joys. Actually, we are surrounded by poetry in advertising jingles, popular songs (at least that used to be true) even when we are not aware. Last week I started thinking…
Spring is trying its best to make itself known. For over a week all I saw poking up through matted grass and leaves were golden buds. Then hooray - golden crocus blossoms. Then it snowed. Blossoms closed, but remain ready for a reprise. With such encouragement, I took a walk around the garden, and brushed away leaves while making a note that it is time to really finish spring clean up. The bed of primroses is green and…
Vines have become more important to me over time. Vines have become more important to me over time. When we built a south facing patio in front of our Heath house in 1990 we also planned a kind of loggia structure that would hold a wisteria vine to shade and cool the patio. to shade and cool the patio. That shade would also alter the quality of light in our living room and even keep that space a…
Few of us hear much about castor oil anymore, but my childhood memory is that it was a common laxative and I never imagined there was a castor bean plant and it was one of the very poisonous plants Even as an adult I never gave a thought as to where castor oil came from so it was with great shock that when I admired a beautiful big plant with dark red-tinged leaves and prickly red seed cases…
A shrub with golden blossoms, a witch hazel, is blooming our our street. Some thought it was a forsythia that got it's dates mixed up, but it is witch hazel, properly known as a Hamamelis, and about the earliest blooming plant in our area. You have to get up close to appreciate and admire the twirly little blossoms. This is probably Hamamelis mollis, a Chinese witch hazel, because it is blooming in the spring, beginning in February. Our…
Culinary herbs bring flavor and savor to a meal, that bit of piquance that can turn a bland dish into something delectable. They all have their own stories as well. I enjoy thinking of women from time immemorial harvesting their herbs and preparing meals and medicinal potions for their families. Herb gardens have an ancient history and we moderns can still grow a handful of the herbs we use most often. Simon and Garfunkel aside, parsley, sage, rosemary…