Category Archives: Uncategorized

It is everywhere. Along the roads. In waste places. In an Audubon preserve in Concord. The Japanese Knotweed. Sometime in the past someone introduced it, thinking it was an ornamental, and in small clumps, it might be. If my eye was unbiased, I would find it attractive. But I know better, having seen it smotherContinue reading “New Hampshire’s Kudzu”

The first photo above is of the Late Aster-Aster patens. Though this 4 ft aster is at the rear of my dry garden, it was a volunteer and in our current severe drought, it has had only the rain the sky gave it. The second photo is of the Rough Leaved goldenrod in the moistContinue reading “The Blue and the Gold”

My computer with all my pictures died yesterday ,and I am now working on a Chromebook that filed my pictures somewhere in outer space. Until I can get a new hp with Microsoft I will not be able to display images, and will not be posting. Meanwhile I will keep hunting to see where myContinue reading “Stuck”

The Washington Post writes that this summer is the hottest in New Hampshire history, and I believe it, since two summers here have proved that this is not the New Hampshire of my youth . As I write this- it is over 90, and tomorrow will be 95. I have no air conditioning, and myContinue reading “Re-Thinking Southern New Hampshire Summers”

A friend of my sister is from the Netherlands. She and her husband have a small country homestead, and presuming she would say “yes”, I asked her if she had a vegetable garden. She shook her head and grimaced. “Ah, no,” she said, “The animals”. In the following photo, if you look closely at theContinue reading “The Cost of a Tomato is Eternal Vigilance”

This is another of the survivor phloxes growing in the dooryard. It has some leaf yellowing, but no mildew. This photo was taken this evening, and it shows how eye catching white flowers can be In the distance, the gray plants light the garden.

Sonnet and Rocket Snapdragon, Angelonias, Heliopsis, Castor Beans, Salvia “Black and Blue”, old fashioned Balsams, Nicotiana mutabilis. This is Cottage style planting with an intermingling of colors. Plants are not massed in blocks. I prefer a pointillist effect. Salvia Mystic Spires, Balsams, petunias Sonnet Pink Snapdragons, “Dondo” ageratum not yet blooming. Closeups of Balsams. TheseContinue reading “A Three Month Old Garden in New Boston”

I drove to Goffstown to the hardware store today to take a look at their outside plant department. I have found many a fine perennial there- the “Southern Cross” ironweed, for example- and thought the store would not be crowded on a Sunday morning. I had to park across the street next to the dumpsters,Continue reading “A Sunday Surprise”

The tall garden phlox need rich, well-watered soil and pampering, according to the experts and the books. Yet the old farm and dooryard varieties cannot read, and they grow where they want to. I have one that came up in the middle of a quince bush. Others persisted in forgotten places against the house. OneContinue reading “Feral Phlox”