Once Labor Day is past it is time for the year’s second planting season to begin. Many garden centers and nurseries will be putting potted plants on sale. Many friends will realize they have to move plants and will have divisions to pass along. Each gardener may have her own plants to divide, to share or to move to a new location in the garden. We gardeners are lucky. We get a second chance every fall to act…
I haven't posted on Garden Blogger's Bloom Day all summer so I wanted to make as full a record as I could as the season comes to a close. This is my catalog for September. I thank Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this wonderful series. To see what else is blooming over our great land click here.
I was talking to a young woman and her two very young daughters, 6 and 9, about the new house they were preparing to move into. This house is set on a nearly two acre lot. She said the developer was responsible for putting in some minimal landscaping around the front of the house, but she would have the fun of choosing everything else. She and her girls were looking forward to the trees they might plant. She…
The view from the window at the end of July shows the expansion two of the Lawn Beds. We wanted to plant Calycanthus in the bed on the left along with two geums , and the low growing sumac on the right. At the end of August, with only the merest rain shower, the only change, besides the increasing drying of leaves on the horse chestnut, is an attempt to refine the borders and do a little more…
Eric Greene grows fabulous dahlias, among other wonderful plants, but says he is “the laziest gardener in the world” but he really means he is an efficient gardener. He doesn’t want to work any harder than necessary. His lazy techniques result in an amazingly large garden that shares his in-town property with a swimming pool enclosed on two sides by shrubs, enormous vegetable and flower gardens, a gigantic compost pile and a small front lawn. When I first…
These two stupas at Wilder Hill Gardens on Shirkshire Rd in Conway will be dedicated this Sunday, September 4 from 3-5 pm. There will be Tibetan dancing, food and fun for young and old(er). Come and help celebrate. This is also a chance to see Lilian Jackman's beautiful gardens. There is no charge, but donations are welcome. I can't wait. I have written about Lilian before here and here and here
Pam Penick, who grew up in the southeastern part of our country, wasn’t expecting the very dry garden she would get when she and her husband moved to Austin, Texas. The years she has spent learning how to have a beautiful dry garden have resulted in a desire to share all she has learned. The Water-Saving Garden: How to Grow a Gorgeous Garden with a Lot Less Water (Ten Speed Press $19.99) begins by showing us some beautiful…
Our friends (L-R) Dick Bohme on the one-string bass, Dennis Avery on the dobros , Al Canali on guitar and Karen Hogness on mandolin comprise Small Change. One of the great benefits of living in Greenfield is the concert series held in the Energy Park on Miles Street which is only 5 minutes from our house. We found out about this concert series the morning that Small Change was to perform. Of course we were there. But we…
What is a weed? A friend recently gave me a branchy stem of a plant with fine alternate leaves she has growing all over her garden. She asked if I could identify it. She didn’t know if it was a “real plant” or a weed that she should be pulling out. Off hand I couldn’t identify it and turned to my Weeds of the Northeast by Uva, Neal and Di Tomasso and still could not definitely identify it,…
Blueberries offer many benefits to the gardeners who want to grow more of their own food. When I lived in Heath I had access to the low-bush blueberry farms that operate there, but highbush blueberries were among the first shrubs I planted. I do not prefer one over the other, except that the highbush blueberries are larger and easier to pick. Nowadays lowbush blueberries to plant are much more available than they once were. We are also fortunate…