The Seasons
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Welcome August & Long, Languid, Sultry Summer Days …
August is a Table Filled with Freshly Cut Lemon Queen Sunflowers Welcome August … beautiful, voluptuous month of sultry days and starry nights. August is a month of fresh produce and delicious home cooked meals. Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, beans, garlic and onions: the warm-season crops are at peak flavor and production. Pure […]
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Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes, The Seasons, Tomatoes, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetable Gardening/Potager
Cool Inspiration for Hot Summer Days: Beautiful Cookbooks & Delicious Dinners from the Garden …
Hot day, Cool Dinner: Pasta with Arugula, Cherry Tomatoes, Basil and Garlic Although I don’t consider myself anything more than an average home cook, experimenting in the kitchen certainly is one of my favorite pastimes. And in mid-summer —when my potager is filled with the best produce of the season— it’s a delight to stroll […]
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Berries, Cocktails, Recipes, Reflections, Summertime Cocktails, The Seasons
Fresh Picked Raspberry-Mint Daiquiris And Hazy Summer Reflections …
Fresh-Picked Raspberry-Mint Daiquiri An Afternoon Swim Favorite Old Summertime Slides Truth: I’m suffering from a bit of vacation envy this week. Months have passed since I’ve had a whole day to myself, and to be honest, I really need one. It’s been terribly hot, and I’ve been doing projects back-to-back. I try to “make hay while the […]
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Cocktails, Cooking, Garden Party, Summer Solstice, The Seasons
A Warm Welcome to Sultry Summer …
A Warm Welcome to Summertime with Pyrotechnic Flower Bouquets Summer begins today at 1:16 pm EDT, and I’m welcoming her with open arms. After a long, cold winter followed by a wet, drizzly spring, I’m more than ready for hot and hazy, hammock days and sultry summer evenings. There are so many things to love […]
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Cutting Garden, Flower arrangements, Foliage, Fragrance, Home, Raindrops, shrubs, The Seasons, Vases, Weigela, Woody Plants
Gathering Bouquets Between Raindrops & Simple Tips for Fresh Cut Flower Care
Peony blossoms are of course my favorite cut flower, and by growing many cultivars, it’s possible to extend the flowering season for a month or more After two days of steady rain, I slipped outside this morning to wander around the garden between raindrops and gather fallen flowers for fresh bouquets. Poetic as drooping blossoms […]
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Color in the Garden, Dining Outdoors, Ferncliff, Home, Recipes, Summertime Cocktails, The Seasons
Honey Colored Evenings in the Garden And Iced Tea with Lime & Peppermint…
An Evening on the Terrace in Sultry, Honey Colored Mist Voluptuous French Lilacs Drape to the Ground Vanilla Sky: Garnet-Hued Japanese Maple Leaves, Luminous at Sunset June evening. It’s late in the day, and the glow of mist-diffused sunlight –warm and sweet as honey– filters through the perfumed garden. It’s time to relax after a […]
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Native North American Woodlands, Native Plants, Naturalistic Garden Design, The Seasons, Tim Geiss, Trees, Trees for Fall Foliage, Trees for Fruit, Uncategorized, Winter Garden, Woodland plants, Woody Plants
Native Beauty of the Forest Understory: Our Graceful, Flowering Dogwood …
Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) Photograph â“’Â Tim Geiss In my work as a garden designer, I am constantly singing the praises of native plants to my clients; encouraging them to soften the edges of their landscape by blurring the boundary between the wild and tame. As an unofficial PR agent for our beautiful  native trees and […]
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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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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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Native North American Woodlands, Native Plants, Naturalistic Garden Design, Nature, Raindrops, The Seasons, Trees, Uncategorized, Vermont, Viburnum, Water Features, Woody Plants
Raindrops & Sunshowers
Stepping Out Through the Raindrops… Early spring is a busy season for gardeners, and it’s easy to get caught up in the many chores at hand. This morning, Mother Nature sent an unexpected gift —a rainbow wrapped up in a sunshower— reminding me to slow down a bit and enjoy the season as it unfolds… […]
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Bee-Friendly Gardens, Bulbs, Color in the Garden, companion planting, Early spring flowering plants, Early Spring Garden Plants, Ferncliff, flowering shrubs, Ground Covers, Insects/Entomology, Lawns, Naturalistic Garden Design, New England, Old Fashioned Flowers, Plant Spotlight, Planting Techniques, Spring Blooming Bulbs, Spring Flowering Bulbs, The Seasons, Woody Plants
Hazy Color Drifts Carpet the Garden: Tiny Gifts of Early Spring…
Spring Heath (Erica carnea) Begins Blooming in Early April (click here to revisit my Erica carnea plant-profile post from last year). Here, Sprawling Across the Ledge  in the Entry Garden… The Pink, Hazy Blur of Spring Heath is Particularly Lovely Against Grey Sky and Cool Stone. On a Blustery Day, I Can’t Help but Think […]
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Asian Natives, Ferncliff, Garden Maintenance, garden tools, Ice Storms, Japanese Maple, pruning, The Seasons, Tree Care, Trees, Winter, Woody Plants
Spring Clean-Up Part One: Pruning Damaged Limbs in Tight Spaces Using The Handy, Folding ‘Grecian’ Saw, Plus… A Special Giveaway!
A young Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ in my garden. This photo was taken last spring during a passing shower, just as the beautifully vibrant red leaves began to unfold I love all trees, but I have to admit that in particular, I am a very, very fond of Japanese maples. And in spite of the fact […]
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Garden Maintenance, Garden Science, Garden Seminars, garden tools, pruning, shrubs, The Seasons, Tree Care, Trees, Woody Plants
Spring Clean-Up, Part One: Pruning Winter-Damaged Branches Continues With a Tutorial on Cutting to Alternate & Opposite Buds…
Spring Clean Up Begins in My Garden with the Removal of Winter-Damaged Branches and Limbs on Woody Plants I’ve been tending other people’s gardens for more than a decade, and although I am officially eliminating maintenance from my professional services this year —making more time for design work, teaching and writing— that doesn’t mean I […]
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Bulbs, Cold-Climate Vegetable Gardening, Early Spring Garden Plants, Ferncliff, The Seasons
Getting Down to Earth in the Garden…
First Flowers: Glory-of-the-Snow (Chionodoxa luciliae ‘Gigantea’) What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, my hilltop was nearly invisible; blurred grey and white by snow squalls, sleet and driving rain. But today, all of the new snow has melted, the sun is shining and the sky is clear blue. Ah, New England. As they say: if […]
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Hello April, Ready for Spring?
We’re All Ready for Spring, But It Looks Like She’s Not Quite Ready for Us! Woke up this morning to find an April Fool’s Day trick from Mother Nature. Looks like we’ll be putting away our sun hats and gardening tools for today… Article and photographs are copyright Michaela at The Gardener’s Eden, all rights […]
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Cocktails, Cooking, Maple Syrup, Recipes, The Seasons, Trees, Trees for Fall Foliage, Vermont, Woodland plants
Early Spring’s Sweetest Things…
The New Sugar Shack at Deer Ridge Farm in Guilford, Vermont Spring, oh spring, where are you? You certainly are a bit coquettish this year; teasing us with early catkins on willow, then snapping us with a sharp, cold sting. Yes, Spring has been withholding many early-season pleasures here in New England, but she always […]
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Bulbs, Color in the Garden, companion planting, Conservatory, Container Gardening, Fantasy Flowers, Glamorous Gardens, Green House Gardens, Indoor Gardening, Inspirational Gardens, Lyman Conservatory, Massachusetts, New England, Old Fashioned Flowers, Plant Spotlight, Smith College Botanical Garden, Spring Blooming Bulbs, Spring Flowering Bulbs, The Seasons, Vernal Equinox
A Warm Welcome to Spring: Blossoming Beauty at the Smith College Bulb Show…
Tulipa ‘Blue Spectacle’ Narcissus, tulips, hyacinth, freesia, iris and clivia; from the brash and bold to the delicate and ethereal, all of spring’s finest ladies were on display this week at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. The Bulb Show at Smith College’s Lyman Conservatory —where thousands of bulbs are carefully arranged and artfully displayed with flowering […]
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Farmer's Almanac, Moon, Native North American Woodlands, Nature, New England, The Seasons, Trees, Trees for Fall Foliage, Vermont, Vernal Equinox, Woodland plants, Woody Plants
Moonlight on Maple Buds…
Moonlight on Maple Buds Watching the moon rise through bare tree limbs last night, I couldn’t help but notice changes taking place in the forest all around me. By night, swollen maple buds stand out in soft silhouette against the sky’s moonlit glow. And by day, hillsides filled with reddish twigs color the landscape in […]
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Cookbooks, Cooking, ornamental grass, Ornamental Grass in Containers, Recipes, The Seasons, Winter Garden
The Scent of Homemade Bread on a Honey Drizzled Morning…
Homemade Whole Wheat Bread and Farm-Style Butter I Keep Dried Ornamental Grass —Miscanthus sinensis cut from the Garden– In My Bedroom Through Out the Winter Months. I Love How the Feathery Plumes and Golden Curls Catch Morning’s First Light… Of course, I also enjoy looking at ornamental grass in the garden throughout the winter. This […]
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Bee-Friendly Gardens, Beneficial Animals and Insects, Ferncliff, Forcing Branches in Winter, Native North American Woodlands, Native Plants, Naturalistic Garden Design, Nature, New England, Shrubs for Winter Interest, Texture, The Seasons, Vermont, Woodland plants, Woody Plants
Come to Me, My Sweet Willow…
Salix discolor. Pitcher by Aletha Soulé. Photo © Michaela at TGE Welcome, oh welcome sweet, silver-tipped harbinger of springtime. Is there anything that makes a heart race faster than the sight of the first pussy willow catkins? I love the beautiful, soft texture and the sculptural quality of pussy willow branches artfully arranged in a vase. […]
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Cutting Garden, Early Spring Garden Plants, Ferncliff, Flower arrangements, flowering shrubs, Flowering Shrubs and Trees for Forced Flowers, Forcing Branches in Winter, Fragrance, Fresh Cut Flowers, Gardening Inspiration, Indoor Table Arrangements, New England, Plant Spotlight, Secret Garden at Ferncliff, shrubs, Shrubs for Winter Interest, Shrubs/Trees for Forced Flowers, The Seasons, Vernal Equinox, Winter, Woody Plants
First Hints of Spring…
Last Year’s Nest Remains Intact, Decorated with the Pink-Tinted Buds of Viburnum Bodnantense ‘Dawn’ Spring is exactly one month away, and eagerly, the garden awaits her arrival. Already, swollen buds, glowing bark and the sing-song voices of chickadees calling “spring’s here”, fill trees and shrubs with new life… On Warmer Days, Blushing Viburnum Buds Near […]
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