A tendril of Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet) snakes along the boughs of a native black cherry at the periphery of a property on First Light Lane in Truro. This invasive […]
Farm & Garden
What would it look like to grow, harvest, and protect our bounty?
Browse all Farm & Garden stories below or dive into a topic:
PLOTS
Putnam Farm Grows Agriculture as ‘an Ally to Conservation’
Orleans is taking applications from growers for 8 new plots
ORLEANS — Even though most of the farmers who work the land at the Putnam Farm Conservation Area have tucked their plots in, and the swooping tree swallows have gone […]
PRETTY SEEDY
Goldenrod Shows Some Backbone
A handsome line of seaside goldenrod in seed marks the height of the tidal zone at the mouth of the Herring River in Wellfleet, where the first leg of the […]
THE DIRTY WORK
The End Is Only the Beginning of a Garden’s Path to Summer Glory
Stormy Mayo and Laura Ludwig dig their not-so-visible autumn dahlia rituals
PROVINCETOWN — Stormy Mayo is kneeling in the withered remains of his dahlia garden, his hands tugging at something hidden beneath the decay. Beside him, Laura Ludwig throws down flattened […]
BARNYARD CONFIDENTIAL
On Molting and Other Losses
Animal husbandry serves up plenty of opportunities to contemplate impermanence
The recent killing frost has us backyard farmers recalibrating. After a bountiful summer with heady blooms and eggs aplenty, the hens are holding back, and tired plants are nodding their […]
SEASIDE GARDENER
Garden in a Cup
Herbs for tisanes that recall a midsummer afternoon
There’s something about growing edible plants: they make a gardener feel useful. I’m especially fond of herbs, as they’re an easy way to that satisfaction. Nearly a decade ago, I […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
Ruled by the Low Angle of Autumn’s Light
The animal inside us knows to welcome winter’s stillness
Every year, around the middle of November, I feel sad. It is a gentle sort of sadness. It doesn’t inspire tears. It is not sharp or stinging. It is a […]
GARDEN PLOT
Planting Garlic Is a Down Payment on Spring
Each clove will give you two crops come summer
The early morning air is crisp and clear. As I head out to the kitchen garden, brisk winds following on the heels of a faraway tropical storm carry swirls of […]
SEASIDE GARDENER
The Other Mums
Lesser-known hardy chrysanthemums loll romantically in autumn beds
Depending on whom you ask, chrysanthemums are either beloved symbols of autumn or one of those plants that are so commonplace that they’ve become boring. I’m reminded of Maggie Smith’s […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
The Imperative of the Pond
Life among the giant puddles that tell the genesis story of this place
I was driving home from the ocean along a winding road, windows open, the air heavy with humidity. The dusk sky of a late summer evening was settling rich and […]
BARNYARD CONFIDENTIAL
What Does a Rooster Mean by Crowing?
Outsize randiness, gallant tidbitting, and other mysteries of the male of the species
When I was a new high-schooler, a boy called Rooster had an unrequited crush on me. I did not understand him. Now a middle-aged backyard chicken farmer, I’m still trying […]
FARMERS
Arin Hirst Wants to Share the Land
A grower who welcomes weeds, seeds, and new ways to feed ourselves
ORLEANS — Arin Hirst calls his greens-growing business “Sketchy Greenhouse,” in honor of the formerly dilapidated state of Putnam Farm in Orleans, where he and his friends hung out when […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
August’s Elegance in a Roadside Weed
Queen Anne’s finery is made of concentric whorls, repeated in perfect miniature
The rains that fell in spring and early summer have stopped by now, and most plants have plateaued in their upward movement. It is August; everything is resting for a […]
SEASIDE GARDENER
The Spare Simplicity of a Gravel Garden
Finding drama in pebbly textures, silvery tones, tough ‘maritimas,’ and chance
A large part of our back yard is a former dog run, which looked fairly bleak when my husband and I first laid eyes on it on a March day […]
FARMERS
The Rais Turn a Borrowed Slope Into Fertile Terraces
Down Home on the Cape’s eccentric end
TRURO — The sun is setting at an angle that casts a cool shade over three stools in the grass in front of a garage-like barn, where piles of produce […]
