By Jill Williams “I came to love my rows, my beans, though many more than I wanted. They attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antaeus.” -Henry David Thoreau At the end of June I planted bush beans to replace the sadly bolted spinach. A very… Continue reading
By Jill Williams “In the Junes that were warmer than these…” -Yeats Spring has been particularly green and lush this year here in the valley. It was good to see the daffodils and tulips last for weeks in the cooler rainy weather. That doesn’t happen every year. Most of the… Continue reading
By Jill Williams ”The promise of May is the joy of renewal, a time when nature paints with its brightest colours.” John Burroughs Spring has finally come to the valley arriving about three weeks later than last year. The grouse are drumming at all hours and the phoebes have returned… Continue reading
“All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair- The bees are stirring- birds are on the wing- And Winter, slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!” Coleridge It’s hard to imagine that the groundhog could possibly be right about early spring this… Continue reading
By Jill Williams “No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.” – Hal Borland The first sign of spring here in the valley is the snowdrops coming up through the ice and snow in mid-March. The resilience of these little plants always amazes me. They are not bothered by… Continue reading
“Now, by two-headed Janus…” Shakespeare The solstice is the beginning of winter but it’s also the start of longer days and our turning towards the light and faraway spring. January is named after the Roman god, Janus, who is represented as having two faces. One face looks forward to the… Continue reading
“The gardener’s year is circular; November and December are the months that close the circle.” Bob Thomson, The New Victory Garden The last few flowers of the fall season are still blooming in the bed beside the west wall of the house. Here there’s bright yellow Calendula that popped up… Continue reading
“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” F. Scott Fitzgerald We haven’t had a lot of crispness yet as I write this towards the end of September. There were three or four cold nights when I wrapped up the hot peppers at night. But after… Continue reading
“…Autumn hails anew…” John Banister Tabb My most surprising accomplishment in this year’s garden is that I have finally succeeded in growing sweet peas. Oh I have grown them before but they were always a bit straggly and never looked that happy. This year I planted them on the former… Continue reading
