Apple Blossom Time

  • Post published:05/27/2011
  • Post comments:3 Comments

I hope this photo give some sense of the amazing bloom of the Sargent crabapple. It is  not 15 feet tall, but it is at least 15 feet wide and was planted about 15 years ago. It thrives in the Sunken Garden even though it is very wet in the spring.  It is now in full flower - almost a single tree-sized blossom at this point. This apple tree, name unknown, produces apples but they are not the…

Monday Record 5-23

  • Post published:05/23/2011
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There isn't much to report about progress in the garden. This report is full of  rain, showers, downpour, drizzle, rain, spitz and fog.   Fortunately a showery day did not deter the Yestermorrow crew who came to Katywil to hold an Earth Oven Building workshop.  The stone foundation had been completed two weeks ago and Saturday was going to see building of a wood fired oven. The workshop participants had to get deep into the mud (earth) and…

We’ve Got a Winner!

  • Post published:04/23/2011
  • Post comments:3 Comments

It may be snowing and sleeting here in Heath this morning, but many of us are thinking spring thoughts, planting thoughts, harvesting thoughts - and winning thoughts.  The Prickly Pine Cone has won Starter Vegetable Gardens! by Barbara Pleasant.   Good luck to her and her new gardens.  Maybe it isn't snowing at her house.

No-till Gardens

  • Post published:04/23/2011
  • Post comments:4 Comments

The technique of gardening without digging up the soil has been around for a long time. Ruth Stout had a best seller on her hands when her book “How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back” came out in 1955. Two more recent books that explain how to have a productive garden without breaking sod and breaking your back are “Lasagna Gardening” by Patricia Lanza and “Weedless Gardening” by Lee Reich who lives right here in…

Earth Day 2011

  • Post published:04/22/2011
  • Post comments:2 Comments

On this Earth Day I don't want to lecture about what we all should be doing to protect the environment. I want to celebrate some of the actions I know about in my community that are being done right now, many of which will grow. I am thrilled with the school gardens that are being planted, tended and harvested. They not only supply food, but many lessons that connect with work in the classroom.  Heath school has had its…

Starter Vegetable Garden Giveaway

Tis the season to start gardens. If you have been tentative about starting your first garden this year here is an opportunity to win a book that will be an immense help. Storey Publishing generously sent me a copy of Starter Vegetable Gardens: 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens by Barbara Pleasant to giveaway to my readers. If you would like to win a copy  leave a comment at the the end of this post.  I would…

A First Garden

  • Post published:04/16/2011
  • Post comments:2 Comments

Our part of the world had an early start on the Local Food movement, to such a degree that we now have many more small farms in our area, operated by energetic and skilled farmers, and several farmer’s markets as well as farm stands. There is more interest in community gardens. Of course the very most local food comes from our own backyards. Right now because April is National Garden Month.the national media is full of information about…

Win a Garden Starter Kit from Timber Press

  • Post published:02/17/2011
  • Post comments:1 Comment

Having told you all what an informative and inspiring book Andrea Bellamy has written, Sugar Snaps and Strawberries, I want you to know that Timber Press is now holding a contest that will have three lucky winners. First Prize winner will receive - A garden starter kit with all you need to start your own vegetable garden wherever you live, including: A copy of Sugar Snaps and Strawberries A gardening container, watering can, gloves, and a garden journal from…

Two Garden Styles – Two Books

  • Post published:02/12/2011
  • Post comments:7 Comments

Every gardener is an individual with different dreams, desires, skills, interests – and constraints. Thus every garden is unique reflecting those differences.  William Robinson (1838-1935) was a British gardener who propounded a new flower garden aesthetic, away from hundreds of annuals being bedded out each season, to a wilder, more informal planting of perennials, shrubs and trees, many of them natives. He wrote several books, most notably the influential  The Wild Garden. That book went through several editions.…

Erving Preschool Garden

  • Post published:10/02/2010
  • Post comments:4 Comments

The children of the Erving Elementary Preschool were so proud of the sunflowers they grew that they sent representatives to the Recorder/Greenfield Garden Club Sunflower Contest in August. When the children returned to Erving they carried back prize ribbons for the heaviest sunflower head and for the third tallest. But their garden is about more than glory.  The preschool class of 3 and 4 year olds, led by teacher Mary Glabach with the assistance of Kristin Lilly, Becky…