It’s hard to complain about a string of warm, sunny days in late October. I thought I’d be shutting the garden down by now, but yesterday afternoon I found myself hacking at a badly overgrown patch of crested iris and stuffing pieces of it into a bare spot in my rock garden. I’m still tending pots of petunias and begonias. Several lavender plants have sent forth new flowers in the past few weeks. I don’t know what they’ll be doing next spring when it’s time to bloom again.
I feel slightly ungrateful for this unusually pleasant weather. According to weather scientists, it’s evidence of climate change. Every perfect day makes me worry that we’ll be paying for it soon enough with more climatic disruption. Droughts. Wildfires. Hurricanes. It’s unsettling to be enjoying another clear day in the mid-70s when a hurricane is ravaging Ireland, of all places. We seem to move from one natural disaster to the next with every news cycle.
Aside from my environmental anxiety, I have a more immediate gripe. I’m ready to be done with gardening for the year. My knees are creaking. My back is saying: Enough! I want to cut things back and put away my tools. I wonder what it must be like for people who live in places where the garden goes full tilt 12 months a year. Don’t they yearn for a few months where there isn’t a weed to be pulled or a bush to be trimmed?
But enough complaining. I know at least one person who is happy that the weather is staying unseasonably warm. A young friend recently told me with great excitement that she has bought a house in Holyoke. With the house came a yard full of plants, about which she knows nothing. But she’s eager to roll up her sleeves and create her own garden. She knows that I write a gardening column and said she was eager to interrogate me.
I remember very well 30 years ago when my husband and I bought our first house. It came with a well-tended garden, complete with raspberry bushes and rhubarb. I knew nothing about gardens beyond pansies and daffodils. My brother gave me the Readers’ Digest gardening book for Christmas. Slowly I figured some things out. I’m still figuring things out.
Here are two suggestions I gave my friend. First, improve the soil. Start a compost pile and buy compost from farmers. There are a few plants (and a lot of weeds) that thrive in meh soil, but that’s no excuse to ignore this basic gardening building block.
Next, I told her to go online and check out a website I’ve found particularly helpful (awaytogarden.com). There is a ton of great information online. But I added a caveat: There’s also a ton of bad information out there. Beyond that, there are many different ways to get things done in a garden. It doesn’t pay to be slavish to one expert’s dictates. All too often, I read that such and such a plant won’t do well in certain conditions, so I don’t buy it. Then I see it going gangbusters in someone’s garden in those same supposedly unfavorable conditions. Gardening is not an exact science.
I happened to be reading “An Island Garden,” a book written in 1904 by a writer and artist named Celia Thaxter. She tended a garden on an island called Appledore, where her father was lighthouse keeper, among the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. At the beginning of the book, she describes the ingredient that makes her garden grow so well: love.
“For that includes all, the patience that endures continual trial, the constancy that makes perseverance possible, the power of foregoing ease of mind and body to minister to the necessities of the things beloved, and the subtle bond of sympathy which is as important, if not more so, than all the rest….You may give them all they need of food and drink and make the conditions of their existence as favorable as possible, and they may grow and bloom, but there is a certain ineffable something that will be missing if you do not love them, a delicate glory too spiritual to be caught and put into words.”
I think Thaxter’s book will make a good house and garden-warming present for my aspiring young gardening friend.
I’ve used a chainsaw on several occasions and found the experience totally terrifying. It’s not just the word “chainsaw” (as in “massacre”) that strikes fear in my heart. I’ve heard too many stories about accidents involving inexperienced chainsaw operators. If you’re interested in learning how to use a chainsaw safely and effectively, you might want to attend the full-day workshop offered by Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Arborist Melissa LeVangie will discuss personal protective equipment, anatomy of a chainsaw, reactive forces, basic chainsaw maintenance and additional tools for use with a chainsaw. She also will teach techniques such as holding and starting a saw, hazard ID, escape options, log analysis and planning cuts. Participants will cut logs on the ground and/or elevated on saw horses. They will leave with a better understanding of the safety features of a chainsaw and be able to operate one based on safety fundamentals. No experience is necessary. If you have your own equipment (chainsaw or personal protective gear) please bring them with you. Note: equipment will be provided. Dress and prepare for the weather, including long sleeves, pants and boots. Bring a bag lunch. Cost is $225 for members, $275 for nonmembers.
For more information and to register, go to: berkshirebotanical.org
Don’t forget to visit your local farmers markets before the season ends. In addition to enjoying delicious fresh produce, you can do some early holiday shopping for maple products, honey, soaps, candles and much more. The Amherst market will run through Nov. 18, 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Town Common. The Northampton market will run through Nov. 11, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 8 Gothic Street. Northampton’s Tuesday market will run through Nov. 7, 1:30 to 6:30 p.m. behind Thornes Market.
The holidays might seem far in the future, but time flies fast this time of year.
It’s easy to take trees for granted if you see them every day, but our region still holds some historic forests.
On Nov. 4 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Kestrel Trust is hosting a walk in one of the Valley’s old growth forests, guided by old growth forest expert and educator Bob Leverett.
Participants will learn what the mature forests on Mount Tom reservation contribute ecologically, historically, culturally, aesthetically and even from a human health perspective. Leverett will show you several superlative trees, including a white pine that’s more than 140 feet tall.
The walk will take place at Mount Tom State Reservation in Holyoke. Free, but donations will be appreciated. Space is limited and registration is required. Go to: kestreltrust.org. Rain date: Nov. 5.
Mickey Rathbun can be reached at foxglover8@gmail.com.