Planting Japanese Iris – Pruning Trees

  • Post published:07/21/2012
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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…

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day July 15, 2012

It's Bloom Day and this is the big show in my garden right now, the daylily bank.  I have records of the names of these daylilies, but I'd be hard put to identify them all now. Many of the roses just have a bloom or two, but The Fairy will go on and on. I have one in each of the Lawn Beds. The Purington rambler rose, an old un-named rose, has been and will be exuberant for some…

Hawley’s Artisan and Garden Tour 7-14

  • Post published:07/13/2012
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When news of the impending arrival of Tropical Storm Irene hit the airwaves last August, West Hawley residents Lorraine and Jerry McCarthy quickly packed up their car and dashed to their house on Long Island to batten down the hatches. However, the storm bypassed Long Island and hit Hawley with ferocious energy, destroying roads, flooding the Chickley River, and leaving the McCarthy’s land with up to three feet of silt and sand in two large areas of the…

Greenfield Garden Club Farm and Garden Tour

  • Post published:07/07/2012
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Denise Leonard, current chair of the Greenfield Agricultural Commission, past president of the New England Border Collies Association, and chief farmer at TANSTAAFL Farm is one of the featured farmers on the Greenfield Garden Club’ annual garden tour which is including farms for the first time this year. THIS VERY DAY! July 7! Denise explained that her husband David came up with the name of their farm when they were still living in Leverett more than 25 years…

Fourth of July – Red, White and Blue in Bloom

  • Post published:07/04/2012
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Red roses. Red and white roses. White Mothlight hydrangea. White Switzerland shasta daisies. Blue Connecticut Yankee delphiniums. Falling over, but unbowed. For more Wordlessness this Independence Day Wednesday click here.

It’s Summer – Viewing, Touring and Paddling

  • Post published:07/02/2012
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It's summer and I've been out viewing plants and gardens and then relaxing at a local pond. Summer doesn't get any more perfect than this. I went to the Annual Japanese Iris Show in Shelburne Falls and got to see the best and most beautiful examples of Japanese Iris grown in the area. Japanese iris are the last iris to bloom in our area. After seeing this display of irises, I had to run over to Fox Brook…

Bloom Day – June 2012

End of the Road Farm is now officially Zone 5b, with winter temperatures down to -15 degrees. I think that is pretty accurate. When we first moved here I put us in Zone 4b, with temperatures down to -25 degrees. Thirty years ago we would have those bitter temperatures for days at a time, not just a day or two. Even allowing that winters are generally milder, we had a very early spring, after a mild winter. The…

Salvia – Annual, Perennial, Shrub

  • Post published:06/06/2012
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  Salvia is a large genus of plants that includes shrubs as well as perennials and annuals. I have the beautiful Salvia May Night in my Lawn Bed, but I also have culinary sage, Salvia officinalis, in my Herb Bed. There are many reasons to love salvia. It is an undemanding plant that will bloom again if it is sheared back after that first springtime bloom. There are also many cultivars, many in shades of blue, some in…

Rose of the Day – Therese Bugnet

  • Post published:06/01/2012
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Therese Bugnet is the Rose of the Day. And this line rhymes. Therese Boo-nay is the Rose of the Day. Even though I do have three whole years of high school French, it took me many years to realize it was not Therese Bug-Net. Oh well. Miss Rochelle is no longer here to be scandalized. Therese Bugnet is a rugosa and it is the rugosas that are not only the hardiest roses in my garden, they are about…

Renovating and Planting Continue

  • Post published:05/22/2012
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Renovating and planting the lawn bed continues. I had to wait until after the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale before I made my final 'design' decisions.  This is the end of the Lawn Bed, all cleaned out of a nearly dead potentilla and lots of weeds. I also removed two clumps of ornamental grass that had been grown in pots last summer and just stuck in this bed in the fall. "Just sticking" a plant somewhere is always…