Wildside Cottage and Gardens

  • Post published:11/06/2016
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The development of Wildside Cottage and Gardens surprised Sue Bridge. She spent an active life learning and working. She earned a Masters degree in Russian and Middle Eastern studies, learned about different worlds while hitchhiking to Morocco, worked for the Christian Science Monitor, and learned how to gather information and pass it on through print and electronic media. She also supported environmental causes because of her belief that future generations would face great challenges. Ten years ago she…

Autumn Leaves into Cold Compost

  • Post published:10/30/2016
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Autumn leaves are falling. It is time to turn those leaves into ‘black gold’ known as cold compost, and improving our soil. It was not very long into my Heath gardening career that I met Larry Lightner of Northfield. By the time I met him he was retired from the Mt.Hermon school where he had worked with students to create and maintain some of the school gardens. He still had his own productive gardens and had produce to…

Silks at Print and Dye Workshop

  • Post published:10/26/2016
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Marjie Moser's Print and Dye Workshop hangs out over the Deerfield River in Shelburne Falls. She prints and dyes fabrics like this silk Korean pogoji. Koreans beautifully wrap their gifts, including food gifts, and they traditionally wrap them in silk like this pogoji. The traditional silk wrap resembles  our patchwork but all the silks are carefully chosen, creatively arranged and then beautifully and meticulously sewn with finely finished seams. One can hardly see which is the 'good' side…

Green Barriers for Function and Beauty

  • Post published:10/23/2016
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Recently a friend asked if I had any suggestions for creating a sound barrier in front of his house. My first idea was arborvitae. These neat symmetrical conifers are popular because they are not only handsome, but because they are low maintenance plants. They are hardy, not fussy about soil, are fairly salt tolerant and once they are established they are drought tolerant. They also tolerate some shade but need at least four hours of sun. Two easily…

Framable Bridge of Flowers

  • Post published:10/19/2016
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Carol Purington, the prize winning poet who resides on a family farm in Colrain, has created this framable cycle of haiku that evoke the Bridge of Flowers through the seasons.  She begins with the Bridge itself Arching/the Indian old river/bridge of blossoms Arc of geese/under frosted flowers/the river too runs south Summer-green/floats out from under the arches -/flower bridge blooms. The beautifully matted work of art is available at Shelburne Falls locations: Sawyer News; Boswells Books (which also…

Forcing Spring Bulbs

  • Post published:10/14/2016
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  Are you thinking about forcing spring bulbs? Most of us will never have a March forced bulb display the way Smith and Mount Holyoke colleges do, but visits to these heartening spring flower shows do make the point that we can create an early spring in our own houses. October is the month to prepare to force our favorite bulbs, daffodils, hyacinths, grape hyacinths, scillas, and amaryllis. The theory behind bulb forcing is that we have to…

A New Garden Room – Just in time

  • Post published:10/11/2016
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It was time to create a Garden Room. Yesterday I noticed that the Christmas cactus  out on the front porch had been slightly nipped by cold night time temperatures. It was time to clean out the side porch which spent the summer filled with construction materials and debris and turn it into a Garden Room. We closed the windows, and even though the temperatures never quite hit 70 degrees and substantial breezes kept our two river birches dancing,…

Little Bulbs for Spring Beauty

  • Post published:10/08/2016
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The little bulbs, those that bring us the earliest spring blooms include the familiar crocus, but they can also be from a host of other spring bloomers. Here are a handful of little bulbs that can help you get spring off to an early start. Possibly the least well known and earliest bulbs to bloom are the winter aconites, Eranthus heymalis. These are members of the buttercup family and the bright yellow flowers look very much like buttercups…

Autumal Blooms in Early October

  • Post published:10/06/2016
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There are more autumnal blooms in my garden than I expected. I am trying to capture many of  them for my climate record. We expect autumnal blooms like asters, but surprises are like the roses and zinnias. Asters and beesBy the time the sun came out and warmed the garden the bees came out to forage. There are still plenty of pollinators in  the garden when the  sun is out.  Other blooming plants include coneflowers, geraniums, cardinal flower,…

Umbellifers – from poison to beauty

  • Post published:10/01/2016
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The family of umbellifers can take us from Socrates poison to Miss Willmott's Ghost. Did you ever imagine that Queen Anne’s Lace, sweet cicely, golden alexanders, angelica, sea holly and poison hemlock, were all members of the same botanical family? All of these belong to the large class Apiaceae which is very large, with 300 genera and between 2500-3000 species. I will not give a lengthy lecture on taxonomy, a system used by botanists, but I will give…