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 the rain events last week, St. Patrick’s Day rainstorm 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 seven-day weather forecast for the airport in West Tisbury. It...
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 February get first dibs on nesting sites and territories, while...
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, spring has arrived, with forced bulbs in bloom.
Outside, much is...
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 Fragrance’ camellias scent the greenhouse — ahhh! It is 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 skating and sledding, while indoors, lemons ripen and camellias bloom....
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, which have appeared in previous New Year’s Garden Notes, are...
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 County has been in mild drought, while the rest of...
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 russets of grasses and foliage; slanting light deepens their glow.
Fiery...
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 the patch’s activity through the window; it is constantly atwitter...
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 and shrubs
Fall sales are a chance to buy perennials, shrubs,...
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 collision. Nightfall comes earlier, and as we head homeward at...
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 long soaking from the three-day nor’easter week before last.
It is...
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 that we can all appreciate the mundane beauty that surrounds...
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. Doing some weekend gardening to get in the mood...
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 like early fall weather, which children greet with groans of...
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 are adorned with the bountiful burst of bloom of rose-of...
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 of August. Deadlines loom for making serious floral and vegetable...
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 Vineyard, with heavy visitor pressure.
Unfortunately, our guests, and some residents,...
Garden Notes: Our terrifying friend, the white-faced hornet
Fourth of July rolls around once again, and the Season officially begins. Fireflies spotted here on June 18. Midsummer and June’s last weeks were struck by July-like heat and humidity; there were some showers...