Author Archives: talesofanashvillegardener

In spring and early summer here in New Boston a pop up garden center appears beside the hardware store and Dodge’s grocery. It is not large. It is not open for long, but I drop in when I can because I have found plants there that I have not seen before and am afraid IContinue reading “Some Little Marigolds”

My sister and I drove to Spring Ledge in New London yesterday. She was searching for two shrubs to plant in her front border. I did not know what I was searching for, though I always know what it is when I see it. There was an incomparable pale pink scaevola in some of theContinue reading “The Chocolate Cosmos”

Note- Time Stamp is wrong on some of these photos. Purely an operator malfunction! “Morden Centennial” is a rose out of Canada, so I was not surprised that there was no dieback through this past winter. No disease either, though the leaf holes and damage come courtesy of the wicked Sawfly which lays its eggsContinue reading “The Month of Roses”

When I work in the garden I volunteer in, I can hear a Wood Thrush up in the trees, Canada Geese honking on their way to the river, the argumentative back and forth of the House Sparrows. But nearest and loudest of all is the bubbling song of the House Wren, familiar to people everywhere.Continue reading “The House with the Stovepipe Hat”

I have over three dozen pots of zinnias, marigolds, and cosmos in my front dooryard. They are in Sterilite boxes that are easily covered when the chill and storms come. All are going to a small public garden at a local historical site in around two to four weeks or as soon as they areContinue reading “Seedling Army”

I think there are plants that deserve the name “Nevergone”. For no matter who first planted them, and how long ago, they persist on the roadsides and the old dooryards. and in long lost gardens out in the fields. Honesty is one of these, as is the old orange daylily, and the bearded iris. TheContinue reading “Nevergone”

This past September, on a visit to Cape Cod., I had dinner with a cousin I last saw almost 60 years ago at a family picnic in Chesterfield , Massachusetts. I was 12 then and babysitter to a mob of cousins and siblings, all younger than I. This cousin was son to an uncle whoContinue reading “The Chambered Nautilus”

The other day I moved a narrow second hand desk to the dining room and put it by the window . The window faces southwest, and looks out into my dooryard and out across the road to an old field. The huge trees in the photo are sugar maples, which my landlord taps in lateContinue reading “Idling”

Not five minutes after I posted a photo of the Great Blue Heron I looked out the window. He was back- within 3 feet of the platform birdfeeder. He was frozen in strike position, eyeing two oblivious gray squirrels on the ground. When I banged on the door, he flew up to the lawn byContinue reading “Return of the Great Blue Stalker”

Heavy rain over the last few days has made the river rise and Gregg Mill Pond swell. The fish must be too deep, and fishing too hazardous, for after I filled the courtyard bird feeders this morning, and the squirrel and chipmunk mob came running, this hunter came stalking into the yard. Perhaps he thoughtContinue reading “Something Astonishing”