Abigail Higgins
Garden Notes
Homegrown, the vegetable gardeners' forum, meets March 20 from 4 to 6 pm at Agricultural Hall. Please finalize payment for seed potatoes, onion and leek plants now.
The benefits of bees
Various life forms responsible for pollination depend on pollen, nectar, and water for themselves and their young. Having a variety of trees and plants is a huge assist for bees.
Winter starts to relent on Martha’s Vineyard
Dawn arrives earlier now, sunrise occurring before 7 am. On a clear dawn the SE sky is spangled with a glittering "morning star," Venus.
Some gardeners even find winter fertile
Whether under limpid or lowering (rhymes with glowering) skies, winter landscapes are often black and white, with snow-covered ground and evergreens blackened by cold.
Planning, testing, questioning pay off for gardeners
It is easy to have the feeling of losing one's head.
Look ahead, look down, and look after plants and animals
Farewell to the old year and its accomplishments and woes, and greetings to the new one with its challenges and hopes.
The sound, sight, and taste of Island gardens in winter
Working late in the garden I looked up, prompted by the cawing of crows and the sound of their wings in the chilly clear air.
The lure of a formal garden
Our recent Thanksgiving trip yielded a few horticultural observations, among many other holiday experiences.
Thinking of others
Thanksgiving celebrations in the post-war years seemed to be a refuge for spiritual urges that did not involve commercialism.
Garden winterizing on Martha’s Vineyard
Expectantly, threat of frost loiters everywhere, for this year's gardens are coming to an end. It is just the right time to start planning for next year.
Autumn beauty on Martha’s Vineyard
Orion, the Hunter, is a constellation of autumn and winter and has been one of the brightest features of recent starry nighttime skies.
Sour milkweed threatens butterflies
The lively and mellow Living Local/Harvest Fest took precedence over my being able to participate in the "Goldenrod: Identification of Island Species" workshop, interesting as it was to me, which was offered by Melissa Dow Cullina at Polly Hill Arboretum last Friday and Saturday.
Harvesting fruit on Martha’s Vineyard
Miscanthus grass, a roadside volunteer approximately seven years old, has been joined by about ten more — one a stripey "Zebrinus" type! — nearby.
Late-season gardening on Martha’s Vineyard
Upcoming at PHA: Fall Plant Sale, Saturday, Sept.
Know what you eat
Another summer has sped by.
Trees, dogs, beans, and salt
Our shade trees are demonstrating their importance during the increasingly hotter summers the Vineyard is experiencing.
The heat goes on
The season has turned, and now the time of ripening is upon us.
Garlic, nepetas, neem
July is here, yet it feels as if it has been July for three weeks already.
Keep on keeping up
The West Tisbury Farmers' Market has resumed at the Grange Hall.
Go native, get wet
We cut, clear, tidy, and attempt to create new idylls.