I begin this Garden Blogger's Bloom Day post with a blooming mistake. Maybe three years ago I thought coltsfoot might be a good groundcover on the Rose Bank. I was only thinking of the flowers and the size of the early spring foliage - not what it would look like in June, July, August, September and October. Or how very rapidly and strongly it would spread. I don't mind the violet which are everywhere here, and in the…
Dear Friend and Gardener: Even though I have planted seeds in the vegetable garden, and a few seedlings that I started in the guestroom a few weeks ago, I can never resist buying a few starts at the garden center. I can never have enough parsley in the summer, and I don't need very much chard, and I just want a headstart on the tender basil - so purchased starts are needed. Tomorrow should be perfect planting weather…
March's snow and frigid temperatures (the coldest March in year) are ALMOST gone. The view from the bedroom window has really changed. April 6 was the first day we were able to go out in the garden - for a while. 30 degrees at 7 am with a high of 50 degrees. Oh no! After days of frosty temperatures, and some rain - Snow! Two inches. But it warmed up and was mostly gone by evening. And this…
I went to New Jersey, the Garden State, to search for spring and found it at the Leonard J. Buck Garden in Far Hills. My brother Tony and his wife Joan took us to the 29 acre garden which was originally part of Mr. Buck’s estate. In the 1930s Buck began working with Zenon Schreiber, a well-known landscape architect, to create a naturalistic garden that incorporated the various rock outcroppings, the sinuous Moggy Brook and two ponds.…
These Van Sion antique daffodils are strong growers. So strong that they persist in blooming in a rose bush no matter how many time I try to dig them out. No matter. I am glad to see them blooming. They are the earliest of my daffs, but a few others are coming into bloom. And if daffodils are blooming in Heath it must be time for plant sales. The first plant sale is organized by The Greenfield Garden…
Groundbreaking Food Gardens is a great book to take new vegetable gardeners into an exciting and varied garden world this very long slow cold spring. The snow is finally gone, even here in Heath, and bulbs are blooming and tender shoots are evident all through the perennial beds. I can finally think about the vegetable garden. I actually have two vegetable gardens. One is very small. The Front Garden, or Early Garden, as I sometime call it, is…
I'm a person who enjoys talking about plants anytime, but sometimes I do it officially. Last weekend I spoke about Sustainable Roses at the little e. I was able to explain that you could grow roses without poisons and fungicides. Hybridizers have created many rugosas that are just naturally sustainable. Texas A&M declared a whole group of roses to be sustainable and calls them Earth Kind. Look for that label when you go rose shopping. I'll be writing…
Primroses are a wonderful early spring flower. Last weekend I toured the Leonard J. Buck Garden with my brother and his wife. Spring has been slow there, as well as here, but a few of the primroses were in bloom. There are many types of primroses, but all of them are hardy and like a damp site and humusy soil. I have even seen them growing in the water at the edge of a temporary spring stream.…
High schools are off this week so we had the chance to go touring colleges with grandson Rory. It was pouring all during the UMass-Lowell campus tour, but we were undaunted, and got to see the O'Leary Library, the bookstore, a dining hall, a classroom and lots of students very busily going about their business. We were also fortunate enough to speak to one of the faculty members who gave us lots of good advice. While we were…
How can we celebrate Earth Day every day? We can grow a garden. Forget the lawn; grow veggies and herbs and berries, trees and flowers. Gardens, ornamental and edible can feed lots of pollinators and other bugs that need different kinds of foliage to nibble on, so that they can be eaten by birds and other wild creatures. Plants are pretty low on the food chain so that makes them especially important. Edible plants feed us healthy…