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The Martha's Vineyard Times is a weekly publication.
December 30 - January 5, 2004 Edition
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GARDEN NOTES December 30, 2004 There is no new Garden Notes column this week. December 23, 2004 By Abigail Higgins Photo by Susan Safford The Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, will have occurred by the time that you read this column. A waxing, nearly full moon should enhance Christmas activities: it is full on December 26. We shall be experiencing the “hang,” when for a brief while the time of sunset remains in stasis, until the inevitable increase begins. The derivation of solstice is from “sol”: sun + “-stice,” (from “-stitium”): a stoppage. By early January careful observers will detect a perceptible lingering of the sun’s light at dusk. However, due to an asymmetry in these matters, the time of sunrise continues to occur a little later and later, for more than two weeks after the solstice. Lovers of plants and gardening in our area, as well as nationally, have lost a unique personality with the recent, untimely passing of Allen C. Haskell, horticulturalist, New Bedford native son, and nurseryman extraordinaire. The Haskell nursery off Shawmut Ave. is an enchanting remnant of a rural past in New Bedford, when it was part of the Hathaway farm on that city’s outskirts. Under Allen Haskell’s hand, the nursery became something of a botanic garden, a Holy Grail for gardeners, a Destination. The ornamental container plantings, display gardens, potagers and fruit trees enhance the nursery stock and inspire the novice gardener and commercial landscaper alike in the direction of beauty and harmonious design. Floriculture, animal husbandry, stone masonry, metalwork and blacksmithing: these useful arts are all evident on the nursery’s premises, expressed through Mr. Haskell’s perseverance and gardening genius. His was a mercurial presence at the nursery, sometimes abrupt, sometimes warmly forthcoming, with a talent for droll, throwaway one-liners. He never seemed to stand still; he worked himself hard and it showed. I recall a conversation with him some years ago at the nursery in which he attributed the source of his talent and success to the training he had received as a kid at Ag school. He said something to the effect that “everything you see here [at the nursery] I learned at Bristol County Agricultural School.” He used salty language in denouncing the wisdom of the powers-that-be for dismantling the statewide system of public agricultural schools. “Where will local kids of the future — like me, without resources — go to receive this kind of training and knowledge?” I suspect this rant (the loss of the trade school system,) was something of a crusade for him, as perhaps it should be for more of us. The question remains though: while Ag school may have instilled his work ethic, did it also teach the passionate discernment and aesthetic discipline so evident in Allen Haskell’s business, or did that flow forth from him uniquely? Allen Haskell was probably the plantsman most responsible for the rebirth of production topiary plants in this country. Today we take the availability of tabletop topiaries, such as ivy, rosemary, or myrtle, and landscape topiary specimens of boxwood, yew, and Alberta spruce for granted; but there was a time not so long ago when these labor-intensive, horticultural status symbols were practically unknown on this side of the Atlantic! The nursery display gardens feature, among other treasures, mature specimen trees, a signature pleached hornbeam hedge, hostas, yellow-flowered rhododendrons, and unusual asarums. The range of glass houses contains a beguiling variety of exotic stock plants and the offspring immaculately propagated from them. The hoop houses feature perennials and woody plant material in choice variety. The containers, urns, and pots are “to die for.” I trust that Mr. Haskell’s wife and family (“two kids, out of three, in the nursery — not bad for a family business, eh?” he boasted once) and his associate, Gene Bertrand, will continue the business. It is a monument to the power of plants and gardens, and to Allen Haskell. Learning season for gardeners With the demise of the Ag schools that Allen Haskell decried, we must take our learning where we can. Winter is the season to take classes and augment one’s knowledge. A couple of University of Massachusetts (UMass) bulletins may interest some readers. I am enthusiastic about the UMass schedule of classes, from whose press release I quote: “The University of Massachusetts Extension Agriculture and Landscape Program is sponsoring a seminar series in 2005 called the Mass Aggie Seminars for backyard gardeners and beginning or part-time farmers and landscapers. All seminars will be taught by UMass Extension Educators, UMass Amherst faculty, and green industry professionals, and will emphasize how to produce food and manage landscapes and small farms in a sustainable manner…. “The UMass Extension Agriculture and Landscape Program addresses issues emphasizing greater harmony between the environment and agriculture as well as promoting a safe and secure food system. Because of this and the University’s historical and unique perspective, UMass faculty and Extension Educators are able to provide information regarding horticultural and agricultural practices that is leading-edge, research-based, unbiased and tested in the field.” Except for the fruit pruning demonstration, all Mass Aggie Seminars will be held at Mass Bay Community College, 50 Oakland Street, Wellesley, MA. Pre-registration is required; the cost is $40 each, (with a couple of exceptions,) and the program is a complete and thorough one (your tax dollars at work). Check it out at: UMass Extension Landscape/Nursery/Urban Forestry Program, French Hall, 230 Stockbridge Rd. Amherst, MA 01003. Tel. 413-545-2685. Fax 413-577-1620. www.UmassGreenInfo.org Combatting Moth Damage The second bulletin concerns the winter moth (Operophtera brumata.) There has been an extremely heavy outbreak of these: on an early December night the window of the room where I sit to write this column was a fluttering mass, completely covered with these small, light-colored insects. According to the very detailed, UMass bulletin, the moths covering my window were males, as the females are flightless. “The insect is remarkably adapted to our climate. The moths emerge in late November or early December…. Females climb trunks of trees and lay eggs on the trees. Caterpillars (which are a kind of “inchworm”) hatch out as early as late March. They tunnel into buds, especially flower buds, of apples, crabapples, cherry, maples, oaks, and various flowering trees. The caterpillars are quite mobile and move from one bud to another readily, so they can cause severe damage in the spring. They also will feed on foliage. There is nothing to be done at this point. (Believe it or not, some of the UMass research being conducted this year is being compromised because the insect populations are too heavy!) There may be some options that can be used to target the eggs in late winter or the young caterpillars as they become active in the spring.” These options include use of dormant oil and Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) sprays and minimizing, through mulching and watering, stress on trees that are under attack. Since the winter moth is a particularly serious pest of apple trees, it may be worthwhile to place bands painted with a product such as Tanglefoot™ around the trees’ trunks now, during the moths’ mating season. If trees are staked, place bands around the stakes too. Look for egg masses that the female pastes onto twigs, house trim and shingles, as well as tree trunks. They are grey, flat accretions that consist of tiny eggs laid down together in geometrically arranged rows. For more information online, go to: http://www.umassgreeninfo.org/fact_sheets/defoliators.html Or type in “winter moth” on your search engine. Best Wishes to all for gardening enjoyment, knowledge, and growth in 2005!

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