What is a garden for? It depends on the garden, of course.Vegetable gardens are for feeding us. Herb gardens are for bringing us extra savor and health. Meditation gardens are to give us moments of serenity. Ornamental gardens are to give us pleasure. But all gardens can be shared --- doubling their pleasure and utility, of whatever sort. Sometimes sharing our gardens can also support a noble project. That is what will be happening in Heath and Charlemont…
What is a garden for? It depends on the garden, of course.Vegetable gardens are for feeding us. Herb gardens are for bringing us extra savor and health. Meditation gardens are to give us moments of serenity. Ornamental gardens are to give us pleasure. But all gardens can be shared --- doubling their pleasure and utility, of whatever sort. Sometimes sharing our gardens can also support a noble project. That is what will be happening in Heath and…
Andrea Wulf's fascinating book The Founding Gardeners provides a drawing of George Washington's Mount Vernon site plan. I wrote about this book here. Sunday's Washington Post had a story about the restoration of his gardens based on a 13 month archeological dig led by Esther White. Now visitors will be able to see the garden as George himself laid it out. Every garden is ephemeral. Every garden changes over time. Finding evidence of original planting plans revealing the…
The Bridge of Flowers is blooming and blooming, ready for admiration, but you can see that greens are important too. Azaleas are just beginning to blossom, and Solomon's seal is still blooming. Iris season is just beginning. That's a dramatic combo with a yellow iris and orange azalea. The Bridge of Flowers loves azaleas. Surely it is clear by now that the Bridge of Flowers does not depend on a single type of flower. The bulb season is…
Yesterday I had the pleasure of trekking to LaSalle's in Whately to help pick out a selection of the annuals that will be sold at the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale on Saturday, May 14. This is the geranium that was sold out last year when I went to buy mine. This is the geranium I bought instead. It just bloomed and bloomed into the fall. Both geraniums plus scarlelet and white varieties will be available at the…
The Bridge of Flowers, an old trolley bridge, that now floriferously joins the towns of Shelburne and Buckland opened officially on April 1. On that day this year there was snow on the Bridge, but you can see we are no longer worrying about snow. At this time of the year people begin asking me about the best season to view the Bridge. I answer there is no Best Season. The Bridge has been designed to be in…
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The March-April issue of The American Gardener published by the American Horticultural Society includes a wonderful article about the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden and its curator, Peter Kukielski, by Patricia Taylor. The article explains how this famous rose garden at the New York Botanical Garden became sustainable. I interviewed Peter Kukielski in the fall of 2009 and wrote about him here. The article gives the names of rose breeders who have developed disease resistant roses, roses that need…
A garden is an ephemeral thing. It is created by the vision, knowledge, skill and passion of the gardener. When that gardener must give up the garden it will not last long without a careful intervention. In 1989 a group of passionate people who recognized the importance of gardens in telling the history of a time, place and culture founded The Garden Conservancy. Since then the Garden Conservancy has provided that intervention for ninety exceptional gardens across the…
Colleen Plimpton is one of those fortunate people who is smart enough to learn from all the people - and sometimes the animals - who come into her life. In her charming, conversational book, Mentors in the Garden of Life, she tells us about relatives like Aunt Louise and friends like Kathleen, and expert gardeners like Sydney Eddison who have been important to her in life, and in her garden. Each vignette that captures a personality and time ends…