A Serious Frost

  • Post published:10/20/2010
  • Post comments:4 Comments

Thick frost on the ground this morning at 7:30.  And yet, The cosmos still blooms exuberantly, but the morning glory may have seen its last morning.

Drought resistant Plants

  • Post published:09/25/2010
  • Post comments:4 Comments

According to my records we had 4 inches of rain in August, more than half of that on August 22 and 23. No rain so far in September, at least not here in Heath. The result is incredibly dry soil, and a hose that ran dry last week while I was filling the chicken waterers. Granted, I had watered the vegetable garden with a sprinkler for 45 minutes before that, but this has never happened in the 30…

Gloria Arranges . . .

  • Post published:09/17/2010
  • Post comments:4 Comments

Gloria Pacosa can arrange just about anything, dinner parties, events, wedding flowers, pie baking, but when we got together the other day to shoot a TV show for Falls Cable in Shelburne Falls, I wanted her to arrange flowers. She had begun gathering material before I arrived. She had raided the flower garden for these dark scabiosa, the last of the sweet peas and gomphrena, as well as zinnias, sunflowers and        . She said just…

Bloom Day September 2010

If Alma Potchke is blooming it must be September Bloom Day. I thank Carol at May Dreams Gardens for thinking of this wonderful way to keep a bloom record of my own garden, and to see what else is in bloom over this land. This beautiful achillea has bloomed beautifully all summer. It is at the end of the lettuce bed in the new Front Garden which means it has gotten watered along with the lettuce, including the…

Heath School Gardens

  • Post published:09/02/2010
  • Post comments:5 Comments

Over at Garden Rant Mary Gray's guest rant bewailed the state of many school grounds, all concrete and lawn. I am very familiar with the school grounds that she describes, but I feel fortunate that the children in our small town have a very different school experience. The Heath Elementary School, which opened in 1996, was built in a pasture surrounded by woodland. When the school bus pulls off the dirt road onto the driveway it passes a…

Sunflowers

  • Post published:08/14/2010
  • Post comments:4 Comments

When we think of sunflowers most of us think of tall stems with large blossoms heavy with seeds – that will be half eaten by the birds unless we protect them for our own use or display.  The Recorder and the Greenfield Garden Club will be holding their Annual Sunflower Contest on Saturday, August 21 at the Energy Park and we expect to see many of these beauties vying for attention. The contest has several categories for youth…

Two Lasagna Gardens

  • Post published:08/13/2010
  • Post comments:2 Comments

My neighbor Kara read my directions for making a lasagna garden - followed them, and this is what she got. A beautiful lasagna herb garden.  She will not need to add another layer of cardboard and soil to maintain this next year. On the other side of the grass path, wide enough for a lawn mower, Kara planted mostly annuals. After the harvest she may want to add another layer of cardboard, water it well, and add a…

Is Your Sunflower a Winner?

  • Post published:08/06/2010
  • Post comments:2 Comments

This is the season for sunflowers - and for a sunflower contest.  The Recorder and the Greenfield Garden Club will hold their Annual Sunflower Contest on Saturday, August 21 at the Energy Park in Greenfield.  There will be ribbons and prizes for the tallest, the largest blossom and the heaviest seedhead, as well as the most blossoms on a single plant AND the most beautiful arrangement. That arrangement must consist mostly of sunflowers.  Entries will be accepted in…