L is for Lilac Sunday at the Arnold Aroboretum on Sunday, May 12, 2013. Lilacs are the only plant at the Arboretum that gets its own Day. Not only will there be music and dancing, family activities and vendors, Lilac Sunday is the only day that picknicking is allowed at the Arnold Arboetum. I have attended and it is a fabulous event. The Arboretum, as usual will be open from 10 am to 4 pm. It is best…
Two years ago this week we left the cold and muddy landscape of Heath to visit Houston and our daughter Kate and her family. Because the landscape of Heath is currently cold and snowy I needed to revisit those sunny Houston days. One day we drove out to Cindy's Corner of Katy to visit her beautiful garden. Flowers everywhere. Cindy's corner garden is not large, but it is colorful and filled with every kind of flowers. Roses too. So…
Last summer I visited Bruce Cannon's fabulous garden. His potting bench is one of the elements that impressed me. He took an old stainless steel sink and built his potting bench around it in the shade. The faucet does work, but the water just drains out onto the ground. Yesterday I was talking to my friend Bob who is one of our town's volunteer fire fighters. Last fall the fire department held a practice and burned down an old…
Thirty years ago Diane Kurinsky and her husband Steve Gross built a house on a plot of land in Wendell that included fields and woodland. The land was a blank slate where they have managed to create a domestic landscape that welcomes and invites the visitor, luring her on to one delight after another. When I drove up I parked my car in the circular drive that curves around a large ‘bed’ that Kurinsky calls the heather garden.…
How long does it take for a vision to become flesh? Or in this case patios, stone walls, cool shady flower beds and a koi filled pond? For Bruce Cannon who found and bought a hilly wooded site on South Mountain in Northfield fifteen years ago, the vision was complete in only three or four years, but the building took a little longer. The house came first, set on the only bit of flat land on this steep…
We’ve all faced the spring task of combing through the seed catalogs trying to decide which squash, or tomato or whatever variety to buy. Will it be dark green Raven zucchini, the light green Magda or the striped Safari? We might be considering days to maturity, disease resistance and spininess of the plant. If we agonize over our few choices, can you imagine what a seed company has to take into consideration? Recently I spoke with CR Lawn,…
Rory had to go home to reorganize for Boy Scout camp, but not before he caught this snake in the garden. He has such sharp eyes. I've seen a lot of snakes this summer, but none as pretty as this one. We keep Rory pretty busy with travels and projects - and chores. He began the garlic harvest and I finished today. Time with Granny and The Major is never complete without a couple of stints in the…
“O beautiful, for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain . . .” These words, written by Katherine Lee Bates in 1895 capture an image of our country that we still treasure today. However, there are differences between 1895 and 2012. The tall waving wheats that gilded our midwest in 1895 are now only a foot tall, barely shuddering in the breeze.. The early 1940s saw the beginning of the Green Revolution, an agricultural shift that used technological…
Rol's vegetable garden is one of the wonders of Heath. His is one of two very different gardens that I visited last week. My neighbor Rol is the garlic and onion king. This spring he coordinated a group order of onions from Dixondale Farm. I bought 60, and though we planted at the same time I can tell you that my onions look nothing like his. Weeding and watering seem to be key elements to success. Many of…
One of the benefits of the summer garden tour and event season is the chance to meet new people with unique passions and knowledge. When I attended the Western New England Japanese Iris Show in Shelburne Falls at the end of June. I saw exhibition blossoms of beautiful Japanese irises grown by local gardeners, stunning arrangements, and was inspired. Japanese iris bloom from mid-June into July, coming into flower when the Siberian and then the bearded iris seasons…