The wind blew, and summer was gone. This is how it happens. One day, a day on either side of the middle of August, something changes. The air feels different. […]
On the Landscape
ROADSHOW
Why the Byways Bloom in Eastham
150 gardeners keep EFFI growing
EASTHAM — Vida DeMale and her friend Ann Darsie saw eye to eye on their town’s roadside traffic islands: they were awful and overgrown. The two of them gathered six […]
BACK TO THE GARDEN
Conifers Are the Heart of the Year-Round Garden
The conifer bed is an exercise in the appreciation of subtlety
Flowers get a lot of attention, and for good reason. They are wondrous, wild, living bursts of color. They are also fleeting, with some blossoms lasting only a day. Deciduous […]
D.I.Y.
At Homemade Flower Stalls, Gardeners Show Their Colors
The season’s most ephemeral businesses are in full bloom
A big white poster catches my eye as I drive along Herring Brook Road in Eastham. It is adorned with images of butterflies, sunshine, and pink flowers, with lettering that […]
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When Dirt Is Your Canvas, Start With a Big Idea
Rules that lay the groundwork for designing the space you seek
Late summer and early fall are good times to plant. Which means now is a good time to start thinking about that garden bed expansion or adding the new plantings […]
TREES
Walking Where the Tupelos Grow
An arborist sets out to explain the existence of a lone grove and gets a long look back in time
On a July day two years ago, after walking the roadside for several hundred yards, an impulse led me down an unmarked path into the Wellfleet woods. I imagined it […]
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In the Hidden Gardens of Eastham, Places for Pollinators
Alongside show-stopping hydrangeas, a plant-animal spectacle
Gardens are extensions of their caretakers’ personalities and interests, but often they are mostly hidden from view. Last week, I had the good fortune to attend the Eastham Garden Tour. […]
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The Most Enduring Gardening Decision
Trees provide structure, watching over us as we make memories
Take a moment and let yourself drift back to a memory. Can you recall a place where, long ago, you took shelter in the shade on a sunny day — […]
COMMON GROUND
An Eastham Farmer Tends the Future of His Fields
Bob Wells finds ways to build up the soil and share his land
EASTHAM — The fourth-grade students from Mrs. Howard’s class at Eastham Elementary School marched across the street to Redberry Farm on the morning of June 21. There, they met farmer […]
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Before You Garden, First Nurture Your Soil
On welcoming fungi, worms, and bacteria into your dirt
We often think of our gardens as a collection of plants. They are leaves, stems, forms, and flowers, all interacting with the wind, rain, and sun. They are colors and […]
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Letting Go of a Grudge Against Roses
All this tough, beautiful plant needs is a little care
For a long time, I held a resentment against roses. I liked to see them, but I wouldn’t plant them. I didn’t want them in my garden. They are too […]
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Deadheading (or Not) Reveals a Gardener’s Aesthetic Leanings
Blooms are beautiful, but so are the seed pods and structures that follow them
The flowers of the irises are mostly passed. Almost all the peonies have bloomed, the petals breaking away and collecting on the ground. The baptisia is still going, in white […]
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Watering, Deeply
Guiding roots where they need to go to sustain the plant’s life — and your own
Our summers have been marked by significant dry spells for the last few years, and sometimes two or three weeks pass without a drop of rain. When these hot, dry […]
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Designing a Planter That Packs a Punch
How to play with elements of garden design that satisfy on a small scale
One of the things we humans like to do is to bring little chunks of nature into our immediate surroundings. This is what gardens are, and houseplants, too. We enjoy […]
DIRT
Vegan Mud Pies in a Hobbit-Inspired Kitchen Near an Edible Forest
Cape Cod Tech and Nauset High students help revamp a library’s gardens
TRURO — This summer, when the “mud kitchen” behind the Truro Public Library is open for business, Leela Okeanos, who just turned six, plans on making vegan mud pies. The […]
