HOME AND GARDEN
THE GIFT OF GARDENING
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 itemized highlighted list (with links provided), I’ve learned not to go there.
Tricky gifts?
My husband, when he reads this, will protest that if there is one truly tricky member of this […]
Pots of Gold
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 to trickle in. Despite not even having Halloween out of the way at the time of this writing, I’ve started to place Christmas foliage orders. All of which makes me […]
Planting More Than A Seed
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 hard pressed to find a serious gardener who would not agree.
Aside from the clear-up from the garden year just gone, these next few months are key to getting next […]
A Year of Shaker-style Flowers at Stissing House – Garden to Table Flowers
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 this historic gem.
Despite her stardom in the high-octane Manhattan restaurant world, Clare De Boer’s vision for the Inn’s next incarnation was simple. Inspired by the Shakers’ outlook on life, the […]
Making Scents
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. While Charles Dickens may well have been talking about two cities, my tale of hope and despair is about two scents – or rather one distinct lack of scent. However, the shared moral of both our stories is that things are not always what they seem.
We spend a lot of time on the visuals when planning gardens and sowing seeds – how plants look both in the garden setting and in the vase, […]
Edimentals
I hate starting an article as a killjoy – especially when it comes to anything floral – but for this food and drink edition of Main Street Magazine before I get on to the waxing lyrical bit of how to incorporate flowers into your dining beyond those gracing the table top, a few words of warning.
Probably best to start with the fact that not every flower is your friend when it comes to food. While many flowers can add subtle flavor and beauty to food […]
How to Condition Your Flowers
Over the last year of this column, I have talked a lot about growing flowers to cut and enjoy inside your home. Growing or sourcing local seasonal flowers has become the drum I like to beat (to death my husband would say!) be it for the environmental benefits and/or the emotional joy of creating your own beauty from just a tiny seed. What we haven’t talked about though is what to do with those flowers once they are cut.
If you are hoping for an A-Z […]
