New England Grows! is a big landscaping tradeshow in Boston and I got to see old friends like Kate and Russ French of OESCO where a 20 foot scarecrow blew fiercely over the exhibit of great OESCO tools. I spoke to Linette Harlow at Pride's Corner Farms about the plants they grow for various plants you will find at garden centers in the spring, I loved this display of succulents growing in a slightly rotting log. I count…
Verrmiculture is worm farming. Worms are the gardener’s friend. They eat kitchen waste and turn it into valuable fertilizer called vermicompost. You too can be a vermiculturist, one who practices vermiculture and makes vermicompost, and you cannot begin too soon. When I visited Kate Bailey’s first grade last week to read to them, they were all excited and told me they had a thousand new pets in the classroom and could I guess what they were. I could…
Roast turkey is the iconic symbol of Thanksgiving, but in reality it is the vegetables that fill the groaning board. Sweet potatoes, with or without marshmallows, mashed potatoes, creamed onions, and roasted or mashed winter squash, are essential. I’ve been known to make the elaborate maquechoux, a mélange that includes corn, bacon, scallions, red bell peppers, tomato and thyme and basil. My daughter Betsy is now responsible for a mélange of white and sweet potatoes, beets, squash and…
While shopping at the Greenfield Farmers Market last year I met Danielle Smith at her Wild Rose Flower Farm booth. I found the name of her farm, Wild Rose, irresistible, of course, and she was always surrounded by a bounty of lovely spring bulbs, and later an array of dahlias, zinnias, sunflowers, delphiniums and all manner of other annuals. At the Winter Market I bought a wonderful wreath to hang on our new front door. All this summer…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…