On a sunny morning this week, I undertook the long-postponed task of cleaning out my patio pots, removing the brown skeletons of petunias, begonias and other summer annuals that provided color and cheer through the hot, dry summer. I always include Lobelia erinus in my pots — I can’t resist their unstinting blueness. Although some years my lobelia fails to thrive, this one never flagged. The sight of it billowing forth against a backdrop of white petunias always made my heart sing. I paused for a moment to offer my gratitude to the dried-out husk of the stalwart lobelia, its tiny flowers faded like old jeans. I often forget to give thanks for things that provide joy to my daily life. Here are a few more things I’m grateful for this year:
The 2026 UMass calendar
This handsome wall calendar published by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Extension Service features gorgeous color photos and daily gardening tips specific to the northeastern part of the country. I find the calendar especially welcome during the cold winter months. The daily tips help keep me psychically attached to my garden even when it’s frozen solid. Its daily sunrise and sunset times assure me that we are creeping ahead towards spring even when ice and snow and the sting of the polar vortex suggest otherwise.
Every year, the UMass calendar highlights a particular aspect of our gardening ecosystem. Bees are the subject of the 2026 calendar — a useful primer for people wanting to learn more about bee habits and habitat and how to make our landscapes bee-friendly. Bees are crucial to pollinating many of our fruits and vegetables. When you’re savoring a bite of apple or pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving, don’t forget to thank a bee. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N., one-third of the world’s food production depends on bees. Without them, our tables would be sorely spare.
One more thing you can thank the calendar for: it makes a perfect holiday gift for the gardeners in your life. You can order it at ag.umass.edu/gardencalendar, or send $16 payable to UMass to: UMass Garden Calendar, 120 Tillson Farm Rd., Amherst, MA 01003-9346.
The Cornell Orinthology Lab project FeederWatch
I started participating in this program last winter when I was recovering from knee surgery and needed something to occupy myself. Now, I’m hooked. This program enhances the pleasures of birdwatching while providing valuable data to the Cornell lab as it creates accurate bird population maps. I’ve come to appreciate the quirky habits of my avian visitors. Mourning doves and sparrows congregate peacefully to peck for seed under the feeder. Chickadees dart in to snatch a quick bite and are gone, while finches linger. Thuggish bluejays and red-bellied woodpeckers send the smaller birds packing. The routine is simple: choose a place to watch birds — a feeder where you live, a nature preserve or park. Set aside some time to observe and record the species of birds you see and log your results on the feederwatch website. Of course, you don’t need to do this every week, but I think you’ll find yourself looking forward to witnessing these mesmerizing moments of bird activity.
Farmers markets and produce stands
I don’t have enough sun in my garden to grow vegetables and for that I am thankful. I couldn’t bear the disappointment of discovering a lovingly tended row of baby lettuces ravaged by bunnies, or a crop of potatoes ruined by blight. Perhaps, in another lifetime, I’ll have the patience to deal with the problems that plague vegetable gardens. But in the meantime, I am grateful to live in an area where farmers markets and produce stands are abundant. We are blessed to have world-famous asparagus — thank you, Hadley “grass” — as well as strawberries, sweet corn and a host of other delicacies that are grown so close by we can often enjoy them the same day they’re harvested.
My favorite gardening tools
As I get older, I appreciate certain tools I’ve discovered in the past few years. How did I ever manage to work in the garden before the Radius Root Slayer shovel came into my life? This tool lives up to its name and then some. It cuts through gnarly knobs of bittersweet and makes quick work of digging and dividing daylilies and other intractable perennials. Despite its considerable weight, its ergonomic design makes it easy to use, even for a 90-pound weakling like myself. My trusty Stihl battery-powered hand pruner is another life-saver. This is actually a small chain saw, but when I tell my husband it’s just an electric hand pruner, he seems less anxious to have it in the house. Whatever you call it, it’s indispensable for pruning larger shrubs like hydrangeas and lilacs.
Owls
The woods around our house are inhabited by owls. I rarely see them, but the nightly call of the barred owl, “who cooks for yoooo?” lets me know it’s close by. And my husband and I were thrilled recently when a guest identified the nearby presence of a great horned owl by its call, “who’s asleep? Me toooo.”
My husband
My husband is not a natural-born gardener. I don’t know why, but he doesn’t leap at the chance to haul loads of compost and mulch around our property. But we’ve worked out an MO (modus operandi or mode of operating) that’s worked pretty well over the years: I ask nicely and he does it.
This year, and not just on Thanksgiving, I’m hoping to remember to be grateful for the small and not so small things that make life special every day.
Mickey Rathbun is an Amherst-based writer whose latest book, “The Real Gatsby: George Gordon Moore, A Granddaughter’s Memoir,” has recently been published by White River Press.