Recent Posts
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Climbing plants, Dan Snow Stonework, Early spring flowering plants, Early Spring Garden Plants, Ferncliff, Furniture, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Gardening without Lawn, Ground Covers, ornamental grass, Paths and Walkways, Perennials : Vermont, Perennials for Spring, Plants for shade, Pots, Pots and Pottery, Rare Plants, Reflections, scree gardens, Secret Garden at Ferncliff, Secret Garden Room, Secret Gardens, The Seasons, Woodland plants
A Peek Inside the Misty Moss Walls: Springtime in the Secret Garden …
By May, a cool tapestry of springtime color carpets the Secret Garden path… This week my design studio and office began slowly migrating back down to the Secret Garden Room, where plants and paperwork happily mingle from late spring through early November. Each day on my way to and from appointments, I pass through the […]
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Perennial Close-Ups, Perennials : Vermont, Perennials for Spring, Plant Spotlight, Plants for shade, Plants for Texture, Secret Gardens, Shade Gardening, Uncategorized, Woodland plants
Lovely, Lavender Lady of the Shadows: The Japanese Wood Poppy Blossoms in The Secret Garden…
Glaucidium palmatum, the Japanese Wood Poppy in my Secret Garden today At times, it felt like a never-ending courtship. I prepared a special spot for her beside the wall; moist, mossy and protected from harsh sunlight and drying winds. I surrounded her with complimentary beauties; maroon leaves and burgundy-tipped ferns. I gave her the darkest, […]
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Apples, Fruit for home gardens, Fruit Trees, Orchards / Orchard Keeping
A Stroll Through the Blossom-Laden Apple Trees & Petal-Strewn Paths … Scott Farm & Springtime in Vermont
The Gardener on a Rainy Day Stroll Though the Blossom-Filled Orchard at Beautiful Scott Farm in Southern Vermont Delicate, Pink-Tinted Heirloom Apple Blossoms Perfume the Damp Air The Orchard and Misty Mountain View at Scott Farm A busy, wet morning gave way to a brief window of opportunity between showers. With a list of errands and […]
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Annual Flowers, annuals, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Garden Maintenance
Maintaining Defined Beds & Borders: English-Style Edging is the Secret to Elegantly Dividing Lawn and Garden
 One of my client’s gardens: simple and classic cottage design in springtime with  a crisply edged border and dark, shredded bark mulch Later in the season: perennials, herbs and annuals spill casually over the edged border. This garden’s edge holds even with no summer maintenance. I snapped the top photograph above while working at my long-time gardening […]
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Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Garden Maintenance
A Beautiful Garden & Time to Enjoy It: Low Maintenance Landscape Design… Free Saturday Seminar at Walker Farm
Maintenance. I’m going to be honest: if you want a beautiful garden, there’s just no way around certain chores. But in spite of the fact that every landscape requires some upkeep, there are an almost endless number of ways to design and plant gardens to reduce labor while enhancing four-season interest. In my fifteen years […]
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Cooking, Recipes, Vegetable Gardening/Potager
Rainy Day Musings & Beautiful Colors… Sauteed Beet Greens with Caramelized Onions, Balsamic Vinegar and Pine Nuts
Sauteed Beet Greens with Caramelized Onions and Balsamic Vinegar Rainy days, slow and soft. With deadlines looming and a long list of chores to complete; must confess I feel a twinge of guilt when allowing myself an afternoon of luxury in the middle of a busy season. But it sure feels good. The sound of […]
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Farm Events, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Garden Visits, Gardening Inspiration, Massachusetts, New England, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetable Gardening/Potager
Inspiration: Cottage-Style Charm… Flowers, Fruit & Vegetables Combine With Whimsical Touches to Create a Colorful, Welcoming Potager…
A Riot of Annuals (Mixed Zinna) Creates a Bold Splash of Color in the Center of Carol Hillman’s Country Potager One of my favorite, near-by New England farms is a one-hundred-and-twenty-five year old orchard, belonging to the owners of New Salem Preserves, Carol Hillman and Robert Colnes. Together, this couple has created a beautiful homestead, […]
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Dan Snow Stonework, Early spring flowering plants, Early Spring Garden Plants, Ferncliff, Ferns, flowering shrubs, Secret Garden at Ferncliff, Secret Garden Room, Secret Gardens, Shade Gardening, Shrubs for early spring blossoms, Spring Blooming Bulbs, Spring Ephemerals, Spring Flowering Bulbs, Steps and Stairs - Stone, Stone Walkways, stonework, Woodland plants
The Moment of Spring: A Walk Along The Secret Garden Path in Magical May
Pretty is the Cool Morning Mist; Softening the Landscape and Intensifying the Fragrance of Springtime So busy is the month of May… Days pass so quickly, I can barely remember to flip the pages of my desktop calendar. Things in the garden change rapidly from day to day, and I try to take a different […]
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Dining Outdoors, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Garden Dining Rooms, Garden Rooms, Garden Structures, Gardening Inspiration, Herb Gardening, Kitchen, Uncategorized, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetable Gardening/Potager
Designing an Enchanting Edible Garden And a Workshop for Vegetable Lovers…
My Backyard Potager – An Edible Oasis in Mid-July Like a butterfly flitting about the garden before deciding where to settle, I found myself drifting in and out of greenhouses and garden centers last weekend, ogling possible additions to my backyard potager. I couldn’t help but notice that the aisles of my favorite farm stand […]
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Artful Garden Objects, Color in the Garden, Container Gardening, Decorating the Garden, Garden Art, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Garden Maintenance, Gardening Inspiration, Glamorous Gardens, Indoor Gardening, Indoor Table Arrangements, Inspirational Gardens, Organic Insect Control, Plant Spotlight, Planting Techniques, Plants for sun, Plants for Texture, Pots, Pots and Pottery, pruning, scree gardens, Succulents, Succulents in Containers, Texture
Un-Flower Pots: Designing & Caring for Spectacular Succulent Container Gardens
Beautiful Container Gardens are all about Color, Form and Texture. Great Designers Work with both Contrasts and Harmonies to Create Stunning Results. Hanging basket available at Walker Farm. Saturday morning I spent the better part of an hour and a half listening to enthusiastic oohs and ahhs at Walker Farm’s Succulent Container Gardening & Hanging […]
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Cocktails, Recipes, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetable Gardening/Potager
A Toast to Mothers Everywhere: Celebrate Mom’s Special Day with a Spiced Rhubarb Bellini …
Rhubarb Bellini with Warm Spices I remember the first time I tasted raw rhubarb. As many of you will likely remember from previous posts, my family raised strawberries, and in mid to late spring, strawberries and rhubarb go hand-in-hand. I never paid the perennial patch of rhubarb much attention, but one day —while out in […]
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cactus, Container Gardening, Decorating Ideas, Garden Design Photos
It’s Fiesta Time! Add a Cactus Bowl Centerpiece to the Cinco de Mayo Party
Cactus bowl centerpiece with desert rocks and decorative straw flowers… It’s fiesta time in my kitchen. I am planning a holiday party with a menu of Mexican-inspired dishes. To set the mood for margarita sipping and chip dipping, I decided to create a celebratory cactus-bowl centerpiece. Making a dry, table-top garden filled with desert plants […]
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Color in the Garden, Container Gardening, Garden Art, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Garden Seminars, Succulents, Succulents in Containers, Un-Flower Pots, Unusual Plants, Urns and Vessels
Behold the Brilliant, Jewel-Like Treasures! How Will I Contain Myself? Playing with Pots: An Annual Obsession
Echeveria ‘The Pearl’, Kalanchoe pumila and Portulacaria afra variegata – An indoor garden pot, slowly acclimates to the great outdoors on my steel balcony It’s an annual question. How will I contain myself? Although the vast majority of my gardening takes place in the ledgy pockets of soil here on my land, every year I create […]
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Native North American Woodlands, Native Plants, Naturalistic Garden Design, Nature, New England, Plant Spotlight, Plants for Light Effects, Plants for shade, Plants for sun, shrubs, Shrubs for early spring blossoms, Shrubs for fall color, Shrubs for ornamental fruit, Woodland plants, Woody Plants
Please Forgive Me, If I Stop and Stare… But Your Beauty, In This Light, Just Takes My Breath Away…
Like Droplets of Gold: Honey-Scented Blossoms of Lindera benzoin Lingering light and warm breezes… A sweet scent like honey fills the air. It’s springtime, and suddenly I’m falling in love all over again. Lindera, pardon me if I stop and stare… But your beauty, in this light, just takes my breath away. Some evenings in […]
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Welcome Sweet Month of May …
Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ at the Secret Garden Door. Read more about this fragrant beauty (click here) It’s May again, and the garden springs to life —filled with fragrance and color— greeting warm sunny days and soft, gentle rains with all the beauty in the world. Welcome sweet, sweet May… Blossoms Ripple in the Reflecting Bowl […]
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Cooking, Cooking with Kids, Ferns, Fiddleheads, Gourmet Garden, Late Autumn Garden, Mushrooms, Native Plants, Nature, Plant hunting, Plant Propagation, Plant Spotlight, Planting Techniques, Plants for shade, Recipes, Shiitake Growing, The Seasons, Unusual Plants, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetable Gardening/Potager, Woodland plants
Spring Brunch from the Kitchen Garden: Shirred Eggs with Shiitake & Arugula …
Shirred Eggs with Homegrown Shiitake Mushrooms & Garden-Fresh Arugula I’ve always been a breakfast person. French toast, waffles, eggs, potatoes, pancakes; I enjoy them all. Sometimes, in fact, I would like them all at once. Because of my love affair with breakfast foods, I have developed some pretty liberal ideas about when they should be […]
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Trees, Uncategorized, Woody Plants
Poetry, Romance & Majesty: Celebrating The Beauty of Trees on Arbor Day…
The Romantic & Melancholy Weeping Willow – Salix babylonica Today is Arbor Day, and although media attention and private conversation may be focused on a different occasion  —I’m referring to the Royal Wedding, of course— I find trees an equally romantic topic. After all, how many lovers have been wooed beneath the boughs of beautiful […]
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Bulb companions, Paths and Walkways, Perennial Close-Ups, Perennials : Vermont, Perennials for Spring, Perennials for Winter Interest, Plant Spotlight, Plants for Light Effects, Plants for shade, Woodland plants
The Mysterious Moods of ‘Mrs. Moon’…
In the Beginning of the Garden Romance, ‘Mrs. Moon’ (Pulmonaria saccharata) Blushes, Shy and Tender in Spring Rain… Meet ‘Mrs. Moon’, the garden coquette. Hot, cold. Hot, cold. Just when you think you have her figured out, she up and changes her mood. Surely you’ve encountered such a fickle flower; blushing and eager one moment […]
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Bee-Friendly Gardens, Birds, Books, companion planting, Early spring flowering plants, Early Spring Garden Plants, Ferncliff, Native Plants, Naturalistic Garden Design, Nature, New England, Perennial Close-Ups, Plant Spotlight, Plants for shade, Secret Gardens, Shade Gardening, Spring Ephemerals, Wildflowers and Meadows, Woodland plants
Ephemeral Woodland Wildflowers & Return of the Ethereal Hermit Thrush…
Red Trillium (Trillium erectum) There’s no place quite like New England for experiencing three seasons in one day. Sunday morning I rose to find a chilly house and snow covered gardens. Soon –with the sun shining brightly outside– temperatures soared to 63°. Breakfast in the snowy garden … Well, why not? I threw open the entryway […]
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Bulbs, Early spring flowering plants, Early Spring Garden Plants, Spring Blooming Bulbs, Spring Flowering Bulbs
Narcissus & Nostalgia…
Narcissus in April Snow at Ferncliff Late April snows always bring me back to my mother’s rocky, alpine garden in early spring; colorful bulbs poking up through chilly, crystalline white glazes. Here in New England, spring often arrives in fits and starts, and this year is classic. Winter-weary though we may be, there’s still something […]
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Children and Gardening, Cooking with Kids
Teach Your Children Well: A Gardener’s Thoughts on Earth Day…
Holding Earth in Her Hands – Photo â“’ Tim Geiss As gardeners, most of us consider ourselves environmentally minded, and for us, every day is Earth Day. But, it’s important to remember that gardening —in and of itself— Â is an unnatural act. When we work the soil and sow seed, fertilize and water, thin plants […]
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