Visiting Neighborhood Edible Gardens

  • Post published:08/19/2017
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The edible garden tour arranged by Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener of TempleIsrael took us to several gardens within walking distance of my house. The first garden we visited is a very pretty small garden created by Lisa Ranghelli and Bram Moreinis. This was their first garden and they showed their wisdom by saying they thought it best to start small. We admired the design, the assortment of vegetables and the exclamation points of marigolds. But we also noticed a…

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day – August 15, 2017

  • Post published:08/15/2017
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Here is the August Bloom Day report. The summer of 2017 has been relatively cool, with only a few days that went over 89 degrees. We  also had rain - almost sufficient to my desires. The hellstrip in front of the house is full of bloom - daylilies, bee balm, yarrow, coneflowers, and marigolds. Weeds and fallen sycamore bark as well. Several of the roses are blooming again. Folksinger, a Griffith Buck rose, is the most enthusiastic. Thomas…

Weeds in My Garden

  • Post published:08/12/2017
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What is a weed? How do I get rid of weeds? These are two of the questions gardeners agonize over. I own a wonderful book, Weeds of the Northeast by Uva, Neal and DiTomasso, that offers a page of extensive information of about 160 weeds, and a facing page of photographs showing those weeds in their various stages of development and flower form from baby seedling to seed at the end of the season. I use this book…

Onions and Garlic for Savor

  • Post published:08/05/2017
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  Cooks can hardly start a dinner without peeling with an onion, or some garlic, or maybe a shallot. For all the common necessity of onions in the kitchen, or even the gourmet at the table, alliums are not difficult to grow.I have grown regular onions and garlic. Onions can be grown from seed. The onions I usually grow begin as a handful of sets, immature plants that you can buy at local garden stores in the spring,…

Squash Borer Attack

  • Post published:08/03/2017
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Last Sunday I went on an education edible garden tour and learned about the Squash Borer. In the first garden we visited we all noticed a yellowing and flopping squash plant. Was it lack of watering? No! We were seeing the fatal damage  caused by a squash borer. Though I grew squash in Heath for many years I never had squash borers  so  this was quite an education for me. Espececially since when we got home and looked…

Gardens of the High Line

  • Post published:07/29/2017
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Those involved with the creation of the High Line gardens in New York City were always aware of their predecessor, the Bridge of Flowers in ShelburneFalls. Both gardens make use of disused railroad/trolley tracks to create a beautiful garden that will welcome strollers from the neighborhood and visitors from far away. But there is a difference between these two public gardens that goes beyond physical scale. In Gardens of the High Line by Piet Oudolf and Rick Darke…

Backyard Berries for Delight

  • Post published:07/22/2017
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If you have berries in your backyard you can have fresh blueberries on your cereal in the morning and raspberries on your shortcake or ice cream for your dinner dessert. As far as I am concerned these are the easiest backyard berries to plant and harvest, but I am considering adding thornless blackberries. No matter what kind of berries you want, the first thing to do is choose your site and prepare your soil. All berries need at…

Tranquility in the Shade

  • Post published:07/18/2017
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The Master Gardeners organized a wonderful garden tour to Philadelphia and environs.  Both Chanticleer and the Mt.CubaCenter gave us the shade of a woodland and I am so glad both were included. The first garden we went to was Chanticleer. Once the Rosengarten estate, it opened as a public garden in 1993. I had expected lush, but neat beds of exotic flowers, but what I found at Chanticleer was a peaceful garden with large potted plants in the…

Bloom Day – July 15, 2017

On this July Garden Blogger's Bloom Day in Massachusettss my blooms are quite spread out, although I am looking forward to clusters of blooming daylilies very soon. On our divided hellstrip we have several daylilies. I  got lucky in this section with congenial wine-y colors on the bee balm, daylily and echinacea. There are daylilies in several places in  the garden, but I can guarantee I don't remember many of their names. In between the South and North…

A.R.T.S. and Earth-Kind Rose Trials

  • Post published:07/09/2017
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Recently I met with Michael Schwartz at the Naugatuck Valley Community College in  Connecticut to visit the rose trial gardens of both Earth-Kind roses and the newer organization A.R.T.S. trials. The American Rose Trials for Sustainability (A.R.T.S.) was founded in 2012 when the All America Rose Selections (AARS) closed its doors. Schwartz is the trial director of both gardens, as well as the current president of the A.R.T.S. organization. Earth-Kind roses have been around for a number of…