June, June, June! The month every gardener spends the rest of the year dreaming about. The longest days of the year. Generally reasonable weather with frosts behind us and droughts/flash floods still to come. And, after months of planning, sowing, potting up, and planting out, the garden is a go. We have finally hit the […]
For the two years I have been writing this column (how time flies), the focus has always been on sustainable seasonal flowers: how to grow them, where to source them, and why they are so important in our quest to reduce our great environmental clod-hopping footprint. Today is no different; although this month we are […]
I love the April environment edition of Main Street Magazine. For it means I get to shout my mantra as the headline and not have to bury it subtly in the text! Readers, flowers are meant to symbolize love, sympathy, joy, and celebration, not be the poster child for massive carbon footprints, with a sideline […]
Ask any flower farmer what is the most common misconception they hear about their business and nine times out of ten it will be “your fields must look so beautiful when they are all in full bloom.”
The thought of a field of billowing flowers? Well, that’s enough to make a flower farmer cry. Flowers […]
Congratulations – we made it through January! Now we’ve just got February and March to get through and we’re home free and back out in the garden. I’m guessing most people have not yet given a huge amount of thought to the garden so far this year. As I’m writing this, mine is deep under […]
Ahh January – here you are again. My favorite month – not! Horrible weather, not enough daylight, no outside gardening, and all those infernal good intentions. Not that there is anything wrong with facing the new year with optimism, fortitude, and enthusiasm; it’s just that feeling come mid-February when we have maybe not kept on […]
Here we are again! Christmas time and apparently open season for my kids to try their luck at asking for anything and everything that’s nabbed their attention for even a nano-second over the last 12 months. Gone are the days of hoping that they will like their surprise – if it’s not on an […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about pots recently. As I write this, the first frost warnings are being whispered on all my fellow gardeners’ Instagram accounts. My bulbs, ordered way back in June when caution is always blown to the wind as the lessons of just having harvested 8,000 tulips are blatantly ignored, have started […]
Autumn might not seem like the busiest time in a gardener’s calendar. Surely with the fading of blooms and dropping of leaves, this must be a quiet time compared to spring and summer. Actually, few things could be further from the truth. Fall is on a par with my busiest spring weeks. You’d be […]
The Stissing House Inn at the crossroads in the center of Pine Plains has been a focal point for both sustenance and celebration since 1782, operating almost continuously as an inn, tavern or restaurant since its inception. In March 2022 came a new keeper of the Inn to give a new lease of life to […]