CommonWeeder

I'm on the move! Go to Commonweeder.com

2009-05-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

Join me at www.commonweeder.com

I'll keep this site going for a while longer so you can check out my archives here, but won't be posting here any more.

Add www.commonweeder.com to your favorites. Go there and subscribe.

Everyone is invited!

The Commonweeder is Moving!

2009-05-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

But only to Commonweeder.com.

I also moved these daffs in full bloom but there is a lot more to see for the Monday Record at my website.

Please visit me there from now on and leave a comment. We continue to be a work in progress. Just like the garden.

Muse Day May 2009

2009-05-01T05:25:00.000-07:00

Bounded by strand
above strand of song
-- the robin's acre

This haiku by a local poet, Carol Purington, who lives one town over in Colrain, is from her book Family Farm: Haiku for a Place of Moons.

Carol was struck by polio in her childhood and has lived in an iron lung for most of her life, but she has found a way to connect the limitations of her life with the boundless energies of her family and the ever renewing growth and husbandry of the farm. She has captured the seasons and the love of a piece of land that sharpens the way I look at my own landscape.

If we hadn't named our 'farm' End of the Road Farm, it would have been Robin Hill. Lots of robins mark the beginning of spring.

Thank you Carolyn Gail over at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago for hosting Muse Day

Ahead of Schedule

2009-04-29T05:52:00.000-07:00

I measure the march toward spring by the arrival of the first dandelion in my 'flowery mead' which some call The Lawn. Yesterday, the first dandelion showed up, at least a week earlier than usual. This morning it has been joined by a host of sunny compatriots. I hope the five days of 80 plus temperatures haven't lulled us into a fatal spring.

Along with the dandelions, these violets seemed to pop up and bloom over night in the sand next to the house where we are planning to put more pavers. And witch grass. Of course. Who could call such beauty a weed? There are more violets, white and purple in the flowery mead. They indicate that my soil is acid. I knew that.

Monday Record 4-27

2009-04-27T05:17:00.000-07:00

Grandson Tynan, at 11, is almost 5 feet tall. Gardens are not the only places where growth is amazing.

Tynan arrived to spend part of school vacation with us and we devoted ourselves to art, the garden, and celebrating Earth Day at the eleventh most beautiful waterfall in Massachusetts.

First, off to Umass, my alma mater, to visit our friend Dan at the new Studio Arts building. He gave us a tour of the undergrad studios where we saw all kinds of art, collage, drawings, assemblages, paintings, clay sculptures, and even a work made with black headed pins.

Tynan was greeted by a Junk Man.

Then off to the famous Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. The Museum is celebrating Carle’s 80th birthday and The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s 40th Anniversary with a special exhibit. Another wonderful exhibit was of Virgina Lee Burton’s work. What child isn’t a friend of Mike Mulligan and his Steamshovel?

Back at the End of the Road there was work to do. My husband, known as The Major to the grandchildren, had to take down old barbed wire fencing around the new Potager, and clean out to give room for the squash vines to spread.

Removing a big beam and an old harrow required the help of the tractor.

Ty also helped me by cutting down 10 saplings for bean poles which I will need very soon.

Then we set off on a quest to find Tannery Falls in the Savoy Forest. The map showed a parking lot by the trail, but as we got close there was a sign saying the road was not maintained and we traveled at our own risk. It was a pretty rough road! But a very nice parking lot.

The trail is very steep, but there are occasional railings and stairs built into the hillside. There are actually two waterfalls, but the trail mostly leads beside the rushing stream that makes the larger, and very beautiful falls. We estimated it at about 70 feet high.

If there is water there must be bare feet. Even if the water is icy.

After garden work, and a hike amid great natural beauty we came home to build a fire for the first cook out of the year.

On Saturday The Major took Ty back to his mother while I picked up my order from the Franklin Conservation District. Why didn’t I check that American Hazelnuts are a favorite food of deer, or that Serviceberry grows very tall before I ordered them. My planting scheme needs to be totally reorganized!

A brief stop at Nasami Farm run by the New England Wildflower Society. They have several large greenhouses where they propagate native plants suitable for the garden. Like this beautiful Pinkshell Azalea.

But I already didn’t know what I was going to do with my hazelnuts and serviceberry so left empty handed.

This Monday morning I can see all the growth in just one week, especially since we had three days of extremely unseasonable temperatures in the 80s. But all my attention now is on water. Yesterday afternoon the water pump died. We opened a little well in the Lawn Bed for emergency water and now we are waiting for the repair man.

Wish us luck!

Earth Day 2009

2009-04-22T05:07:00.000-07:00

Earth Day celebrations remind us that there is work to do to build a sustainable world – and that we have to begin in our own neighborhoods. I know of two local efforts.

Last week I visited Ricky Baruc at his Seeds of Solidarity Farm in Orange. In 1996 Ricky and his wife Deb Habib started farming in a woodland clearing. The soil was bad and season was not long, but they did not find these insuperable deterrents. They cleared a space, put down a LOT of cardboard and covered it with beautiful compost from Diemand Farm (poultry and eggs) nearby. They planted seeds and covered the space with a plastic greenhouse. They were in business - a sustainable successful business. There are now 6 greenhouses and fields of garlic for which they are famous.

This is what is known as no-till planting. Ricky says that we can no longer afford the cost or the pollution that comes from shipping our food long distances. His response is that we must Plant Food Everywhere. He has shown us that poor soil irrelevant. There are savings in use of fossil fuel, fertilizer and labor.

Yesterday I attended a meeting of the Franklin County Hunger Task Force. We are launching a Plant a Row for the Hungry project that will help gardeners give their excess produce to food pantries and meal sites, etc. Since the recent economy has put new demands on these organizations, gardeners are invited to plant a row specifically for the hungry. An effort like this not only sustains people by feeding them, it can sustain their spirits as well. Watch for more news about this project.

Earth Day is about creating a world that will sustain life. Gardens and gardeners can help sustain our hungry neighbors. Celebrate!

Monday Record April 20

2009-04-20T12:36:00.001-07:00

Gray and chilly. Temperatures in the 40s with winds gusting at 14 miles and more. There is still one pile of snow in The Sunken Garden.

Still, I got a lot done over the past week. First I found out that the old daffodils growing here when we bought our house in 1979 are Van Sion, a heritage variety. I have Kathy Purdy of Cold Climate Gardening to thank for the ID. Van Sion is a beautiful frilly double daffodil dating back to 1620. It is available at Old House Gardens where the description “explodes into a froth of green and gold” includes the information that it is often found at the site of old homesites. Multiplies. And multiplies.

I also moved some daffodils that I planted in the lawn years ago. My thought was to turn the lawn into a golden sea. Could have happened, but since the foliage needs to ripen before cutting, it meant I couldn’t mow the lawn until just before the Annual Rose Viewing. Not good. This isn’t the best time, obviously, to move a plant about to bloom, but it had to be done, and I think they will settle in and bloom. They were only out of the ground for a few minutes.

The scillas, Siberian squills, are in full bloom, not only the ones that have self seeded in the weeds that had c0me up earlier.

Lots of cleaning up. Brush from downed trees. Weeds and wild raspberries in the rhubarb bed where I added compost.

I started building a new compost pile next to the slowly evolving Potager. Still moving cardboard and wood chips for paths.

The seeds that I moved into a temporary cold frame are thriving. I also planted sweet peas on the White Trellis, crib sides I pulled out of the metal bin at the Transfer Station, and Sugar Snap peas on a piece of fencing from the shed. I also planted Detroit Red Beets, Green Ice Lettuce and Neon Lights Chard. My seeds came from Fedco and Renee’s Garden.

The photo shows the White Trellis, and a plastic composting bin that was filled with last fall's leaves. Later in the season I'll use it for a potato barrel.

The lettuce starts, Red Fire, planted in front of the house in a new bed have suffered from being planted too early, and being bitten by frost a couple of times, but it is holding on. I planted lettuce and spinach seeds next to the starts.

Buds are swelling on the lilacs, tree peonies, rhododendrons, and even one early peony. Last fall I moved division of Joan Elliot campanula to the new cellar door bank and it is up, as is alchemilla. Rain is promised. Spring is here!

A Cough Remedy

2009-04-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

Most of us go to the drugstore for all manner of over the counter remedies, but it wasn’t so long ago, that people turned to plants for their remedies. Even now, some of us know that poppies and foxgloves still provide us with medicines, but others are quite forgotten.

Coltsfoot grows along my road. Its yellow dandelion-like flowers mean spring is here. It often grows along roadsides where the soil has been disturbed. The brilliant flowers are quite a surprise because they bloom so early and are so noticeable.

Unlike the dandelion, coltsfoot has flat blossoms. The large leaves (shaped like a colt’s foot) appear after the blooms, hence its old name of Filius ante patrem which means the son before the father.

Its proper name Tussilago farfara actually means “cures a cough’”, The large leaves are harvested in June and July, then dried. When needed a tea was made and served with honey. It was used not only for alleviating coughs, but also for asthma.

Although I don’t often think of herbs being smoked, coltsfoot leaves are an ingredient in herbal cigarettes.

It can be propagated by root cuttings or seed and because it is such a spreader, it can be used as a groundcover in a sunny location. And be handy for a homemade cough cure.

Bloom Day April 2009

2009-04-15T07:38:00.001-07:00

Finally I have blooming flowers other than houseplants to report on Bloom Day. I planted scillas and a few Glory of the Snow (Chionodoxa) in the grass a few years ago. Yesterday, when I tramped through all the dead tansy stems from last year, out to the new Potager my eye caught these two tiny plants pushing up through the rough stems and weeds. I can tell you that I have never planted any little bulbs in this area which has been overrun with spearmint and tansy for probably 20 years. Take note. Never ever plant spearmint or tansy where it cannot be firmly controlled! In fact, there were several isolated brilliant blue scillas winking at me, far from where any were intentioally planted.

I certainly intended those two sets of little bulbs to increase, but to find them so far away from the orignial planting is very mysterious. Does anyone know whether these flowers can somehow self seed? It seems as if they must, but so unlikely.

It is also amazing that these flowers growing among strong weeds should bloom before the ones planted in grass. Those showed their heads just this morning.

The daffodils that were here when we bought our house in 1979 have also just started blooming. This is a daffodil unlike any other I have seen. It is a very early bloomer, although I have to note that it is growing in a protected spot, against a bit of stone wall. Also the flowers are very fringey, both cup and petals. I think it must be a very old variety.

I am going to take a cue from Veg Plotting in the UK and note that this is the Middle of the Middle Month of spring and send you on to Carol of May Dreams Gardens who hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and Mrs. Nesbit of ABC Wednesday.

Daffodil Days

2009-04-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

It is early in daffodil season in my part of the world. This photo shows part of a low stone wall in Charlemont, the adjoining town, fronted by a show of daffodils, among the earliest I see. The wall faces south, providing protection and warmth, and cheering those of us who pass by and are weary of winter gray.

Charlemont is also the home of the Mystery Daffodil Planter. Several years ago, small clumps of daffodils popped up along Rte 2, the Mohawk Trail. They had not been there before. They were not necessarily planted in people's yards. Some are at the edge of pastures, and some at a narrow shoulder of the road. They were a miles long mystery. Since those first daffodils were planted the clumps have increased in size, and it is clear that some homeowners have been nudged into planting their own clumps near the edge of the road. The Mystery Planter has been identified, but I prefer to let him enjoy his mystery personna while I enjoy the delight.

This is my clump of early daffodils, growing against a remnant of stone wall in back of a rose bush I planted, after I thought I had dug out all the daffodils. Obviously I missed one or two of this vigorous variety which were growing here when we bought the house in 1979. The centers are very fringey, and unlike any other daffodils I have ever seen. The daffodils I planted a few years ago are the merest shoots at this point. It will be a while before they bloom.

There is a whole daffodil field at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden that will be blooming for another week or two. It is worth the trip to Boyleston and there is always lots more to see. Check out their website.

Monday Record April 13

2009-04-13T08:32:00.001-07:00

With the sky so blue, and the pussywillows so fat, I can almost believe spring is coming. But the Weather Station recorded a temperature of 29 degrees at 7 this morning. At 11:30 we are up to 46 with gusting breezes of up to 15 mph. The skies were not so blue yesterday on Easter Sunday, but we were inside most of the time feasting and visiting. On Saturday we got some chores done outside, mostly working on cleanup from ice storm damage. The ancient snowball bush and lilacs took a beating, requiring severe pruning; new shoots are coming up though. The big black cherry limbs that came down by the hen house will make good firewood. We look for benefit wherever we can.

There isn't much activity outside, but the seedlings on the heat maat are coming along. Somehow I am just one among my neighbors who has a lot of Brussels sprouts started this year. The benefit there is harvesting them fresh right into November.

The seedlings that have not gotten any bottom heat are coming along, too, but at a much slower rate. Because they are on a south windowsill, I turn them every day. Heliotropism, the need of plants to follow the sun, is in action.

The Gigante parsley is not yet germinated in either tray, so I assume they have not yet finished travelling to the Devil three times as described by an old wives tale. The garden book says they can take three weeks to germinate. I planted on March 31 so we have a week to go.

Governor Patrick Visits

2009-04-11T10:59:00.001-07:00

I went into Green Fields Market yesterday, and there was Governor Deval Patrick glad-handing the lunch crowd, accepting thanks for the good work he is doing, and probably taking some criticism, too. Massachusetts, like the country, is suffering from the economic crisis. The State is cutting budgets in almost every area. People are not happy.

However, yesterday's headlines in our local paper, The Recorder (for which I write a garden column) were heartening. At least when it comes to local farms and good eating.

Caroline Pam and husband Tim Wilcox announced that this year their farm The Kitchen Garden will have 7 acres under cultivation, including two hoophouses. This is up from 4 acres last year. They had been selling their beautiful produce (I often bought from them) at farmers markets as far away as Springfield, and to local restaurants. To these markets they added Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares. They see the demand for high quality local produce growing.

Another story is about Jessica Harwood who has started a business, Valley Green Feast, and makes home delivery of grass fed beef, pork, local dairy products, fair-trade coffee, eggs, bread and pie, goat cheese, yogurt, all manner of fruit and vegetables, and ice cream. A hundred mile diet in our area would not mean deprivation.

The Governor has his plate full in Boston, no doubt about it, but when he comes our way he can count on some really good eating.

Scarlet Surprise

2009-04-09T12:39:00.001-07:00

I don't pay enough attention to this orchid cactus, even though it makes its presence felt in the house, to remember when it blooms, but the two huge scarlet flowers that opened yesterday were quite a surprise.

This epiphyllum lives on an old black kitchen step stool so that the 3+ foot long drooping stems have sufficient room.

The stool is near a big south window and gets lots of light. Our house just naturally gives it the right temperature range. At this time of the year the room is about 70 degrees during the day, and is at least 10 degrees cooler at night. In the winter the temperatures routinely go to 50 degrees.

I water it when I remember and almost never give it fertilizer.

I have repotted it a couple of times which is a big job. I'm not very gentle, but the plant seems to come through each time. Even though the flowers are so big and exotic, this plant is not a prima donna.

Hooray for bold easy plants.

Lemon Balm and Lettuce

2009-04-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

L is for lilies, liatris, lilacs and lemon balm and lettuce.

One of the joys of an herb garden is the way perennial herbs appear so very early in the spring.

Lemon balm, Melissa officinalis, has beautiful crinkled bright green leaves and the delicious sweet fragrance of lemons. It is hardy; a strong grower that allows me to give divisions to anyone who admires it in the garden.

I love having lemon balm in the garden for the simple pleasure of its scent when I brush it. Functionally, for the most part I use lemon balm fresh in iced tea or other summer drinks. However, it can be preserved by drying.

Like all herbs it should be harvested before it flowers. Chose a day that is hot and when warm dry weather is predicted for several days. Cut the whole stem and leaves, leaving enough stem to produce another crop. Be careful not to bruise the leaves as you work. Gently place the stems on drying trays in the shade, or in an attic heated by the summer sun. You can also hang them inside paper bags, and let them dry in that same shady place.

Historically lemon balm tea, possibly sweetened with honey, has been credited with granting long life .
Two weeks ago I was seduced by a six pack of lettuce at the garden center. On March 31, after a warm spell, I succumbed and planted it in the sunny herb bed in front of the house. Since then it has surived some frost, but I'm beginning to think my optimistic welcome of spring was a big mistake. There is a dusting of snow on the ground this morning.

For more ABC postings click on ABC Wednesday.

Never Give Up

2009-04-07T05:50:00.000-07:00

Today I have a guest posting from my friend Peter Beck, who is less than devoted to making a complex garden, but who appreciates and encourages gardeners enthusiastically.

Six years ago neighbors Mary Kay and Earl Pope, tired of their annual carting of several enormous and weighty agapanthus indoors, gave three plants to us. The plants were indeed enormous and weighty, and they only grew larger and heavier. Eventually we transplanted the agapanthus into five pots. The size of the pots never diminished, the number of pots simply increased (and presumably will continue to increase).

At the time we were given the plants, we were also given very explicit instructions for their care during the winter sojourn indoors. Among many detailed responsibilities assigned us, that hiatus was to be a series of controlled diminutions of natural light, eventually leaving them in near darkness. And watering dwindled down to a monthly drink. We dutifully followed the instructions year after year and the plants always revived beautifully in the summer and flaunted lush and healthy foliage.

But we never had a single bloom. No rollicking pompoms floated above our plants.
Last fall we sold the Massachusetts house and brought the agapanthus to Connecticut. Exhausted from the move, we simply left the plants on the terrace until the first frost, when we brought them indoors to winter in full sunlight in the living room. And we watered them regularly and basically violated every command we'd been given for their proper care.

Today we were noting that our daffodils were blooming and that the forsythia seemed on the verge of bursting forth in full force. And then we noticed something indoors, on the agapanthus. A bloom. Not a great bloom, nor a big bloom, nor anything like what we'd expected. Well, truth be told, we'd given up on expecting anything and were more than content with the plants' robust leaves and exuberant green color.

So here we are, having violated the rules and we're rewarded with a bloom! We'd be inclined to conclude, "so much for expert gardening advice" but think the culprit really is our human inability to fully appreciate that plants appear to have minds of their own and can be maddeningly fickle, and that there's a reason so much (or so many) in this world are viewed with a shrug as "late bloomers". Or maybe it's that persistence pays.

Nonetheless I choose to take this as a significant sign of good things to come. I call my agapanthus "Michelle" and she is lovely.

Monday Record 4-6

2009-04-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

This morning I am beginning my Monday Record - noting as completely as I can what is doing in the garden. The snow is nearly gone everywhere, except in the Sunken Garden. The weedy grass is just beginning to green up.

I was tempted by a 6 pack of lettuce seedlings a couple of weeks ago when the weather was very mild. On March 31 I could wait no longer and set them out in the herb bed in front of the house. The weather has been very cool, frost two mornings, but the lettuce seems to be surviving. So far.

The chives and other herbs in the herb bed look so promising. Garlic chives, French tarragon, bee balm, lemon balm and horseradish are also sending out shoots and leaves.

The rhodies next to the Cottage Ornee have come through the winter better than ever before. The deer left them alone too.

Past the Cottage Ornee is the newly laid out Potager (formerly known merely as the garden extension) and a temporary coldframe, making use of cinderblocks left from the last summer's cellar project, and a plexiglass skylight that was damaged by the delivery man. It makes a quick, albeit temporary, coldframe. There is nothing inside yet. Admire the chips, laid on top of cardboard, they are the new technique for weed free paths. Yesterday we picked up a carload from the Public Chip Pile that was arranged by our Select Board for the use of town residents. Many thanks from us gardeners.

Back in the house is one of two trays of seedlings I planted on March 31. Fiesta broccoli, Diablo Brussels sprouts, white seashell cosmos, zinnias and Gigante Italian parsley. The seeds came from Fedco and Renee's Garden. The tray shown here, with seedlings sprouting has been placed on my new heat mat. There is no action at all on the control tray that has not received any bottom heat.

The final note for the day is about the temporary installation of our weather station. My husband wanted to make sure all systems were operational before getting it up onto the roof. This morning the 7:30 am temperature was 34.6 degrees, humidity 89%, with breezes of 3.4 mph. The separate rain gauge lives on a separate fence post, in place for today's promised rains.

Promise of Gold

2009-04-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

Driving around Heath the horrendous damage caused to trees by the historic December ice storm is revealed. The labor it will take to clean up peoples' gardens is breathtaking.

One neighbor has beautiful old trees surrounding his house and the devastation is astounding. But his witch hazel, Hamamelis 'Arnold's Promise', is blooming, a glorious harbinger of better days to come.

Witch hazel is consisdered a winter blooming shrub, flowering as it does so early in the spring. Even here in Heath where it blooms in March. I love the little twirly flowers. Mother Nature must have quite a sense of humor

Books and Gardens

2009-04-01T03:50:00.000-07:00

When You Open a Book
by Rory Matthews (age 12)
When you open a book
A journey begins
In which many people can take
Whether they read poetry or novels
Either is fine.
Both take you to lands unknown
From fiction to sci-fi
Or drama to action
Maybe Moby Dick or Swiss Family Robinson
Or even a Wrinkle in Time.
From one galaxy to another
Or on a big wooden ship
With mast and all
All you have to do
Is open a book
and each page is a journey for you.

My grandson Rory has been greatly enjoying a poetry project in school. They are reading poetry from Emily Dickinson to haiku. Then they write poetry. I'm happy that Rory is not only a poet, he is a reader, and celebrates the pleasure he gets from books in this poem.

Over the past months I have had to do my garden journeying in books. Some have gorgeous photographs like The Inward Garden by Julie Moir Messervy with photos by Sam Abell which come at garden design from the standpoint of different archetypal landscapes that appeal to different people.

Covering Ground: Unexpected Ideas for Landscaping with Colorgul, Low Mainenance Ground Covers by Barbara Ellis is less grand but so useful. It also has great photos.

Sometimes all I need is the words. So many conversations, with deep thinkers and quirky specialists. Roses: A Celebration is a collection of essays about their favorite rose by 33 eminent gardeners and Otherwise Normal People: Inside the Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening by Aurelia C. Scott may seem even funnier to non-rose gardeners than to rose lovers. Not just for rose nuts.

So many gardens. So little time. Journeys on each page indeed.

For more Muse Day posts visit our host Carolyn Gail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago.

Home to the Garden

2009-03-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

After my time away from home, tending my daughter with her broken ankle and her two sons, I have come back home to find the first real signs of spring. The herb bed next to the piazza in front of the house faces south and is very protected. It doesn't look like much from a distance, but if you get up close . . . Here is autumn crocus sending up leaves as early as spring crocus, but the foliage will die during the summer and the blossoms will appear in the fall. Some call them Naked Ladies because the flower grows directly out of the ground.

Of course the herb bed has herbs: chives,

garlic chives,

lemon balm,

and bee balm of the bright red variety. This is a strong spreader and I always have plenty to share.

I raced to the vegetable garden, and I can see I will have to wait a little while more before planting. This is a 15 x 15 foot plot that I started when my hip was giving me so much trouble. After the hip was replaced we added a new raspberry patch next to it. Last year we added on an extension, but you can't see it from this angle. Right now I am full of plans and impatient, but I can almost smell planting season.

My Pleasure Ground

2009-03-25T06:34:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was the Western Mass Master Gardeners Spring Symposium. I was honored to share the bill with Julie Moir Messervy who was the keynote speaker. I talked about worm farming and Julie talked about garden design and her new book, Home Outside.

Julie had a lot to say, but she set the tone immediately for me in her talk and in her books when she says that her aim is to help us all create our own Pleasure Ground.

A Pleasure Ground is exactly what I am aiming for in my garden. There is the Rose Walk which is a glory in June when the peonies are also blooming. That's when we invite in friends and anyone passing by for our Annual Rose Viewing to share the pleasures of stopping to smell the roses.

There are the pleasures of watching grandchildren play on the lawn.

There are the pleasures of resting from chores in the Cottage Ornee.

There are the pleasures of an abundant vegetable garden.We all have ways of defining our own Pleasure Grounds - and it is a pleasure for me to visit so many Pleasure Grounds as I travel the garden blogs.

Snow and Snowdrops

2009-03-23T05:30:00.000-07:00

I left my daughter and her broken ankle in the loving care of her sons and friends and made it home for the weekend and the wonderful Western Mass Master Gardeners Spring Symposium. I was giving a presentation about my worm farm, but I was eager to hear landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy speak about her new book, Home Outside, and attend a garlic growing and cooking workshop. I'll post more about the Symposium later this week.

While I was home my husband and I took a walk past the snowdrifts and out to the vegetable garden to get a good measure of its new dimensions after the lasagna addition I put in last fall. We had to walk through snow to get to the garden, but that sunny area was clear. We were able to get measurements, 11' x 26'. We laid out paths on paper and calculate that I will have about 188 square feet of planting beds in this area.

As we walked back to the house I saw my first blossoms of the year, snowdrops! Now it really feels like spring.

After I saw the snowdrops I had to check one other area that was free of snow.

The daylily shoots are green. I'll have to start watching closely.

The Worm Turns

2009-03-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

I feared my worms had all died during a great winter cold spell. Temperatures in my basement dipped below 50 degrees which I had read was the absolute limit for red wiggler survival. One day I went down to see if I could at least harvest some worm castings for houseplants I was repotting - and I found a worm. More than one worm!

I don't know how many there are, but although my photo doesn't show it, the worms I saw do have a white band known as the clitellum. Worms join themselves at the clitella to exchange sperm, and soon a cocoon will form on each worm. Baby worms are in the making.

My worms and I will be at the Western Mass Master Gardeners Spring Symposium on Saturday, March 21 at Frontier Regional High School in South Deerfield. We'll be joining keynote speaker, Julie Moir Messervy, landscape architect and author of Home Outside, as well as many other knowledgeable presenters. Hope to see you there.

Rhubarb

2009-03-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

One year a friend, just returned from London, gave me a copy of the Financial Times that contained an article about rhubarb. Rhubarb season comes earlier in England, but it is one of the first harvests here in New England and the article had all kinds of fascinating information.
Robin Lane Fox, Financial Times columnist, explained that rhubarb has been cultivated for about 4500 years. There are records of rhubarb being used medicinally in China since 2700 BC. It was actually the roots that were considered valuable as a purgative and cathartic.

It even became important as an export to Russia and England. It was so important that when the Chinese became angry with these countries in 1759 the emperor Qianlong forbid the export of rhubarb. Fortunately, long before that Marco Polo had brought rhubarb back to Venice where it was valuable in the pharmacopias of the day.

That Chinese rhubarb, R. palmatum, is rarely grown in the west today. Its medicinal properties are not needed. It is another variety of rhubarb, R. officinale, that became known as pie plant and that I always thought of as practically being invented in New England.

In fact, there is a record of a Maine gardener getting some roots from England in about 1790. By 1822 it was so popular that it was sold routinely in food markets. I always think of it as a spring tonic. Certainly a trip out to the rhubarb patch on a still cool spring morning can get the blood flowing and rhubarb’s tart flavor wakes up the taste buds.

Any number of catalogs sell rhubarb roots including the local Nourse Farms in South Deerfield. Rhubarb is a long lived and very hardy plant which should be planted in soil well fertilized with rotted manure and compost. The pH should be between 6 and 6.8 for best production.

Many people get their rhubarb plants from a friend who is thinning their patch. If the leaves seem to be getting smaller that is usually an indication that the plants are getting overcrowded.
I actually got my rhubarb plants from a neighbor who had thrown rhubarb root thinnings into their huge pile of autumn leaves. I went over one spring day to harvest some of those leaves for my compost pile and found beautiful healthy roots, already showing new growth and perfectly ready for planting.

Because the roots will increase in size and because the leaves are so large, roots should be planted three feet apart; the top of the root should be just level with the soil. Every spring I spread compost over the rhubarb patch, and I do the same in the fall when the plants have died down.

There is a controversy about whether the flower stalk should be cut down or not. One theory is that it steals energy from the plant. Another theory is that it doesn’t make any difference, and that the flower is just another attraction in addition to the handsome foliage. Take your pick.

The stalks are not really considered medicinal except in the sense of a spring tonic, but it must be remembered that the leaves contain oxalic acid and are poisonous. It is not likely that a toddler or young child would find them delicious after the first bite, or that anyone would stew them up as a mess of greens, but remember - rhubarb leaves are poisonous.

To harvest wait until the leaves are fully developed. Grab the stalk near the root and pull slightly to the side and break it off. Cutting with a knife can lead to rot. Don’t harvest more than half the stalks, and stop the harvest by midsummer.

Then take those red and green stalks into the kitchen for some good eating. First there is just plain rhubarb sauce. A very general recipe is all you really need. Take a potful of 1 inch pieces of rhubarb with lots of sugar and a cup or so of water. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes. If you wish you can also add the juice and grated rind of one orange. Refrigerate over night.

Another popular sauce is rhubarb strawberry sauce. I usually just toss a package of frozen strawberries into the hot rhubarb sauce and cook them together for a minute or two.

Hawley-ite Tinky Weisblat, author of the Pudding Hollow cookbook, suggests rhubarb fritters. She says that if you dip inch long pieces of rhubarb into a fritter batter and deep fry them, the rhubarb softens in about the time it takes for the batter to brown. Then it is just like biting into a hot jelly donut.

Fans of Prairie Home Companion are familiar with their "Be-Bop-A-Re-Bop Rhubarb Pie", so I will take this occasion to give my favorite pie recipe, adapted from Easy as Pie by Susan G. Purdy.

Quick and Creamy Rhubarb Pie.
Make a thick custard batter. Beat together ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar; ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar;1/3 cup flour; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; a pinch of salt; ½ cup heavy cream; 1 egg and ¼ teaspoon almond extract. This can be made several hours ahead and refrigerated until needed.

Take 4 cups of rhubarb cut into one inch pieces and toss with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Set aside while making your favorite pastry crust for a 10 inch pie. Shape a high fluted edge to hold in the custard. Moisture proof the shell by brushing on beaten egg yolk.

Put the rhubarb pieces in the pie shell, and pour the custard batter over all. Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 30 more minutes or until top is browned and crackled. Serve warm. Happy Eating.

March 2008

Home Outside

2009-03-17T05:15:00.001-07:00

Julie Moir Messervy, the well-known landscape designer and author of books like The Inward Garden, Outside the Not So Big House, and most recently, Home Outside, is coming to town. Messervy will be the keynote speaker the Western Massachusetts Master Gardeners Spring Symposium, Feeding Soil, Self and Soul, on March 21.
Messervy knows that our homes are probably the most important spaces in our lives. We celebrate at home and refresh ourselves at home. We can enjoy our family and friends in our homes, or enjoy quiet solitude.
But when we say we are going home, we don’t only mean into our house. Our home includes our yards and gardens. In her new book, Home Outside: Creating the Landscape You Love (Taunton Press $30), Messervy takes us through the various steps that help us build our outdoor spaces into pleasure grounds that will function as social spaces or private retreats.
One useful aspect of this densely and beautifully illustrated book is how it encompasses a great variety of living and garden styles, in a variety of climates, and in spaces both expansive and intimate.
Designing your space begins with an assessment of your property, “taking an inventory of the existing conditions” and then envisioning the ideal. “This two-step process of weaving dream and reality is at the heart of creating your home outside,” she writes.

The photographs in the book make her points very clear. Also included are many schematic sketches of landscapes with house and planting arrangements that I found particularly useful.
The final chapter is essentially a case study of a cottage in the woods, a tiny house on a small lot that embodies all Messervy’s principles, achieved over a period of time. Even the paint chosen for the house reflects the plantings. The result is charming and encouraging. I can imagine myself coming up with an equally charming plan for my own landscape.

Julie will be at The Feeding Soil, Self and Soul Symposium on March 21 from 9 to 1:30 pm, at Frontier Regional High School in South Deerfield. The cost for the day is $25 or $15 for the keynote speech by Messervy alone. I'll be there making a presentation with my worm farm. Refreshments will be on sale, also locally produced items. For more information and to register for the Spring Symposium logon to the Master Gardener website, http://www.wmassmastergardeners.org/ or call Rae Davis at 625-0168.

Boston Blooms

2009-03-15T03:04:00.000-07:00

We left the snowy fields of Heath in a hurry on Thursday and made our way to our daughter Betsy's house. She and her broken ankle were on her couch where she had been rearranging her life for the previous 2 days. Plans were made to get her to the hospital at dawn on Friday morning.

While she was in surgery we took a walk through the Brigham and Women's Hospital neighborhood where we saw a very neat park, just the kind of sanitary thing you might expect in a hospital neighborhood.

But just around the corner we saw some very promising, albeit less neat, gardens waiting for the gardeners to dig in.
There were nice street trees, with little bulbs struggling toward the sun.

These tulips weren't quite blooming, but they looked optimistic.

Irises were green and we enjoyed the sunny faces of the crocuses.

Even the ivy was showing signs of the spring energies, even if it doesn't bloom. So on this Bloom Day, we don't, and wouldn't have had any Heath blooms to show, but it was wonderful to get a bit of a spring preview in Boston. Of course, the flower we really came to see

was our daughter, the fair blossom in our family garden, here watched over by my companion gardener. Betsy's ankle is plated, bolted and temporarily booted, but her bright bloom is undiminished.

For more fabulous photos of spring spreading across the landscape go to Carol of May Dreams Gardens who hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.