Intermission

When I began this blog last year I was staying with my sister on a hill south of Concord. I cleaned up and replanted her gardens, and added additional beds on the south west side of her house where her lawn jumps off into a goldenrod field below. I will be taking care of this garden this year, and editing, adding, tweaking if needed. But now, I have a place of my own , an apartment in an old house along the Piscataquod River on the highway west and south of Goffstown, NH. To the southeast are the Uncanoonuc Mountains( which are really just two modest hills), and to the southwest is Mont Vernon, a village of unworldly beauty.

My landlords are letting me plant a vegetable garden in front of an old barn. They are also allowing me to put in a small flower garden in the dooryard of my apartment. The aspect is fortunate, with a winter- sunny south west exposure. The moss I see growing makes me wonder about the two small trees there, and to the south is a line of very old and very tall maples, which the owners are now tapping . Winter is misleading when it comes to the sunny hours. Only the leaves will later reveal the truth.

Another sister is moving to Sandwich , on the Cape, and has asked for my help in planning a garden there. What is more appealing than Zone 7 for a formerly southern gardener.

As of today. I am planning nothing. It is too early. I am bringing along the salvias I wintered over in my sister’s frigid mud room. Mystic Spires, Salvia greggi, and Amistad. They did well for me in my sister’s garden, and are now in a big south window in my apartment along with Fuschia Gartenmeister, one of the best shade garden plants I have ever grown.

Two days ago I had a red wing at my feeder. The snow is receding on the fields I would walk, if they were not so waterlogged. There is a pond behind my apartment, and when the peepers start they will be deafening.