Country living and outdoor fireplaces go hand in hand. And so, while it will probably be several years before we’ll be living at “the farm,” we decided at the outset that we should at least plan where our picnic area will be and work out a suitable fireplace for it. It sounded easy. Syracuse is … Read more
Ferns of one kind or another can be grown in practically every situation in the modern home except perhaps in the sunniest windows. This is because, in their native habitats, most ferns grow in dense shade. The choice of ferns suitable for the home is somewhat restricted, however, by the fact that some of them … Read more
Sawdust, I have discovered, is an excellent mulch for daffodils. Its greatest advantage is its almost total suppression of weeds. This has allowed me to grow a collection of 135 varieties with very little care. Anyone who has ever hoed and weeded a planting of several hundred daffodil bulbs can appreciate the elimination of this … Read more
Our first adventure with peonies started almost 40 years ago when we bought a collection of about a dozen varieties. This included: We moved our garden twice in the following years, but we still have most of the original plants. As the years passed, we added many new varieties so that today we have over … Read more
There is no closed season on good soil improvement practices for the gardener who wants the best from his land. True, in most places, the frozen ground of winter puts an end to his actual labors, but if he is provident, not before he has planted cover crops in the fall to work for him … Read more
There’s no secret to growing mushrooms! Any gardener can do it if he has access to a dark room or cellar where temperature and ventilation can be controlled. Mushroom culture is fun and a little different from regular gardening. There’s a big thrill in harvesting the pure white gems that add an extra zest to … Read more
They said when I came to Hillcrest Acres (it was Mudcrest then) that I would never have a flower garden on the heavy, sticky, joint clay. I was almost ready to believe it myself for the first year. It was too dry or too wet to work all the time. I had few vegetables and … Read more
If any appraisal of ornamental fruiting vines, the bittersweet are among the first to come to mind. The American bittersweet Celastrus scandens is spectacular in Autumn when its yellow fruits open and expose their scarlet seeds. It is a twining vine often reaching 25′ feet long, good on walls and chimneys when given adequate support, … Read more
Witch-hazels are among the most typical undercover shrubs of eastern forests. Great diversification in the places where they grow wild offers a good index to their usefulness in landscape plantings. The natural range of common witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) blankets the Appalachian Mountain system from the Province of Quebec to Georgia. From the Atlantic Coast, it … Read more
The year 1950 was a good time to tell the story of our great crack willow trees. They began in the spring of 1850 when Grandpa was the pilot, the captain of the crew, on a raft of white pine that floated down the Susquehanna River. His 11-year-old nephew went along. Cuttings were taken from … Read more