Bill Benner and Butterfly Gardens

  • Post published:03/07/2015
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Bill Benner, veterinarian, birder, and butterfly gardener, is a man with many strings to his bow, but they all play tunes of the natural world and its fragility. He will be talking about the natural world, climate change and the impact it has on our own part of Massachusetts at GreenfieldCommunity College’s Senior Symposium on Tuesday, March 10 from 2-4 pm. As a young man Benner attended CornellUniversity because of their ornithology lab. “I just wanted to study…

Shades of White for Winter, Spring and Summer

  • Post published:03/04/2015
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There are many shades of white in this world. Snow white is what I have been looking at for three frigid months now, but I dream of shades of white for spring and summer. First come the snowdrops - as white as snow. A very welcome white. Rhododendrons bloom towards the end of May, but 'Boule de Neige'  (Snowball) has a memory of the white winter. Somehow this pristine white seems prettier than the snow. High summer and…

Frigid February View from the Bedroom Window

  • Post published:03/02/2015
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The view from the bedroom window by February 5 showed that another 25 inches of snow had fallen since February 1. Cold and often windy with just below zero temperatures on a few nights. Another 18 inches of snow on February 9, but sun on the 10th. Occasional snow showers over the rest of February and continuing frigid temperatures. Minus 12 on February 16 at 7 am. Often windy with wind chill advisories common.  You can see the…

A Plethora of Peas – From Snaps to Sweet

  • Post published:02/27/2015
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There are peas that need to be shelled, peas that only need to be snapped, peas named snow, and sweet peas that can be smelled. There are pea plants that are small, and many that are tall. There is a pea for every taste, and every eye and nose. Peas are one of the first vegetables that can be planted in the spring. What more could one ask of a humble legume? All peas prefer a fairly neutral…

Amherst Orchid Society – Spring Orchid Show

  • Post published:02/24/2015
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On Sunday I drove down to Northampton and the  annual Orchid Show put on by the Amherst Orchid Society. I do not grow orchids because I always think they require a greenhouse. However, anyone who has ever received a phaleanopsis orchid as a gift knows that it will live happily on a bright, but not sunny, windowsill.  I walked through the orchid show with Bill Benner, a member of the Amherst Orchid Society, who has about 100 orchid…

Garden-pedia by Paula Bennett and Maria Zampini

  • Post published:02/21/2015
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With all the bad weather I’ve been happy to sit by the woodstove and read two new books from St. Lynn’s Press. Garden-pedia: An A to Z Guide to Gardening Terms by Paula Bennett and Maria Zampini ($16.95 paperback) is an excellent book for the novice gardener. There are so many terms that arise even in catalogs and other places that can confuse and confound. Writers and speakers may be trying to write or speak plainly, but sometimes…

Greenfield’s Winter Fare – February 21, 2015

  • Post published:02/19/2015
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Greenfield's Winter Fare is more than a Farmer's Market. Last month I attended the first  Winter Farmers Market of the year, held at the Greenfield Middle School. I came home with two heavy bags full of apples, winter squash, watermelon radish, golden beets, bread and frozen ground lamb.  And wonderful bread from El Jardin bakery.  Walking into that space was like walking into Ali Baba's cave full of jewels. A little brighter, but with so much wealth spread…

Sampler of White Flowers for Summer and Fall

  • Post published:02/16/2015
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Last week I talked about some of the white spring flowers, but a whole array of white flowers bloom well into the fall. I can only mention a few. White Flowers for Summer One of the more unusual white flowers that grows in my garden is Artemesia lactiflora. Most of us think of artemesias as having silvery foliage and insignificant flowers. My Artemesia lactiflora grows in a very upright clump with reddish-maroon stems and very dark toothed foliage.…

Bonnie Kate’s Wedding

  • Post published:02/14/2015
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On this Valentine's Day I'd like to share the story of daughter bonnie Kate's wedding, a chapter from my book The Roses at the End of the Road. Bonnie Kate’s Wedding        Our daughter Kate was never much interested in the garden, but when I planted the first roses in 1981 and laid out the plan for the Rose Walk, she did express a romantic desire to be married amid the roses. On a June Sunday in 1994 it…

Street Art: The Audubon Mural Project

  • Post published:02/12/2015
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The February Audubon Newsletter features an amazing art project - painting portraits of all 314 climate threatened or endangered birds on  the roll down security gates in  the Hamilton Heights area of NYC, where coincidently,  John James Audubon once lived. This is the brainstorm of gallery owner Avi Gitler, and artist Tom Sanford. Street art to spread the word about the plight of these birds. The New York Times thought this was a great idea too. The Newsletter…