Horticultural Society Memberships Make Good Gifts

  • Post published:12/26/2015
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Being surrounded by books makes me feel secure and comfortable knowing that I have information or entertainment at hand whenever I need it. However, my bookshelves also hold magazine holders where I store the magazines like Fine Gardening and the magazines and newsletters from horticultural societies like the American Horticultural Society, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and the New England Wildflower Society. I am a member of all three. Memberships in horticultural and plant societies make a great gift.…

Greenline in New York City?

  • Post published:12/22/2015
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I visited the High Line a few years ago, before it was finished, and I hope to visit this summer and walk the entire length of this beautiful elevated garden - even bigger than our own Bridge of Flowers. The High Line ended abruptly here in May of 2010, and it was completed at the Rail Yards until September 2014. But now there is a proposal for a Greenline garden that would turn the diagonal 40 blocks of…

Gift Books for the Gardener

  • Post published:12/20/2015
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At my house every gift giving occasion should include a book, or three. Every year there is a new crop of books to help new and experienced gardeners keep up with new trends and techniques, and find new ways to make their gardens, indoors and out, more beautiful and/or productive. Here is a sampling of new books for the gardener. Fruit Gardener’s Bible: A Complete Guide to Growing Fruit and Nuts in the Home Garden by Lewis Hill…

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day – December 15, 2015

  • Post published:12/15/2015
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On this Garden Blogger's Bloom day I have a large Christmas cactus blooming and I think it looks very pretty in my new  peachy dining room. My amaryllis has already gone by and there are not other blooms. So I am off to see all the flowers in bloom across this great nation which you can see by  clicking here. All this thanks to Carol over at May Dreams Gardens.

We Have a Winner in the Giveaway!

  • Post published:12/14/2015
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Marjorie is the  winner of Terrariums: Gardens Under Glass by Maria Colletti AND The Roses at the End of the Road by yours truly. The books  will be in the mail as soon as I have your address. Congratulations, Marjorie! I know you will enjoy the books.

Greenfield Garden Club Had a Party . . .

  • Post published:12/12/2015
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but I didn't attend. The Greenfield Garden Club always has a delightful Christmas party complete with a delicious pot luck and a Yankee Swap which is always great fun. Last night I set out, clutching the party address on Bernardston Road. It was foggy when I set out, but I gave it never a thought. As I drove along I noticed that even the houses near the road were camouflaged by the fog. I drove past where I…

Bridge of Flowers Gains New Fame

  • Post published:12/10/2015
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  This post is a little off the subject, but as a member of the Bridge of Flowers committee I can't help blowing the Bridge's horn. The famed magazine Architectural Digest has opened their on-line article about elevated gardens around the world  with our beautiful Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls. They even noted that our Bridge is probably the first renovated Bridge in the United States. Our Bridge of Flowers now attracts thousands of visitors every year…

Celebrating Eight Years of Blogging – Giveaway

This year Cool Springs Press is helping me celebrate my eight years of blogging with a Giveaway of Terrariums: Gardens Under Glass. These have been rich years for me be cause my blog has brought so many wonderful gardeners into my life, and so many beautiful gardening experiences. With other garden bloggers I travelled to Buffalo and to Seattle and saw beautiful gardens, large and small and all different. This past summer I attended a Garden Writers Conference…

Root Cellars and Root Vegetables

  • Post published:12/04/2015
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Our Thanksgiving table will include  root vegetables like Yukon Gold potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, beets, parsnips and carrots. Even the Pilgrims might have had some of these vegetables at the first Thanksgiving. Root vegetables were an important part of the food supply in Europe before canning and freezing were available. Root vegetables were harvested in the fall and stored for winter use without preserving them in some way, like pickling or drying. When I was a child living…

Apple Lover’s Cookbook by Amy Traverso

  • Post published:11/28/2015
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Fall is a season of thanksgiving. One of the blessings of the season is a good harvest and this year there has been a spectacular apple harvest – indeed a spectacular fruit harvest of almost every kind. I gave thanks and celebrated with Amy Traverso, author of the The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, during the Cider Days apple tasting at Clarkdale Fruit Farm. I joined the crowd at Traverso’s table tasting her pretty Quick Bread and Butter Apple Pickles…