True Lilies, Martagon Lilies and How to Plant

  • Post published:04/07/2018
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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…

National Poetry Month and the Culture Hour

  • Post published:04/05/2018
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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 – Trying hard to make an appearance

  • Post published:04/03/2018
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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 Are Looking Up In My Garden

  • Post published:03/31/2018
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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…

Do You Have Poisonous Plants in Your Garden?

  • Post published:03/23/2018
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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…

Witch Hazel – Hamamelis Spring Bloomer

  • Post published:03/20/2018
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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…

Delicious Culinary Herbs for Taste and Pleasure

  • Post published:03/17/2018
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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…

Stonehurst, Robert Treat Paine Estate in Waltham, Mass.

  • Post published:03/15/2018
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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…

Historic Lyman Greenhouse in Waltham, Massachusetts in March

  • Post published:03/12/2018
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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…

New Ways to Make Compost and Vermicompost – Book Reviews

  • Post published:03/10/2018
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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…