Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Home Authors Posts by Abigail Higgins

Abigail Higgins

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Garden Notes: Blooms in early spring

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We hope “April showers bring May flowers,” because it has been damp and chilly this first week of April. Drought status of our region...

Garden Notes: Spring is here

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Spring has sprung! The vernal equinox took place March 20, when daytime and nighttime are the same length. The grass is rapidly greening, and...

Garden Notes: Dam removals, tick season, and pruning

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Mornings, before anything except coffee, I go to the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) weather service site, forecast.weather.gov. Typing in “02575” gives the...

Garden Notes: Late February survival

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To a bird, the bumper sticker says it all: “If you’re not here in February, your opinion doesn’t count.” The birds that are here in...

Garden Notes: Soil protection and seed catalogues

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Feb. 2: Groundhog saw his shadow, sort of. The up-and-down, freeze-thaw conditions that are so stressful for plants in the maritime climate continue. Indoors,...

Garden Notes: Leaf blowing, again

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Day’s end comes slightly later now, with golden tones in the clear weather. February, the month of snows and more daylight, is oncoming. ‘High...

Garden Notes: State Forest white pine removal project

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Drivers, bucks are still chasing does; watch for them near roadways. Weather conditions more typical of January arrive outdoors, bringing the possibility of pond...

Garden Notes: The new garden year

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The New Year is upon us; onward we go. New Year’s resolutions are never a bad idea, even if they are promptly broken. These suggestions,...

Garden Notes: Wreaths and seed catalogues

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The Dec. 11–12 “atmospheric river” rainstorm yielded almost five inches of welcome rain in our unofficial home rain gauge during the two-day period. Dukes...

Garden Notes: Shrinking a lawn

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It is far from drab, even as winter dusk draws in. Rains, at long last, saturating fields and woods! Dampness intensifies the golds and...

Garden Notes: Time for digging

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The goldenrod flowers pictured in the Sept. 26 “Garden Notes” have now aged to motley, brown-gray fuzz. Sitting at the dining table, I observe...

Garden Notes: Perennial siting and planting

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The year is winding down: November weather and frosts, time change, elections, the holidays — this year it almost seems like impossible overload. Buy trees...

Garden Notes: Settling into autumn

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The recent trimming of our roadsides, giving them a landscaped look, gives additional visibility and lead time, maybe just nanoseconds, to avoid a deer...

Garden Notes: Tending to perennials in the fall

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Soils are currently very dry, as is observed if doing any planting. Amazingly, the soil is powdery dry right under the surface, despite the...

Garden Notes: The slow glow of the late season

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Wild goldenrod and asters dominate roadsides and open areas, against a backdrop of reddening little bluestem. Island life is slowing down, to the extent...

Garden Notes: Late summer harvest

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It always provokes a bit of a negative response to walk full-face into a sticky spiderweb stretching invisibly across some shadowy corner of the...

Garden Notes: Late summer

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As summer moves through its solar cycle, nights are cooler with dew, shadows are deeper, and midday sun intensifies with infrared rays. It feels...

Garden Notes: Summer chores

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Vitex seems impossibly bluer than ever, this year. Surprise lilies, Lycoris squamigera, do literally surprise, as they suddenly pop up. Island gardens and sidewalks...

Garden Notes: Keeping the flowering alive

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  August is the high point of Island summer, and the M.V. Agricultural Society’s Agricultural Fair (August 15, 16, 17, 18) is the high point...

Garden Notes: Carry in, carry out

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One finds all sorts of crazy trash in scenic Island spots. “Carry in, carry out” is a good precept for a place like the...