Trees, Caterpillars and Butterflies in the Backyard

  • Post published:02/19/2018
  • Post comments:2 Comments

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…

Gardening in Small Spaces – Book Reviews

  • Post published:02/14/2018
  • Post comments:2 Comments

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 and Our Neighborhood Trees

  • Post published:02/09/2018
  • Post comments:7 Comments

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…

Master Gardeners Spring Symposium – March 17, 2018

  • Post published:02/07/2018
  • Post comments:2 Comments

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…

Summer Tour of Chanticleer Garden Remembered

  • Post published:02/02/2018
  • Post comments:5 Comments

The Chanticleer gardens were created by the Rosengarten family beginning in the early 20th century; in 1993 it became a public garden and is considered one of the grand gardens of our country. On these frigid and snowy days I am happy to share my memories of a great garden on a blistering summer day last June. The Master Gardeners of Western Massachusetts arranged a tour for those gardeners who are always looking for more knowledge and inspiration.…

Emily Dickinson – Poet and Gardener

  • Post published:01/27/2018
  • Post comments:8 Comments

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was born into a prominent Amherst family so everyone knew who she was. She attended the Amherst Academy and went on to the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (as it was called at the time) for a period before she went back home, to garden and write poetry. She was more known for her gardening than her poetry in those days; now she is more known for her poetry and her reclusiveness. In the spring of…

Snow Day on Beech Street

  • Post published:01/17/2018
  • Post comments:7 Comments

I knew it was a Snow Day, no exercise class, when I woke. When I went out to take this photo at 6:30 am the plows had not come through and it was still snowing. Not as much as predicted, but enough to close the schools and the Y. Time for coffee and reading before the day really  got under way. The sun was hiding, but sharing some of its light. In town there is no room  for…

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day – January 15, 2018

  • Post published:01/15/2018
  • Post comments:8 Comments

Bloom Day is here, but there are no blooms outdoors. But for the first time in a couple of years I have blooms in January.  The amaryllis that is opening was an early Christmas present and it grew rapidly. The amaryllis with  buds about to open spent the summer out in my garden and is giving me great gratification Two other amaryllis bulbs that spent the summer in the ground are coming along - slowly. I have hopes.…

My Winter Garden in Color

  • Post published:01/12/2018
  • Post comments:8 Comments

My frigid winter garden is peaceful, blanketed with snow. Mysterious tracks speak of the creatures that wander across the landscape, leaving hints of their dancing in the bright moonlight, or shifting shadows of the breezy day. Tiny birds frolic near the Norway spruce, and seem to be feasting on the spruce seeds left for them on the snow. My town winter garden is small, and very different from the fields of Heath, where the snow danced with the…

New Cultivars and Old Favorites for the 2018 Garden

  • Post published:01/05/2018
  • Post comments:8 Comments

New cultivars and old favorites plants are a part of every garden. When I was a Girl Scout we sang a song with the line “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver but the other gold.”  As I look out at my garden and look at the dawning of a new year, I am thinking about the new things I may plant and use in the garden, but I know there are certain things that…