While we Greenfield Garden Club members were on a trip to Waltham, MA, to see the Lyman Greenhouses we also visited Stonehurst, the beautiful house built for summer visits by Robert Treat Paine. I am calling this the reception room, but you can see there is a little room where the entry door is before coming into this large space. There is built in seating, and a beautiful golden marble fireplace, but am not really sure how the space…
In March gardeners need flowers so members of the Greenfield Garden Club set off for the historic Lyman Greenhouse in Waltham, Massachusetts. It was so exciting to be able to walk under this tropical vine as we began our tour of the greenhouse. There are literally thousands of plants in the greenhouse of every variety. Most of them are houseplants, some familiar and some dramatic and strange. The greenhouse is filled with orchids, succulents and many other beautiful…
The first time I learned about compost piles was when a homesteading friend gave me a subscription to Rodale’s Organic Farming and Gardening magazine while we were still living in New York City. We had a tiny backyard in Manhattan, but we never did very much with it because of our fear of heavy metals in the soil. Adverse health effects caused by heavy metals are a real threat if you grow edibles. We moved to Heath 37…
The Mount Holyoke Spring Flower Show, “Gateway to Spring" is open. Now in its 47th year, this beloved College tradition features a thoughtfully designed display of thousands of colorful and fragrant spring favorites, including tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, pansies, cinerarias, pocketbook plants and more to entice and inspire those eager for spring's arrival. This year's show also features a large fountain created by three Mount Holyoke students, Deb Kelly, Stella Chepkwony and Samiha Tasnim, evocative of the Fidelia Nash Field…
Sunrise Farms welcome the sweet life when it's time to boil up the maple syrup. These days we are more likely to see little hoses (called lines in the vernacular) snaking through the snowy woodlands than tin buckets hanging off the maple trees. Maple sugaring has changed over the years and I got to see the whole process at Sunrise Farms in Colrain. The Lively family, mom and dad Marilyn and Rocky, with sons Erik and Jordan welcomed…
The United States has been built by people of every class, color and nationality, people who had a burning desire to learn, to spread new information, and to make people’s lives better, no matter their class, color or nationality. Sometimes their stories surprise us, but then they inspire us to find ways that we might improve our communities, our country, and even the world. George Washington Carver (1860s - January 5, 1943) was just such a man. He…
I have trees, caterpillars and butterflies and other pollinators in my backyard. Trees provide us with many environmental services. The obvious benefit is cooling shade. When we visited friends in Sacremento we learned that the Sacremento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) was putting trees on residential properties to cool the houses and lower the cost of power. Other benefits are not so obvious. They filter our air, take in carbon and breathe out oxygen. They filter water to protect…
Many of us will decide that gardening in small spaces is something we must, and wish to do. A number of years ago I watched a television show about centenarians, and the likely reasons they were living such long and healthy lives. The interview with one man, a devoted gardener, particularly struck me. He lived in a house on a large piece of property that included a woodlot that he tended, and vegetable and ornamental gardens. As he…
Climate change is much in the news. There are questions about whether climate change, the warming of the atmosphere and oceans, is responsible for the recent violent weather. The number of particularly violent storms seems to be increasing. There was Hurricane Katrina in 2005; a 2008 storm in Haiti that wiped out 70% of the island’s crops; Sandy in 2012 was the worst storm to ever hit New York City’ and hurricanes Maria and Harvey in Puerto Rico…
The Western Massachusetts Spring Symposium, Your Living Landscape, is coming right up. Mark your calendars. On March 17, 2018 Henry Homeyer will be the keynote speaker at Frontier High School in South Deerfield. Vermonter Homeyer is an expert on gardening in the Northeast and he talks with humor about life in the garden. Registration form - Cost is $35 for the entire day; additional fee for optional lunch. Register online (extra service fee applies) at WMMGA.ORG or by…