Silene dioica 'Ray's Golden Campion' Last month, I started discussing one of my favorite kinds of seeds: the self-sowers. Though they have a reputation for being easy, self-sowers tend to make their own rules, sometimes needing specific germination conditions and benefiting from a little custom care to work to best advantage. Over the years, I’ve…
And so it begins...my favorite part of the gardening season. Except for a very brief groundhog incident, my unwanted-wildlife issues seem to have been resolved (for now, anyway), the garden and meadow are full of flowers, and loads of seeds are ripening. I did my best to pare down the photos for this post, but…
A few weeks ago, an extended cold snap that ended with a light frost on the last night of summer nearly brought the growing season here to a screeching halt before fall even arrived. Fortunately, an extensive and well-deployed collection of blankets, tarps, sheets, and towels helped me get nearly everything through the chill, and…
Silene dioica 'Ray's Golden Campion' Last month, I started discussing one of my favorite kinds of seeds: the self-sowers. Though they have a reputation for being easy, self-sowers tend to make their own rules, sometimes needing specific germination conditions and benefiting from a little custom care to work to best advantage. Over the years, I’ve…
June in the garden--does it get any better than this? It has recently been blissfully cool here, and the foliage and flowers are lush and lovely. Even narrowing the field just to the last 10 days or so, it was really tough to pick the highlights for this month's Bloom Day. I'm keeping the text…
After many years of focusing on big, sun-loving, late-season plants, I have gradually been working on adding spring interest to the gardens here at Hayefield, and my efforts are starting to pay off. There are still many more opportunities to explore, but it's a good start! It sure helps that we had a lovely spell…
And so it begins...my favorite part of the gardening season. Except for a very brief groundhog incident, my unwanted-wildlife issues seem to have been resolved (for now, anyway), the garden and meadow are full of flowers, and loads of seeds are ripening. I did my best to pare down the photos for this post, but…
Happy Bloom Day, all! So far, this summer has been a winner here in southeastern PA, with a nice amount of rain every few days. That means lots of mowing and weeding, of course, but no time wasted on watering, so there's been time for some summer projects as well. More on that later; for…
This month, we're back to my regularly scheduled programming: whining about not getting promised rain when most everyone else in our part of southeastern PA did---particularly disappointing in light of the scorching week ahead. There are also current animal issues, including rabbit(s), chipmunk(s), and these little goobers, whose parents built several nests in various spots…
Silene dioica 'Ray's Golden Campion' Last month, I started discussing one of my favorite kinds of seeds: the self-sowers. Though they have a reputation for being easy, self-sowers tend to make their own rules, sometimes needing specific germination conditions and benefiting from a little custom care to work to best advantage. Over the years, I’ve…
June in the garden--does it get any better than this? It has recently been blissfully cool here, and the foliage and flowers are lush and lovely. Even narrowing the field just to the last 10 days or so, it was really tough to pick the highlights for this month's Bloom Day. I'm keeping the text…
And so it begins...my favorite part of the gardening season. Except for a very brief groundhog incident, my unwanted-wildlife issues seem to have been resolved (for now, anyway), the garden and meadow are full of flowers, and loads of seeds are ripening. I did my best to pare down the photos for this post, but…
June in the garden--does it get any better than this? It has recently been blissfully cool here, and the foliage and flowers are lush and lovely. Even narrowing the field just to the last 10 days or so, it was really tough to pick the highlights for this month's Bloom Day. I'm keeping the text…
After many years of focusing on big, sun-loving, late-season plants, I have gradually been working on adding spring interest to the gardens here at Hayefield, and my efforts are starting to pay off. There are still many more opportunities to explore, but it's a good start! It sure helps that we had a lovely spell…
After a speedy start, spring in our part of Pennsylvania has slowed considerably, due to several weeks of cool, damp weather. It's nice in a way, as the flowers that are opening are lasting a long time, and there's lots of lush new foliage to admire too--so much, in fact, that I'll try to keep…
It's somewhat unfair that the garden here starts to look really good just as the very first signs of season's end appear: touches of fall color here and there, the constellation Orion peeking over the eastern horizon just before dawn, and--for goodness' sake--snowblower sales. I prefer to ignore all that and just enjoy the abundance…
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Meet Amy and Anthony who married in the evocative and enchanting Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, where none other than Queen Elizabeth I — England’s most elusive bride – tudored away much of her childhood. I’ve visited this gem north of London and the sense of history is absolutely spell-binding. Amy chose a vintage vibe — not so […]
Wakefield, Mass. 7/4/12
I don’t know how anyone who looks after a garden can have any sort of ego. Just when I think I know what plants need to grow, I quickly find out how wrong I can be. At times, I’ve given them “perfect” growing conditions and watched them wither away. And yet this year, with its…
