Plan your garden well, and you’ll enjoy beauty in spring, summer, fall, and winter. Get started using these New England garden ideas. With the right combination of plants, a small garden can be enchanting throughout the year, filled with the beauty of spring and summer flowers, late-summer and autumn fruits, fall foliage color, and winter […]
winter
Gardens
Sunny Garden Plants
This sunny garden plan — about 300 square feet in area — is perfect for a site receiving direct sun for at least six hours each day. These sunny garden plants were selected for their outstanding ornamental character and for their ability to attract pollinators, including native bees, butterflies, and birds, and creates a garden […]
Gardens
Shady Garden Plants
This shady garden plan — about 300 square feet in area — is perfect for a site in the shade of tall trees, where dappled sunlight reaches the ground. These shady garden plants were selected for their outstanding ornamental character and for their ability to attract pollinators, including native bees, butterflies, and birds. This collection […]
Real books. New books, the kind with covers that feel slightly grainy and have freshly cut pages. In an era when thriving independent bookstores seem just slightly more plausible than a cow jumping over the moon, The Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, VT is celebrating its 25th year. A quarter century ago, Linda Ramsdell opened […]
New England
Wild Lakes in New England
One afternoon last August, I set off up West Grand Lake in eastern Maine, my kayak loaded with enough food and gear for two nights of island camping. No sooner had I dipped my paddle, though, than four canoes occupied by eight beefy guys pushed off from the shore nearby. Loaded with brightly colored coolers, […]
I knew to stop my tractor with the front right tire alongside the crack in the curb to best place the wagon behind me for midday sun. I had done it so many times it was second nature. Most every day, from Easter to Thanksgiving, I set up my makeshift farm stand under a tired, […]
Starved for colors, I found myself marveling at the platinum-hued potato chip bag by the side of the road as if it were a marsh marigold or goldfinch. Right now I find even the jewel tones of a green plastic bottle and cobalt Bud Lite can beautiful, basking next to mud. Our spiffy tubs of […]
Rhode Island
Nobska Lighthouse, Falmouth, MA
I cold winter’s day in New England. While taking this photograph of Nobska Lighthouse I remember thinking of warmer days ahead. 🙂
Rose envy may be a thing of the past with these winter-hardy varieties. Not far from Mark Twain’s home in Hartford, Connecticut, is a garden that defies all weather. Planted in 1904, just six years before the humorist died, Elizabeth Park is the oldest public rose garden in the country, a spectacle of color and […]
Gardens
A Rose Glossary
Earth-Kind: Special designation created by Texas AgriLife Extension Service to recognize roses that demonstrate superior pest resistance and hardiness. These plants are own-root, highly tolerant to black spot, and can be grown without fertilizer, spraying, or supplemental watering after the first year. Landscape Rose: Grows low, like groundcover, and works well in any landscape. Flower […]
Atop the chilly expanse of Joe’s Pond in West Danville, Vermont, a pallet awaits the moment when the ice starts breaking up, heralding the much-anticipated spring thaw. Credit: Corey Hendrickson When the pallet sinks, the connection to the clock on the dock breaks, stopping the clock at the official “ice out” time.Credit: Corey Hendrickson Credit: […]
Massachusetts
Nantucket Daffodil Festival | One Million Daffodils
It seems that everyone’s a flower child when they celebrate the Nantucket Daffodil Festival. Learn more about this popular New England spring event!