Asters are no longer asters, they are in the genus Symphotrichtum, unless they are Eurybia, and there are dozens of species. They are all harassed-looking daisy-types with 1/4″ or 1 1/2″ flowers, heart shaped leaves or lance-like leaves, in varying shades of murky blues and purples and whites and pinks. […]
Ecosystem
Lake Hitchcock and the Laurentide Ice Sheet
Other than the stars, the planets have the longest damn memory. Ours included. I wanted to have a larger view of the history of the land where I garden, which seems so impossibly old. So: We are at latitude 42.38, longitude -72.65, in West Hatfield, Massachusetts, on the western side […]
Pollinator garden, drafts 1, 2, 3…..
One of the front pollinator beds was added in April 2020. At roughly 4′ x 15′, it contains twelve Golden Alexanders (host plants for black swallowtails and food source for a lot of the little solitary bees) and twelve Bottle Gentians, both from Prairie Nursery. There’s a birdhouse at the […]
Special guest: Fountain frog
I set up a whiskey barrel water feature in the dappled shade of grove every year, using whatever found items we have lying around-old glass lampshades, terracotta pots – whatever allows for the fountain tube to pass up vertically. This year I added a papyrus along with some water lettuce […]
Rejecting despair: Gardening on a vulnerable planet
Reject climate change despair. We don’t control much beyond ourselves and half the time not even that. We’re just a bunch of pixels in the end. The bad news is: nothing lasts. The good news is: nothing lasts. I’ve been taking welding and soldering classes in order to make water […]