It’s finally here. Spring arrived yesterday at 5:24 p.m. EDT. Today was the first full day of spring, and it dawned sunny and warm, and oh, does it feel like spring! My first impulse was to get out in the garden and start spring cleanup. Unfortunately, most of what I need to is buried beneath … Continue reading Hello, Spring!
Goodbye, Winter!
And this is it. At 5:24 p.m. March 20, 2023, we bid a not so fond farewell to Old Man Winter. To say the least, I’m not a big fan of winter, even mild ones like this one. I miss my garden, I miss the daylight, and I like to be able to leave my … Continue reading Goodbye, Winter!
And The Sun Came Out
The one good thing about a late-winter blizzard in New England is that no matter how much snow Mother Nature dumps on our doorsteps, we know it’s going to melt in the not too distant future. And so it is with this year’s March madness that dumped two feet of snow at my doorstep and … Continue reading And The Sun Came Out
And There’s Snow
“And there’s snow” is probably an odd way to begin something about March in western Massachusetts, but coming at the end of a mild winter where marathon shoveling sessions have been few and far between, this week’s storm was a doozy. At the end of it all, I measured two feet of the white stuff … Continue reading And There’s Snow
And She’s Back!
Thanksgiving has come and gone, so we're now officially into the holiday season. In addition to the usual holiday fare and celebrations, the appearance of holiday plants always makes me smile. This year, things are a bit different. For the past month or so, I've been keeping my eye on the poinsettia I purchased last … Continue reading And She’s Back!
April Wishes
I recently wrote about my poor, confused forsythia that insists on opening some of its flowers in late autumn. The sight of those flowers makes me both happy (at the thought of spring), sad (that spring is so very far away) and confused (because I just can’t figure out what’s going on with that plant). … Continue reading April Wishes
The Yin and Yang of the Seasons
Happy Winter Solstice, my friends! This year that’s December 21st with winter arriving at 10:59 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. It’s the day of the year with the shortest number of daylight hours, the long night when winter begins. The sun is at its furthest point south in the sky. That means it’s also the day … Continue reading The Yin and Yang of the Seasons
The Inevitability of Winter
We’ve had a taste of four seasons this fall in the Berkshires. Lovely warm days, snow flurries, rain, more snow (that actually stuck to the ground!), followed by torrential rain and wind, then milder days with barely a trace of snow left to be seen. And now, the 3 to 5 inches that were forecast … Continue reading The Inevitability of Winter
What Month Is This?
My forsythia are confused. Just when they should be hunkered down for the proverbial long winter’s nap, part of the mass planting I affectionately call the Yellow Monster has decided to bloom. The not so Yellow Monster trying to bloom in December. For those of you not familiar with forsythia, they’re the shrubs covered in … Continue reading What Month Is This?
December Dreams
The garden sleeps in December, but it also dreams of spring. December may seem like an odd time to begin a blog about gardening, but not to me. With snow covering the ground outside my window, all those garden plans churning around inside my head need somewhere to go. While pen and paper are my … Continue reading December Dreams
Pen, Paper, Plant 