Recent Posts
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flowering shrubs, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Late Autumn Garden, Native Plants, Naturalistic Garden Design, Plant Science, shrubs, Shrubs for fall color, Shrubs with Colorful Twigs/Stems, Woody Plants
On a Cold, Wet November Morning the Red Twigs of Tartarian Dogwood are Still Burning Bright…
Tartarian dogwood, (Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’), at Ferncliff in November… There’s nothing like a dose of brilliant scarlet color to lift the spirits in dreary weather! On this damp, grey November morning, the twigs of Tartarian dogwood glow like red-hot embers in a bonfire. Isn’t it spectacular? Nature can be quite the artiste! This glorious woody […]
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Gardening Inspiration, Late Autumn Garden, Reflections, Trees, Water Features
The Empty Garden…
Autumn’s mirror… The remains of a summer nest, now silent and still… One evening last week a storm rolled in, and continued throughout the night. In the morning, when I woke, I found a different landscape. The trees all shook their leaves – dramatic and swift. Skeletons now stand where brightly colored canopies once filled […]
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Aletha Soule, Flower arrangements, Holiday Decorating, Indoor Table Arrangements, Richard Foye, Urns and Vessels, Vases
Bringing Nature’s Beauty Indoors: Decorating for the Holidays with Winterberry, Pine Cones, Bittersweet and Natural Garden Remnants…
Winterberry branches, in a modern glass vase, beside my painting studio door One of my favorite ways to prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday is to decorate my home and studio with natural remnants from my garden. At the end of my day yesterday afternoon, I stopped along the bank of the Connecticut river and gathered […]
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Art Inspired by Nature, Artful Garden Objects, Conservatory, Garden Visits, Green House Gardens, House Plants, Indoor Gardening, Pots, Pots and Pottery, Virginia Wyoming Pottery
Art Inspired by Nature: The Colorful, Botanical World of Artist and Gardener Virginia Wyoming…
Virginia Wyoming holds one of her beautiful stoneware flowerpots, etched with grass-like markings and finished with a multilayered earth-green glaze… Virginia Wyoming’s studio lies at the far end of a long and winding, interrupted road in Westminster, Vermont. When I say interrupted, I mean that the road literally stops midway, broken by forest. Naturally I […]
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Autumn Color in the Garden, Ferncliff, flowering shrubs, Late Autumn Garden, Native North American Woodlands, Native Plants, Shrubs for fall color
Must be the Season of the Witch Alder : The Spellbinding Late Autumn Color of Fothergilla…
Witch Alder, (Fothergilla major, ‘Mt. Airy’), in the sunny entry garden in mid November; luminous against the Secret Garden wall… Oh, would you look at this beauty. Look at the magical, bright orange and yellow color, glowing in the grey November light. Is it any wonder they named her Witch Alder? She’s completely enchanting. All […]
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Apples, Garden Design, Garden Science, Gardening Inspiration, Orchards / Orchard Keeping, soil science, Trees
In a Golden Orchard, Dreaming …
A 100-hundred-year-old orchard in Vermont, with restoration pruning The un-restored lower section of the same orchard … Lovely place for an afternoon stroll, isn’t it? Yesterday I found myself with an extra hour of time around sunset, and I decided to go for a walk in this old apple grove surrounded by golden fields near […]
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Apples, Cocktails, Cooking, Orchards / Orchard Keeping, Recipes
Grey and Chilly? Got the Autumn Blues? Spice Up Your Afternoon with Hot Mulled Apple Cider, Or Spike It Up Come Evening If You Choose …
A cup of hot, mulled apple cider, garnished with a stick of cinnamon and a slice of orange, studded with fragrant clove… It’s the middle of November now, and there’s a sharp nip in the air by late afternoon. The sky is often streaked with slate colored clouds, and the sun, when it makes an […]
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Apples, Art Inspired by Nature
Art Inspired by Nature: The Apple of Our Eye…
Lord Fredrick Leighton, The Garden of the Hesperides, 1892 This week’s topic on The Gardener’s Eden is heirloom apples. So in keeping with this theme, today’s edition of ‘Art Inspired by Nature’ focuses on the apple in Western art. A fruit of temperate regions throughout the world, the apple has been cultivated by humans since prehistoric times. Malus sieversii, […]
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Apples, Cooking, Heirloom Apples, Orchards / Orchard Keeping, Recipes
Rustic, Heirloom Apple Squares: A Recipe and Sweet Autumn Memory…
Served warm with a cup of steaming tea, apple squares can bring back a rush of sweet memories for me. When I was a little girl, my third grade teacher always made homemade goodies for special events and bake sales. Margaret was a lovely woman; plump and grandmotherly and generous. She was my favorite teacher, […]
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Apples, Cooking, Heirloom Apples, Orchards / Orchard Keeping, Recipes
Original Sin? Getting My Fill of Old World Temptations and Pleasures in the Apple Orchard at Scott Farm…
Heirloom apples from Scott Farm, Vermont Apples. They certainly are beautiful and tempting. But sinful? Hardly. Although, to tell the truth, I’ve always had a secret, flirtatious ‘thing’ for orchards. Maybe it all started with those stories about wickedness and pleasure in the Garden of Eden. You know, forbidden fruit and all that? Who knows […]
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Bee Keeping/Products/Info, Beneficial Animals and Insects, Insects/Entomology, Native Plants
Announcing Collaborative Work with The Honey Bee Conservancy: A New Series of Guest Posts Begins…
I have recently been invited to guest-post a series of articles on gardening with bees in mind for The Honeybee Conservancy blog. The first installation, supporting pollinators by planting native plants, posted today. You can read the article by clicking here. Honeybees as a species predate human beings by tens of millions of years, and […]
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annuals, Garden Maintenance, Garden Science, Organic Disease Control, organic gardening, soil science, Vegetable Gardening
Rich, Beautiful, Dreamy Dirt…
A nice delicious bowl of…. dirt? Has someone been making mud-pies? Sometimes I think I got into gardening because I never grew up. Yes, I know, that is a silly photo. But I couldn’t help myself. All the cooking blogs and magazines showcase gorgeous, slightly-off center bowls filled with the most mouthwatering food. So I […]
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Discovering the Botany of Desire…
The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World Like most people, I am a fairly busy person, and I don’t have a great deal of time to wander about bookstores – especially during the growing season. In fact, most of my reading over the past few summers has been limited to the […]
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Art Inspired by Nature, David Holzapfel
Art Inspired by Nature: The Sensual Work of Sculptor and Furniture Maker David Holzapfel…
Tutuila, 23″ x 15″, walnut/spalted yellow birch This week’s edition of ‘Art Inspired by Nature‘ features the work of talented Vermont artist David Holzapfel. But before I begin to write about David and his process, I have to get something off my chest – a confession, so to speak. You see, when I first spotted […]
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Autumn Color in the Garden, Ferncliff, flowering shrubs, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Gardening Inspiration, Late Autumn Garden, Native Plants, Naturalistic Garden Design, Perennials for Autumn, Planting Techniques, Plants for Light Effects, Plants for Texture, shrubs, Shrubs for fall color, Shrubs with Colorful Twigs/Stems, Winter Garden
Late Autumn Texture Studies, Part Two: Plants that Play with Low Light…
The native forest on an early November morning… The light of late autumn is pure poetry – bathing the forest in bronze radiance. In the early morning fog, dark, vertical tree trunks move in and out of focus; playing off the back-light and textural forest tapestry. A walk through the woods reveals stunning seasonal change […]
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Cemeteries, Forest Hills Cemetery, Garden Visits, Halloween, Late Autumn Garden, Liz Kelleher, Sculpture and Features
Haunting Forest Hills Cemetery with Photographer Liz Kelleher…
“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Â Â Â Who shall say where one ends, and where the other begins?” Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â – Edgar Allan Poe, Â Premature Burial, Â 1844 […]
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Aletha Soule, Dried Flowers, Flower arrangements, Indoor Table Arrangements, ornamental grass, Richard Foye, Urns and Vessels, Vases
Bringing Nature’s Beauty Indoors: Dried Flowers and Grasses Catch Light and Play with Shadows…
Dried flower heads from a field of Queen Anne’s lace sparkle against frosted glass… The last days of October have arrived and the natural world outside my door is slowly bleaching, bronzing and browning to a warm patina. Gorgeous distractions demand my attention at every corner. Still, there is much work to be done in […]
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Art Inspired by Nature, Michelle Holzapfel
Art Inspired by Nature: The Astonishing Work of Sculptor Michelle Holzapfel…
Michelle Holzapfel, Linfold Vase, 2007, carved from a single walnut log Michelle Holzapfel, Black and White Bowl, 2003, Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI A couple of weekends ago, my new friends Michelle and David Holzapfel kindly accepted my request for an interview for The Gardener’s Eden, ‘Art Inspired by Nature’ series, and tour of their studio […]
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Autumn Color in the Garden, flowering shrubs, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Gardening Inspiration, Gardening Inspirations, Ground Covers, Hoar Frost, Late Autumn Garden, Native Plants, Perennial Close-Ups, Perennials for Autumn, Plants for Light Effects, Plants for Texture, shrubs, Winter Garden, Woody Plants
Late Autumn Texture Studies, Part One: Plants Sparkling with Sugary Frost…
Sedum ‘Purple Emperor’ – Sweet Treat of the Sugar Plum Fairy… Jack Frost and the Sugar Plum Fairy had a party in my garden the other night. Â Â I wasn’t invited. But my naughty guests did leave behind plenty of outrageous evidence and a few party favors. In the morning I awoke to find […]
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Asian Natives, Autumn Color in the Garden, Ferncliff, flowering shrubs, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Gardening Inspiration, Ground Covers, Japanese Maple, Late Autumn Garden, North American Trees, Perennial Close-Ups, Perennials for Autumn, Plant Spotlight, Plants for Texture, shrubs, Shrubs for fall color, Shrubs for ornamental fruit, Trees, Trees for Fall Foliage, Viburnum, Winter Garden, Woody Plants
Autumn Brilliance Part Three: Plant Partners for the Late Show and Early Winter Marquee…
Acer palmatum x dissectum ‘Seiryu’ in late October By late October, much of the foliage in the forest surrounding my garden has passed its peak. Although the woods are still basking in the glow of golden birch and poplar, lemony striped maple, rusty red oak and amber colored beech –  the vibrant orange and red maple leaves […]
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Art Inspired by Nature, Great Blogs
Art Inspired by Nature: The Multitalented Amy McCoy…
Photograph copyright Amy McCoy Most people consider themselves lucky if they discover one hidden, creative talent in a lifetime. But for some fortunate individuals, creativity and artistic expression seem to flow effortlessly from a bottomless well. Rhode Island based photographer, author and cook, Amy McCoy is just such a creative force. Although we have yet to […]
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