All You Need is Love – Valentine

  • Post published:02/18/2017
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  The Beatles sang out “all you need is love, love, love”, an ancient philosophy not created by the Beatles, and it can play out in our gardens. As Valentine’s Day draws close the song is playing over and over in my head, combined with visions of Kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate, otherwise known as Polygonum orientale. Kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate is a fast growing five or six foot tall annual, loaded with graceful pendant pink flowers. This is a bushy sort of plant that…

Earliest Blooming Spring Bulbs

  • Post published:02/11/2017
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As I write I don’t know what Punxatawny Phil saw or said the other day. If he saw his shadow we will have a long winter. If he did not see his shadow we will have an early spring. February 2 is half way between the Solstice, the first and shortest day of winter, and the Spring Equinox, first day of spring when night and day are equal in length.  So since we are halfway to spring it…

Flowers – A Secret Language of Love

  • Post published:02/08/2017
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The Victorians had a secret language of love - flowers. I don't know who decided that the peach blossom said, “I am your captive” or who then decided sending back a bunch of daisies meant, “I share your sentiments.” I do know that a century ago Kate Greenaway compiled and illustrated a volume called The Language of Flowers that listed hundreds of plants and flowers and translated their messages. If a gentleman wished to compliment a lady, he…

Art in the Garden

  • Post published:02/04/2017
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Art in the garden. Art has had a place in the garden for centuries. Archeologists found pools, fountains and statuary in the ancient gardens of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Nowadays it would be hard to find any public garden or park that does not include art. We home gardeners have also found that we desire art in our gardens. Water is considered by many to be the most basic artistic element. By definition the Chinese garden includes water and…

View from the Window – January 31, 2017

  • Post published:01/31/2017
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The view from the window on this last day of January when the noon temperature is 25 degrees shows how the snow has melted, and where the wet spots in the garden are located, in front of the stone wall, and down the paths. Snow is predicted for this afternoon but everyone is hoping the Punxatawny Phil, the groundhog, will not see his shadow two days hence and assure us that there will be an early spring.  He…

Permaculture Promise and Garden Revolution

  • Post published:01/28/2017
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I first became aware of something called permaculture quite some years ago. You’d think it wouldn’t be too hard to understand a word like that which includes the words permanent and agriculture. But, sad to say, I couldn’t figure it out. I spent some years of my childhood on a Vermont farm and there was nothing of a permanent nature that I could remember. The first book I found about permaculture was a hefty tome that described permaculture…

Dreams of Spring and Giverny

  • Post published:01/25/2017
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We have been have nightmarish ice on the walkways and roads, so I dream of Giverny and other landscapes that are warm and painted in shades of spring. I'm counting the days to the Smith College Bulb Show which will open this year on Saturday, March 4. Mark your calendar. In 2015 the theme was Claude Monet's beautiful gardens in Giverny. I wonder what the theme will be this year.

Seeds and Seedspeople

  • Post published:01/20/2017
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Attractive and colorful seed packets are blooming in garden centers. The constant promise of seeds is that they will germinate and grow providing us with healthy foods, zesty herbs and colorful flowers. Some  companies like Burpee have been around for over 100 years. Others are newer. Stories about beginnings are always fascinating and today I have stories about three newer seed companies. When we lived in Maine in 1974-5 I learned about Johnny’s Selected Seeds when I was…

Spices from the Global Gardens

  • Post published:01/15/2017
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During the holiday season I do a lot of baking and cooking filling the house with spicy aromas.  When I received a beautiful box of baking spices as a Christmas gift I got to wondering how far these spices had to travel before they arrived in my kitchen. I was further intrigued by an article in the Sunday New York Times, The World’s History in a Clove Tree by Amitav Ghosh which urged me on to further investigations.…

View from the Window – Warm and Wet

  • Post published:01/12/2017
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The view from the window  is warm and wet.  The temperature is 50 degrees at 11 am, as it was yesterday. I am hoping we get back to more seasonable cold temperatures tomorrow. I am remember the loss of the local peach crops last year when there was an extended warm period in February before getting very cold again. The trees thought spring had sprung, the buds began to swell, but then  disaster.  Lets keep winter cold until…