Abigail Higgins
Garden Notes: Pollinators needed
The spring solstice approaches, the summit of the earthly year. The roots from the seed, the chick from the egg, the graduate from the...
Garden Notes: Eat most locally of all
Despite the fluctuations of the weather, Memorial Day is almost here. We can be thankful we do not live in leafed-out Denver, where within...
Garden Notes: Viburnums and lilacs
Mornings are light by 5:30. Birdsong is increasing, as staking out territories intensifies. Suddenly, vernal greenery surrounds us. This happens every year, but is...
Garden Notes: Consider camellias
April’s chilly, drying winds still blow, but flowery May is around the corner. Polly Hill Arboretum’s camellias are a flash of red while driving...
Garden Notes: The garden and Earth Day
Gardeners are doing lots of planting from here on out. Time to think about soil (bit.ly/SoilTipsNewGardeners). A soil thermometer says soil temperatures are still...
Garden Notes: The work is picking up
“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” –William Cowper
The rainstorm last week delivered two inches to the rain gauge. Tokens of early spring...
Garden Notes: Oaks are the answer
Erin go Brách! It may be St. Patrick’s Day, but much green is onion grass, not shamrocks. Island fields appear to be wearing camelhair...
Garden Notes: Forcing spring
As Islanders know, to their annoyance, spring does not willingly arrive on Martha’s Vineyard. It just doesn’t (maritime climate and all), even though the...
Garden Notes: Winter wonders
“You buy some flowers for your table;
You tend them tenderly as you’re able;
You fetch them water from hither and thither –
What do you get...
Garden Notes: Thinking globally
Let us quiet down awhile and let winter take its course. The blizzard and dawn in the white world are the means to see...
Garden Notes: January blooms
Ah, January! “As days lengthen, the cold strengthens.” Find ways to celebrate winter.
On a flawless, frigid day, we took a postponed New Year’s Day...
Garden Notes: Sticking with the locals
Many are looking forward enthusiastically to the discoveries in 2022 that the Mars rovers may make. Perseverance, the most recently landed Mars rover, has...
Tree lobby: Where do we grow from here?
The recent news of tree cutting and replacement planting raises the question, Do we have a plan for our future treescapes? No, the simple...
Garden Notes: Season for renewal
The Christmas wishes and New Year hopes remind us that intending to do good and be better is possible for all of us.
The darkest...
Garden Notes: Island grown
“Winter does not come until the swamps are full.” This adage is still borne out on the Vineyard, despite climate disruptions. Winter moth males...
Garden Notes: Life depends on plants (and animals)
The woods are beginning to look bare now. At nighttime, the moon shines through the cathedral of trees in a wintry way.
Is this a...
Garden Notes: Native grasses
Seasonal changes are taking place, including killing frost and the time — clocks set back one hour to Eastern Standard Time. Swamp maples and...
Garden Notes: Fall colors
Fall colors are slowly emerging from summer’s greenery. The many ripening berries, deepening oxblood-to-burgundy beetlebung trees, and festoons of gypsy scarlet Virginia creeper do...
Garden Notes: Fall gardens
A week ago an impressive dragonfly flight was swarming soundlessly over a wide, sunny up-Island lawn that would mostly qualify as a “Vineyard Lawn.”...
Garden Notes: Protecting the environment
Last Monday’s spectacular harvest moon and the autumnal equinox have ushered in a new season to garden in. Photons diminish daily, nighttime temperatures drop,...