“Nobody is a better landscaper than nature,” states Raina Weber, dirt-streaked and beaming, from her Housatonic, Massachusetts, native-plant nursery. It’s hard to believe that this hardworking young woman, executive director of the nonprofit Project Native, dropped out of high school and ran away to Hawaii, where she supported herself as a caretaker and by selling […]
garden
Magazine
Cape Cod Love Letter
We are Cape people. Every year, for about the past 20, we’ve returned for a week to a shabby cabin with a galley kitchen, lousy TV reception, and a deck with the proverbial “distant water view” of Wellfleet Harbor. Like the bobolinks that return each year from South America to their favorite New England hayfield, […]
Magazine
Wreath Sale: A Circle for Life
Christmas lights twinkle in a greenhouse in Tiverton, Rhode Island. People haul unwieldy stacks of evergreens from car trunks and the backs of pickups and station wagons through the frosty night. The greenhouse at Manchester Tree & Landscaping pulsates with conviviality while pruning shears snap to the Supremes’ Christmas Collection. It is the night of […]
The leaves on my blueberry bushes and crab apple trees are tattered. I notice lots of inch-long green caterpillars on the branches. What can I do to stop this damage? — D.S., Hanson, MA The leaf damage you describe is likely caused by the winter moth. This European pest has just recently become established in […]
Magazine
Graduation Day | Mary’s Farm
The older I get, the more I crave good, strong help. In this quest, I’ve encountered some frustrations. I once hired a young man to help in the garden, and after an hour or so, I looked out the window and saw him sprawled on the ground. Thinking he had hurt himself or passed out, […]
If you were planning to move to a town in the immediate Boston area, Winchester would have to be one of the top choices on your list. It’s a town known for its great schools, quality community life, and fine (and, sure, expensive) homes, and of course, it’s an easy 15- to 20-minute commute to […]
New Hampshire
Newfound Lake | The Most Beautiful Lake in New Hampshire
Newfound Lake, which is 2-1/2 miles wide and seven miles long, reaches depths of up to 180 feet and is fed by eight springs, and the water is considered the most pristine in the state.
Good attributes for functioning effectively in a small town include common sense, humility, patience, compassion and, perhaps most important, a good instinct for the sensitivities of others. I think all of those would be perfectly obvious to everyone. I mean — one would assume most wealthy summer people would know that the habit of not […]