While browsing the web for information about plant hunter Augustine Henry I found a Daily Telegraph story about zinnias in space - space horticulture! Major Tim Peake, the UK's first astronaut has coaxed a zinnia into bloom in a micro-gravity environment. The seeds were planted by NASA's Scott Kelly as part of VEG-O1 to see what plants might grow in this environment. Lettuce was planted - harvested and eaten by the crew of the International Space Station earlier this…
The first surprising thing I learned about perennials was that they do not bloom all summer. Some may bloom for as long as four weeks, and others may send up a second flush of bloom if you remember to cut them back after the first flush. This means that to keep a swath of perennial blooms for the whole garden season you will have to choose a variety of perennials that will make timely appearances all season long.…
Every year new annuals show up in the catalogs and garden centers. These new plants may get us thinking about ways we can design our plantings, help us find flowers that will thrive in challenging situations, or help support pollinators. I will list a few of these new annual flower varieties that I found particularly appealing. The first place I check to see what is new is the All America Plant Selections website. Many of us have…
Today I have chosen to think about the beardless Siberian iris. It is such a cold, gray winter day that I needed to think about something cheerful, that presents no problems. The Siberian iris family fills the bill. When I say they present no problems I am also saying that I have good conditions for these beautiful irises. I have acid soil, and while they can take dry periods well, they welcome generous water. In Heath there was…
Sunday. It is raining! The abnormally warm temperatures are melting our one snowfall, and now it is raining. My husband cleared away the storm drain on our road and he is now investigating the liklihood of helping the drainage in the backyard. Our newly planted lasagna beds did raise the beds slightly and I think the photo gives you a hint that they are surrounded by water. The water is the deepest at the western end of the…
Everything changes. Change on all fronts is inescapable, unstoppable and inevitable. No one knows this more than a gardener who watches her garden change over the years. In 2016 I will be gardening in a new garden, a smaller garden, a garden that will not require as much maintenance as the Heath garden. It is also a garden with very different features. The soil is heavy clay. The soil is very wet and drains slowly. There is a…
The photos I took of the view from the bedroom window make it easy for me to create a review the garden(s) in 2015. When January 1 dawned in Heath there had been snow falls, notably the great Thanksgiving 2014 blizzard, but things looked bright. On that New Year's Day we were also considering a move to Greenfield which we had been pondering for a couple of years. This was the view for most of February in 2015.…
One of the very first things I liked about our new house, or more specifically our new yard, was the very tall evergreen in the northwestern corner. It is a magnificent tree that might be 30 feet tall with graceful pendulous branches. On our first drive past the house I admired this beautiful tree in the backyard. It is not like any tree we had in view in Heath. There most of the conifers are pines or hemlocks.…
The Roses at the End of the Road is the tale of my life in Heath and the roses that lived, and died, in the gardens at End of the Road Farm. My first rose was the delicately pink Passionate Nymph's Thigh, followed by a number of elegant ladies like Madame Legras de St. German, the Queen of Denmark and the Wife of Bath. However there were a few gentlemen like Martin Frobisher and William Baffin. The Rose Walk…
After weeks of mild weather and rain, winter finally arrived with sleet and icy snow. Fortunately the Christmas spirit is still strong as we march towards the New Year.