The wonderful turtle (most likely a female) showed no sign of being aware of my presence, but her legs and feet gave the impression of being frozen in motion.
Tag: gardening
A lexicon of wildflowers
When they are attractive, we call them wildflowers, but whatever their common name, they can be a nuisance.
The Self-Taught Gardener: Solace in the garden
Yes, the Berkshire Botanical Garden may offer much needed outdoor solace, but its new Director of Horticulture is livening things up.
In the pandemic age, gardening blooms in the Berkshires
“Business as usual” does not exist for any industry at this point. With that said, county horticultural businesses have taken steps to keep both staff and consumers safe while still adapting to increased demands.
Gardener’s Checklist: Week of May 28, 2020
Keep your shirt on. Why is this good gardening advice?
The Self-Taught Gardener: Learning to adapt
In a duel with the coronavirus, years of gardening have taught our Self-Taught Gardener that we will lose. But there is a better option.
NATURE’S TURN: Back to the land in May – polyculture feeds body and spirit
Mostly cool weather is predicted for early May, ideal for continuing to prepare ground and sow cool-weather varieties, albeit at a faster clip.
The Self-Taught Gardener: Love in the time of corona
At a time when connections count, our Self-Taught Gardener Lee Buttala advises us to try Nature.
The Self-Taught Gardener: Time travel
For our Self-Taught Gardener, plants are mnenomic devices, connecting him to past places and people and helping him take them into the future.
NATURE’S TURN: Peak summer flowers, fruits and foes
Melons and summer and winter squashes trumpet their yellow- to orange-hued blossoms and set fruit. Their leaves form a floating green carpet.
NATURE’S TURN: August turnover: garden digest
There is so much information to digest and respond to in the expanse of a mid-summer garden.
NATURE’S TURN: Sow crops for late summer, autumn and winter food. A new book inspires
In many area gardens, beds of early beets, carrots, turnips and garlic bulbs will be harvested between now and early August, challenging us to choose short-season and frost-hardy varieties for continuous planting.
NATURE’S TURN: Polyculture, no-till garden tour
Rows of vigorous fall-planted garlic have anchored the garden with their lush foliage, superseded only by perennial rhubarb that thrived even when its leaves were snow-covered on May 12.
NATURE’S TURN: Wood frogs, peepers, wind woo springtime sower
The warmth that thawed the wood frogs thawed my garden beds and gave rise to tiny leafy tops on half a dozen overwintered parsnips.
NATURE’S TURN: Nature turns on the edge of freezing – a photo essay
Keying out the details of what remains of the plant on the stormy day on which I write of this discovery, observation points to the noveboracensis, a phenomenal New York Ironweed. I am eager for a close look during the 2019 growing season.
NATURE’S TURN: On the cusp of winter, Turtle Tree Seeds turns toward spring
Last week, on the eve of the deepest chill and wind chill of the season, I reached into reserves of dogged determination to secure my harvest of fennel, dill, peppers, French sorrel, amaranth and most of the turnips.
NATURE’S TURN: Autumn wind and other wild wonders around a garden
Autumn’s full-grown clumps of grass do dance with the wind more fluidly than young, short ones. Weighty, seedy flower heads pull on the season’s longer stems, exaggerating their bowing and bobbing.
AMPLIFICATIONS: A walk in the woods
I kept expecting the toothless guy from “Deliverance” to jump out from behind a tree. Or that we would soon meet Creepy, the eighth dwarf and no one would ever know our fate.
NATURE’S TURN: Harvest and reseed. Revel in flowers, relish fruits
Among the late summer bloomers in my landscape are a fragrant heirloom phlox, Japanese anemone, Oswego tea, Russian sage and New York ironweed, all perennials.
BOB GRAY: Midsummer
I remembered reading that, if time ever stops, it’s on a summer afternoon.
NATURE’S TURN: Garden as wellspring of vitality
The unpredictable experiences that occur while gardening can be the most engaging or challenging to our senses, our emotions, intellects and aesthetics.
SUSTAINABLE BERKSHIRES: In Cheshire, Whitney’s Farm Market & Garden Center is a thriving example of local agriculture
At the helm of the operation are Eric and Michelle Whitney.
BOB GRAY: Garden thoughts
A garden, large or small, invites a man to know the earth, the wind, the rain, and himself.
NATURE’S TURN: Summery heat coaxes dormant plants and animals into the light
Touring the garden, perennial herbs and flowers, as well as fall-planted garlic that emerged from snowdrifts scarcely two weeks ago, have been growing quickly since the recent heat wave.
NATURE’S TURN: Gardening in the “Town Among the Clouds”
High-elevation squalls every day and night last week kept us in a holding pattern as soft, white blankets were dropped on the whole, leaving the few planting beds that had warmed unapproachable.
The Self-Taught Gardener: Person of color
A visit to the home of Richard Hartlage in Seattle brought home for our Self-Taught Gardener Lee Buttala the importance of color.
NATURE’S TURN: When the earth thaws
As of this writing, deep snow covers the mulch that covers the parsnips and the entire expanse of the raised bed garden is a field of white.
Welcome to Real Estate Friday!
Property of the Week – Built in 1800, this beautiful estate takes you back in history.
BerkShares Business of the Month: Ward’s Nursery and Garden Center
Ward’s isn’t just one of the oldest businesses in Great Barrington; it was also one of the first to accept BerkShares when the currency launched in 2006.
NATURE’S TURN: Twilight in the autumn garden
I’ve felt intimately engaged in carrying to maturity crops that I planted late in the growing season.
NATURE’S TURN: Autumn at summer’s edge: plant for winter, prepare for spring
As we remove the dying remains of summer food crops, cool weather vegetables become ever more attractive.
NATURE’S TURN: Marvels of a polyculture garden
I am dousing all bean and cucumber plants with collected rainwater to encourage production while warm weather prevails.