Abigail Higgins
Garden Notes: Blooms in early spring
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
One finds all sorts of crazy trash in scenic Island spots. “Carry in, carry out” is a good precept for a place like the...