Lung Lichen

Monday, January 17, 2011

Almost 3 PM, with bright sunshine but today's high of 6.1° had not been very rewarding. Alex and I had planned to go ice fishing but the leader in me said "no" to what at that time was still -8°. Instead we headed for Bradford to a store I know as Farm Way. If you haven't been there, it's worth a stop. Their Internet moniker is Vermont Gear and they do in fact have quite a selection. The store sits by the railroad tracks, is an old mill, and has a sign out front reminding people that 43% of its electrical needs are met by a ground mounted solar display out back. The store is proof that the owners are thinkers.

Returned home to happily find a response to a question I posted on my January 2, 2011 blog,
Early Winter Hike. As we were finishing a New Years Day hike through the Stranahan Memorial Town Forest, a leafy green plant growing out of the side of an ash tree caught my eye. In all my years of being in the woods, I never saw such a thing. I floated the picture on the Internet and asked questions but until today did not have a definitive response.

Brett Engstrom, a local naturalist and very nice fellow, answered my inquiry. He wrote:

"Funny you should send the photo of this lichen from Stranahan. I took a photo of probably the exact same patch of lichen a couple weeks ago. It is lung lichen, Lobaria pulmonaria.Very striking. Not real common with us, but I do find it occasionally on basswood, ash (white and black), and sometimes on sugar maple in moist forests or swamps."

Mystery solved. Try this link to Lichens of North America for some more very interesting information. Understand that on October 7th I blogged about Lichens and Rock Ferns. Guess it's about time to purchase some good guides and take a course or two. Lichens seem everywhere!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond while Gail reads bad news about King County (Seattle) Washington where my son Adam lives. Floods are some contrast to our current +4.2° and the freezing rain that is supposed to arrive late tonight. Best of luck everyone!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Social Networking Works!
Find us on Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens or as George Africa
On twitter as vtflowerfarm

Winter Markets

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Almost 5:30 PM. The sun is down and a couple stars dot the sky. The last of the ice fishermen are making their way up from Peacham Pond. Soon the local folks will be back to their homes for the night and the road will become quiet. As the temperature continues to drop, the maples will shudder and creak and startle Karl the Wonder Dog as we make a quick evening call. If I'm tired or cold on that last walk of the night, I might startle too. Probably will.

I have many irons in the fire right now but a Facebook notice this morning from Artesano in Groton, Vermont, took an hour and a half out of my day. Artesano is a meadery that makes some special meads from local honey, fruit and maple syrup. The notice said they would be at the Groton Farmers Market selling limited quantities of three of their hand made ice creams. So on the coldest morning yet to be faced in this part of Vermont, I headed to Groton, over Route 232, a snow packed road that is growing frost heaves on a daily basis. I wanted some ice cream and not just any ice cream.

The third Saturday of each month the Groton community center becomes a farmers market. During the summer it is a weekly affair but through winter months they move to one day a month and shorten the hours to 10 to 1. I've been past a bazillion times but the lure of a taste of this coveted ice cream made me do it today.

Surprisingly--or maybe not-- there was no place to park when I arrived. The lot serves the fire station and also the town clerk's office which is part of the building well known in October for one of Vermont's most well attended chicken pie suppers. I sat in the truck for a couple minutes and then a couple came out, one using a walker, the other carrying a dozen eggs, a bag of dinner rolls and 1 buttercup squash. This is Vermont at its finest and the picture of this couple could have come from Peter Miller's Vermont People.


I walked up the back ramp and entered the door, stopping on the mat for my eyes to adjust. My ears could hear all sorts of activity and there were some good smells too but I couldn't see anything as my eyes adjusted from the bright snow to a room where electric lighting must have been on some sort of economic hold. In a shorter time than it seemed, I could see and I began walking about.

I found the blue cooler and the Artesano sign and the friendly face and smile I had grown accustomed to this past summer. The choices were a super rich dark chocolate, vanilla or Munson's Maple. I could have picked any one as I have no preference but I went with the maple as it is Alex's favorite. The hand packed cartons are quarts and that's not nearly enough once three people break out the spoons but like the economic hold on the lighting at the community center, I put a hold on treats. But this is worth it!

The Groton Farmers Market will continue through the winter on the same 3d Saturday of each month schedule until farmers have to break into their spring routine. Artesano is a different story and you should follow their Facebook page. The ice creams are melt-in-your-mouth delights while the meads including blueberry, raspberry, chili-cinnamon and spiced have a taste to be savored. Try some!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond as a gardener who has horticultural responsibilities that sometimes take a back burner to the scenes and stories, products and people of Vermont. If you can't live here, at least come visit!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Social Networking Works!
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

Organic Weed Management

Friday, January 14, 2011

Already 7 AM here on the mountain and I'm bouncing around from one thing to another trying to clear up "paperwork" before Alex and I head to Burlington for the day. I'm "old school" so I say "paperwork', not knowing what that word has been replaced with in a society going paperless. I haven't touched a piece of paper this morning but I have placed two plant orders, confirmed a web order we received for daylilies and hosta, and reviewed our business account balances. Every day there are more and more TV commercials about applications for the various Smart phones and I wonder how soon it will be that I must get into that thinking. Here in Marshfield, cell and broadband services are worse than terrible and as much as we want cell phones, they just don't work and what sort of works at the nursery doesn't work at the house.

Gail and I have always tried to steer clear of chemicals. There have been times when there has been no other choice save for pulling up specific crops and getting them out of the garden. This could have involved insects or various fungal situations but there are times when gardeners and greenhouse growers just shake their heads and toss money into the landfill. Compost piles surely are not considered when infection is serious.

We read articles in all our trade journals about controlling problems and we do a good job sharing ideas with each other. Customers bombard us with questions and there remains a fairly obvious profile of those who think in terms of safety and those who dump on chemicals and expect immediate results. The chemical users don't mince words and don't seem to think there is a different way but Gail and I are possesed to eventually be able to show a brighter future.

For Christmas, Gail gave me a little book named Organic Weed Management by Steve Gilman. Gail has a renewed interest in the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) and this book is one of their "Hands-On Organics" books. I'm sure she probably noticed a forward by Lynn Byczynski too as we both like Lynn's book The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower's Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers. (Organic Weed Management was first published in 2000 by a very good Vermont publisher, Chelsea Green Publishing.) So as snow in Vermont deepens and my time working in the woods slows proportionate to how deep my boots sink, I turn more focus on weed and insect management and try to learn better ways.

I few weeks back a trade journal mentioned an organic weed control made from citrus. Spray it on and half the weeds are history at the end of about a week. Progress continues over the next month. The agent does not discriminate so care must be exercised to keep the flower crops alive. Best of all, the product is approved for organic production and for food. The name: GreenMatch, billed as a Burndown Herbicide. A replacement for RoundUp I hoped!

As I read product information I was interested enough to send off an email to the regional sales staff for more info. A return call came in two days later and I received an excellent presentation about the product. I had questions about how the product could be applied and the sales person did the research and got right back to me. It is available from a Vermont wholesaler, North Country Organics in Bradford and goes for about $45 per gallon.

It's too early to tell how oil from lemon grass will work to kill Vermont weeds but if what people tell me is true, then I have found yet another product that will help keep Vermont the way it used to be. I have been in sessions where new gardeners spoke of pulling weeds as if keeping five acres of garden weed free is an easy task. I have even heard a local presentation on protecting local riparian rights of way by hand pulling noxious weeds like Japanese knotweed and poison ivy. I'm trying to say that I have heard from those who haven't gardened beyond their backyard and "bigger" puts a different meaning to what must be done to control weeds and be successful with one's crops. That does not preclude respect for our environment. I hope this organic product will help me maintain control of the gardens we have already planted and help develop more gardens that are weed free. I'll keep you all posted.


Got to head to Burlington now. Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where 7.4° has been a regular morning feature here. Possible freezing rain by Tuesday. Bird feeders need more food before I go. Enjoy today!

George Africa

The Vermont Gardener

Vermont Flower Farm
Social Networking Works!
Try us on Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens or at George Africa
On Twitter at vtflowerfarm

Fringed Bleeding Hearts

Saturday, January 8, 2011

18° on the mountain with a light wind but lacking the snowflakes that were predicted. That's fine with me. I just started checking inventories and plant orders for next spring and ended the exercise wondering if I had messed up on the Dicentra eximia, the woodland or fringed bleeding hearts that people have come to enjoy so much.

For years I thought the traditional bleeding hearts were the limit. Everyone talked about them and they prevailed at every farm lady's garden I ever visited. But then as I began to expand my tour of gardens and begin woodland and shade gardens, I learned of these fringed leaf perennials which grow so well here in Vermont. The strong point is probably the fact that they bloom throughout the summer and into fall and there is some color variation to choose from. I especially like the deep cut leaves and the blue-grey foliage color that reaches about 16" in height.

Some of our records are on the computer, some written on inventory sheets, some just a matter of memory, Gail's or mine....and sometimes we are memory-less. I fear that is the case with eximia.

Although many descriptions suggest avoiding wet planting areas and caution about allowing them to totally dry out, we have grown them in a garden alongside the road where bright sun shines and the soil dries quickly. Perhaps they do well there because all the plants are thick and water evaporates slowly. But sometimes the soil is baked hard from July heat and yet these flowers keep blooming.

If you have an out of the way place with some sun but not too much water, give them a try. They work well with about any shade plant and accent our hostas and astilbes well. If you haven't tried them before, let me know what you think.

As I think about the inventory, I think we have enough for this season but it will mean dividing some plants this spring. That will work!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where it's quiet and I can get some reading done.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

Walking Along Waterfalls

Friday, January 7, 2011

4 PM is already here with a dullness that suggests tonight's coming snowstorm. It's not predicted to be very big, perhaps 4", but the weather folks say light snow will continue this weekend. Locations closer to the New England coast may well receive more snow but that's all for us. It has been a strange winter so far, quite cold and windy with really very little snow here to speak of. I have put on the plow only one time and that really was at the pleasure of Christmas guests.

Vermont is a beautiful state and I really wish I had more time in the summer to get out and enjoy it. Operating a nursery and trying to keep employees to a minimum puts a damper on free time to get out and about. Up top here is a picture of local Marshfield Falls, purported to be one of Vermont's longer waterfalls. The falls is easy to find, is located in Marshfield village and just 2/10's mile off US Route 2. Although the main falls pictured here is about 100 feet long, the entire falls from where it tips downhill at the top of the mountain to where it joins the Winooski River at the bottom is over 600 feet. If you're passing through town, it's worth stopping for a few minutes. It's visible from the road all year long.Turn of Route 2 at Rainbow Sweets and go straight. Bear right where the road forks if you want to park and visit for a bit.

This summer a customer's plant question led me to a web search which led to mention of Cheever Falls, 15 miles away in Walden, Vermont. Just reading about Cheever falls got me interested and along the way I heard about New England Waterfalls by Greg Parsons and Kate Watson.They had published a similar book years previous that described the location for 200 waterfalls but this revised edition discusses 400 waterfalls. Cheever and Marshfield Falls are both mentioned.

As a gardener I enjoy getting out and walking along rivers as there are many botanical surprises to be found. This holds true of river banks with adjacent waterfalls. The humidity of the land adjacent to the falls always provides a perfect place for certain plants to prosper. I have found buttercups, moneywort , jewelweed, Jack in the pulpits, cattail, Japanese knotweed, baneberry, Jerusalem artichoke, yellow flag, trout lilies, orchids, Indian cucumber root, clintonia, marsh marigold, black eyed Susans, forget-me-not, meadow rue, baneberry, turtlehead, Dutchman's britches, wild sarsaparilla, Canada lilies, trillium, cardinal flower, loosestrife and Lilium superbum. There are many more as well as ferns, mosses and lichens in quantity to keep any would-be botanist busy.

Today it's too cold for me to be climbing around waterfalls but for next spring through fall, test your scouting skills and find a few waterfalls. There's probably at least one nice one close to your home.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the wind has died and the light is almost gone. Time to bring in some wood for tonight.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Social Networking Works!
On Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

Early Winter HIke

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Approaching 5 PM, darkness has closed in and the temperature continues to drop from today's high of 40.2 degrees. Two days in a row of springlike weather meant we were able to get outside and get a lot of things done that might have been saved for much later into winter.

Yesterday afternoon some friends invited us to join them for a walk at the Virginia Stranahan Memorial Forest off Hollister Hill in Marshfield. Although we had some sense of the background of the forest, we had never visited. The Stranahan family offered all 622 acres to the Vermont Land Trust that ultimately gifted it to the Town of Marshfield. An industrious crew has mapped the land, laid out trails and done a lot of clearing. The parking area is open, a sign and guide map station has been erected, road fill added, a security gate installed and trails have been marked and cleared.

Seven of us left the parking area about 1:30 and walked the first leg of the Forest down Thompson Road, part of which is also the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers trail. Gail provided some entertainment along the way as she had snow proofed her boots before the trip and apparently went a little heavy with the silicon spray which she learned should not be allowed on the bottom of the boots. Pirouettes may be classic ballet (?) as Gail demonstrated from the back of the pack but they really have no place in an early winter mountain hike.

We took the first left which is the Sugar House Loop, a third of a mile long and climbing steadily uphill through some beautiful woods. Half way up the loop the old sugar house skeleton including evaporator pan lay on a rise, offering little to see but conjuring images of wood smoke and evaporating sap from bygone years. I stopped for a minute and my memory brought back the sweet smell of the boiling sap and the reminiscence of eating my first hard boiled egg directly from a wood fired arch.

Here and there large maples show leftovers from a pipeline system apparently used and in some places never recovered. One maple looked as if someone had cinched a belt tightly around it 4 feet off the ground as it grew around an old pipeline wire. The maples looked wonderful and Sara commented how straight they were and how far up they grew before any branches started.

The topography of the Sugar House Loop is interesting because as you rise in elevation you can look down and see plateaus rising from the bottom as if someone laid giant steps up the mountain. Sugar maples prevail in this area accompanied by some very nice green ash, occasional white birch, more frequent yellow birch and towards the end of the loop, fir balsams and hemlock trees. Snowshoe hare tracks wind in and out red spruce and a minor number of striped maples. Coyote tracks passed through several places. Deer tracks were fairly common although we saw neither deer along the way nor any moose tracks anywhere. We flushed one partridge before the sugar house site and I saw only two red squirrels the entire afternoon. I was pleased not to see or hear any pileated woodpeckers. These are spectacular birds but they signal problems with sugar woods as they hammer away, eating insects from dying trees. I am all too familiar with their presence here on the Peacham Pond Road where our maples are in trouble.

From the Sugar Woods Loop we jumped onto the Upper Sugar Woods Trail and from various vantage points could see Moon Field Trail and back in the direction of Eaton Cemetery and Route 2. The trees are thick enough that these are somewhat obstructed views but with the map you can get a good sense of how big 662 acres really is.

As the Upper Sugar Woods Trail heads downhill a bit you move onto the High Ridge Trail. There you meet Guernsey Brook, 5 feet wide and quiet this time of year as it eventually seeks to join Kings Brook before the two merge and head for the Winooski.

The end of High Ridge Trail is the commencement of Old Grist Mill Road. We stopped to observe what was apparently a grist mill at a small falls and then slid down the trail, parallel to the brook. Beavers had been here several years ago but were absent now. I stopped and looked back up to the waterfalls, now hidden in snow and ice. I snapped a few pictures and noticed how far behind Diana and I were from our quicker companions.




Deer had been feeding on ferns along the swamp and their tracks were more prevalent in the lowlands. Coyote tracks passed in and out of the swamp as we headed down an easy trail, rejoined Thompson Road and returned to the parking lot.

Towards the end of Old Grist Mill Road I spotted something I had never seen in all my days in the woods. I hope someone out there with more experience than I have can identify this plant growing in the bark of a green ash tree. It appears they have a relationship going but it's not anything I can explain. Can anyone help? Replies appreciated. Click to enlarge.

As Gail and I drove away, we had a better sense of what 662 acres involves but we also knew what a treasure had been given to our town. Although we don't know the names of many of those involved in the project, we are grateful for their time and energy. This is a magnificent place! For more detail, go to the Marshfield, Vermont town website and click on Stranahan Town Forest

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the outside temperature has dropped to 29 degrees as the wood stove inside warmed enough to draw Karl the Wonder Dog to "snoring mode" in front of it.

Happy New Year!

George Africa

The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Social Networking Works!
On Facebook as George Africa and also as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

Rearranging Magazines

Thursday, December 30, 2010

3 PM here on the mountain. One lonely mourning dove at the feeder. Looking across the valley I can see the last sun already leaving Hooker Mountain and heading west. The temperature will fall quickly now without the sun but it has been a beautiful, productive day.

I just put a roast in the oven and the vegetables are prepared to follow in a while. I want it ready about the time Gail returns tonight. I'm just guessing at the time because she is in New Hampshire making arrangements for the transfer of her one remaining uncle from the hospital to a community care facility. At age 92 he cannot safely manage himself any more and a recent fall confirmed his needs to probably everyone but him. Independence is a difficult thing to relinquish.

For me, even giving up old gardening magazines is difficult too. For days now, Gail has sorted and bagged magazines for different friends based on her knowledge of what they grow and what magazines they already receive. When she's not looking, I go through the piles again and pull out things that "I need". It happened again today as I threw a safety net around a 2008 (vol. 2) copy of Fine Gardening's design ideas: 17 strategies for shade gardens.

Early in the issue, editor Steve Aitken offers an introduction entitled Seeing the Light:Knowing what kind of shade you have is the first step to success. The title is a fitting description to a dilemma that creates unrest for gardeners, new and more experienced alike. I see the consequence all the time at the nursery when asked "Will it grow for me in my garden?" When I ask about light or absence of light, the dilemma often deepens. If I can get a "my house is situated north-south", or "east-west" out of people that is a good start but often I find myself asking where the sun is in the morning or at night. An occasional "Why, it's everywhere!" is less than helpful but usually describes the exuberance of the gardener to succeed. Aitken's article (pages 10-11) is a good start as he includes a diagram complete with compass-like readings and the flow of the sun from morning to afternoon. He also shows the shade impact based on the position of the sun and makes the concern easier for the reader to apply to their own location.



Reading along I thought again of Sue Reed's new book, Energy-Wise Landscape Design. It is the perfect book for people planning a new home construction, a home remake or a landscape change. It describes sun and wind and relates them to your house, out buildings, walks and drives, lawns and gardens . It suggests where to plant what type plants, shrubs, trees and explains why. Every idea can help save money through efficient design, construction and landscaping.



In an age when energy efficiency has become cost-imperative, we really need to try anything to save energy and money...and still enjoy and be able to maintain our homes and landscapes. This past week many in America experienced severe weather and some of the worst winds in their lives. Some winds were just too strong and no matter what a homeowner had planted would have been devastated. But the sound of wind in your ear can be a reminder that some of Sue's suggestions would have slowed the wind and energy loss, while adding, not detracting from the landscape.

I hope this little thought, generated from a rescued magazine, will make you go to pencil and paper and rework thoughts of how well energy saving really integrates with home and landscape planning. Give it a try!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where chickadees and evening grosbeaks crowd the feeders for supper.


George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Social networking works!
Try Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens or George Africa
Try my Twitter profile at vtflowerfarm

The Birds Of Winter

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

When Winny the Pooh and friends mentioned a blustery day it may have been fall, not winter, and their discussion occurred on Winds-day not Tuesday like today, but here on the mountain there is still no shortage of wind. It's still too dark to see the size of the snow drifts but the wind has not given up since last night's strong bursts. My anemometer is hanging at 11 mph and only slows to 4 for brief periods. A trip outside to empty wood stove ashes made me return to look up a wind chill chart and rub my hands together despite a pair of gloves. Karl the Wonder Dog came out for a brief visit, turned quickly and went back to bed. No "outside" for him yet.

Yesterday was a "stay inside day" and save for plowing the driveways and gassing up the truck again, we all stayed inside. The wind was brutal and even layered clothing doesn't avoid the possibility of frost bite with those winds. I noticed a group heading out for cross country skiing at the Martin Covered Bridge outside Plainfield village but they all wore face masks, and each dressed in black which seemed odd, a highly noticeable contrast to clouds of white snow.

The birds of winter interest me. The snow buntings are still here but only four remain now. They entertain me the way they scoot across the snow looking for small seeds. I would love to hear their voices but they only speak during mating season in the arctic tundra, far distant from Vermont. It would be fun to hear one say "I love you."

For days I have been seeing my favorite pine grosbeaks (up top) and they have been to our feeders only once earlier this season. Yesterday as the snow deepened, they appeared again, numbering six, then eight and then leaving. They are late this year as they usually arrive to eat the sargentii crab apples but flocks of robins and our wild turkey population took care of those much earlier in fall.

Blue jays are everywhere and they are noisy, wasteful, arrogant, bullying birds. I never understand what they are talking about but they come each morning within minutes of me spreading new food. I keep looking for a frequent visitor last year who had an injured wing but haven't seen him yet. I hope he is fine as he displayed strong courage.

If you aren't into house plants and gardening magazines and shows to get you through winter, consider birds. Cornell University has a great site to get you started. Bird feeding is no longer cheap but the entertainment is worth it.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the rising sun has dropped the temperature to 3.9. I can see that the snow fence along the back walk was once again worth the time to put up.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Forever using social networking because it works!

Christmas Ferns

Friday, December 24, 2010

An even 15° here on the mountain this morning. 9 blue jays at the feeder are the only noise as the road is quiet of traffic and the only disruption here is an occasional crack from the wood stove. Gail is off to make some deliveries and visit the Humane Society and Alex and Karl the Wonder Dog will join me in a few minutes for a walk to the pond. Life is good.

I have never decorated with Christmas Fern before but this New England native was well used from colonial times on. It is a thick leaved fern so it holds its color through cold frosts and into winter. There were times in America when it was so heavily harvested for shipment to cities that some thought it would be wiped out. It is common in Vermont and noticeably successful growing in poor soils close to neutral ph. That said I have found some good colonies among maple trees and in regularly wet areas.

The picture up top is from fall a few years back. The site is our lower shade garden built within an old barn foundation. The accompanying European ginger makes a good contrast and floral designers can have fun with both. For today, my Christmas Ferns stay in the gardens, silent and waiting for Christmas.


George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as George Africa and also as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens.
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
Social networking works!

Light Up The Darkness

Thursday, December 23, 2010

22° here on the mountain, a 4 mph wind and 3" of fine snow that arrived sometime after midnight. Seems dark for after 7 AM as the front moves quickly overhead. I have reached the threshold of snow in the driveway and think today I'll have to mount the plow on the truck and clean things up for Christmas.

It's nice to reach the point where days get a little longer although through January and February our focus is on how deep the snow gets or if the weather will warm and freezing rain will replace snow. But in summer, daylight hours are important to gardeners as they fill in every available hour with planting and grooming their gardens. This is especially true in a state such as Vermont where seasons can end with a hard frost anytime after Labor Day.

Long ago our friend Harold from daylily land in Morrisville mentioned how he gardens half the night with a headlamp. He works all day at a regular job and cares for some of the most beautiful gardens in Vermont the rest of the season. This requires nightly work after the sun hides away when sometimes the moon provides the only other source of light.

Now you have to understand that Gail and I think working all day is quite fine and our commitment ends at dinner time. From June through August this often translates to sitting down to eat at 8 PM. That's ok because that's when we are finished but with Harold and his headlamp, 8 PM is when he often just gets going. If you chance to see the gardens he and Leila have created, you'll understand why he needs a day stretcher to find the time to maintain and of course expand the diversity they enjoy.

Last year I was shopping at a sporting goods store and just after the decoy section was a huge display of headlamps. My mind flashed back to duck hunting on the Black River in Newport and setting up decoys in snow squalls when one twisted anchor line could have benefited from a headlamp and a few less expletives at 4 AM. Headlamps were on my mind anyway because I had just finished an early evening tractor repair the night before and admittedly my old eyes and limited light made the final reassembly a chore. I looked over the choices and bought an Energizer brand labeled by the battery people with that rabbit that never stops running.

For whatever reason, the headlamp ended up hanging from my dresser mirror and never got used until this fall when Gail was walking Karl the Wonder Dog just after ten and the sound of a bear in close proximity suggested to her that carrying a flashlight might make sense. Gail is fearless about the dark but decided to try the headlamp. She was instantly converted to the opportunity to walk about in hands-free fashion....and maybe at least see the bear. Harold had succeeded in his recommendation.

Since that time I can't say that we have done any night time gardening. I don't think we will. But if you need a small gardening gift with lots of uses, buy a headlamp. They have an adjustable head band and have 3-4-5 adjustments for the amount of light/number of bulbs you have lit. For that Christmas tree effect there are even red lights for when you need "light without the shine". The gift is also great for runners, hikers or campers but to me the strength is good light in a hands-free format. I noticed that LL Bean and Cabelas now sell baseball caps with the same concept built into the visor. Those are around $20 each, this headlamp was $14.99. People might roll their eyes with the thought of a headlamp but once they use it, you'll hear about it again and again. Guaranteed!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where later on snow plowing will be replaced by a final list of groceries and then home for the holidays.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Using social networking to spread good gardening thoughts. On Facebook at George Africa and also at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens; On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

Thoughts of GIfts for Gardeners

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A three mph wind tosses snowflakes around as they sprinkle the earth this morning. Just 7 AM and people are moving up the road from the pond, en route to work. Silence prevails here as we are recovering from two days and nights of Karl the Wonder Dog being very sick. He is coming around slowly and has survived another difficult time. Once again I have probably been blamed for feeding him non-traditional dog food but he can find things outside all by himself that should be left alone.

Gail made a trip to Montpelier yesterday to take care of the recycling and trash and pick up a couple things she had ordered in locally. She said holiday shoppers were crazy and spending more than they should. Gail's observation of shoppers was so accurate as she described people shopping for their families who had not been touched by lost jobs, sickness or homelessness versus those who cannot pay the heat bill but are still trying to get something for a child who thinks that Santa doesn't discriminate regarding poverty or unemployment. This is a difficult time.

Almost as soon as she got in the house, Gail picked up a thank you from Green Mountain Pug Rescue that has been sitting on the counter for over a week. Gail wants it there because she rereads it daily. Every year we make a donation in memory of our pug, Baker, and every year we receive a nice thank you. This year the info on the number of rescued pugs was overwhelming as was the organizations obvious spirit. They included a nice picture of a pug named King Titan who was going to a family the next day. Gail read the note, picked up the picture and smiled. We think the best holiday gifts are for someone you don't even know.

If you have read The Vermont Gardener in the past, you probably know how much I enjoy my trips to Coastal Maine Botanical Garden. A holiday gift idea you might not have thought about is a trip with friends to go visit a nice garden. It needn't be as far away as Boothbay, Maine. Here in Vermont it could be a day trip to the gardens at the waterfront in Burlington, the Lilac Festival at the Shelburne Museum, or a visit to nurseries like Rocky Dale or Cadys Falls, the Interval Gardens or even Vermont Flower Farm. With a little planning, a trip could include a shared lunch or just a return stop for tea, lemonade or homemade ice cream. It doesn't have to cost very much, admission fees are small or don't exisit, friendship bears no pricetag, and memories are priceless. The best gifts are the ones that are remembered forever. Give it a thought as time grows short and you remember something or someone.



Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the blue jays are looking for more cracked corn as they chat noisy mystery words I can hear from my desk.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Social network connections via Facebook as George Africa and also as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens
Twitter thoughts at vtflowerfarm

Bright Columbine Thoughts

Monday, December 20, 2010

Almost 8 PM. 13.9° here on the mountain and very dark. Very much unlike a full moon and for sure we will never get a chance to see the lunar eclipse at 2 AM. Gail and Alex are very happy as they knew I would probably suggest we get up and take a look as we have done in the past. This much cloud cover will never change and even I will not hope to snap some images now. If any of you in other parts get some good images, think about sharing.

Received an email yesterday asking for pictures of the columbine we offered for sale this year. When we potted them up, I wondered how they would advance because it snowed shortly after we started potting. Just the same, they all came out and most all sold before the end of the season. High bud count and very good height. Also a hummingbird magnet!

If you haven't tried columbine in a while, take a look at the new varieties. Lots of hybridizing since the days of the smaller, wild, red Aquilegia canadensis I met when I first learned to garden in Vermont.



Writing in haste from the mountain above Peacham Pond where I wish my stack of Christmas greetings was smaller than what's left.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Social networking available at Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa. On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

Gift certificates still available with just a call to Gail. 802-426-3505. Homemade certificate with a color photo of one of our gardens. Nice if you cannot make up your mind.

Remembering Mrs. Monarda

Saturday, December 18, 2010

15.6° and rising. Windless for a change. The birds are awake and feeding on Saturday's breakfast buffet and traffic is building as people leave the pond and head to town for recycling and shopping. The weather will be good this weekend and retailers should be smiling by close of business tomorrow evening.

Karl the Wonder Dog was not interested in much of a walk this morning when the temperature bounced from 12° to 10° to 15°. We made it to the granite Peacham Pond marker and then he bee lined for the back door, right past the tin of butter cookies on the counter. He was in bed again in seconds and I had avoided another potential scolding for feeding him bite sized tastes of non traditional dog food which is not healthy for him. He and I love butter cookies and speaking only for myself, I enjoy too many.

As we passed the mailbox this morning, I noticed the bee balm heads had caught piles of snowflakes as the last storm went through around 6 this morning. Some folks clean up spent flowers in the fall but there are certain flowers we leave to admire. Monarda is an example. Seeing them gives quick recall of how beautiful they are during the summer, decked with butterfly jewelry and dancing hummingbirds.

Monarda is a member of the mint family and some don't care for its wandering habit. The picture just below shows how a planting at the house overtook daylilies, actaea, astilbes, and martagon and Oriental lilies over the past couple years as our energies turned to the new nursery.Just the same, a mass of red and purple, the hummingbird magnet that it is, serves us well as we enjoy Vermont summers.

Red is one of the colors of the current holiday season but for us, it is also a reminder of a season to look forward to. Consider monarda in future plantings at your home and you'll be reminded how important they are to insects and animals. Try some!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the white of the woods beckons to me for another walk. Give me a call if you want to walk too.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Using social networking as a vehicle to share good gardening ideas with others. On Facebook as George Africa or as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

PS Running late on shopping time? Call Gail and order a gift certificate. 1-802-426-3505 or lilies@hughes.net

Holiday Wordle Thoughts

Thursday, December 16, 2010

3.1° here on the mountain and so still that chimney smoke rises straight up, curlless and white. I have been busy for days now pushing out project after project while the weather was exceptional but now reality is here. In our house we celebrate Christmas and usually I am a very good shopper with gifts purchased throughout the year and squirreled away so there is no rush. But this year, the first summer of being retired left me with long days and incomplete "to do" lists. I am back in the shopping mode now and am heading to Hanover and West Lebanon NH in a few minutes. I promise I'll be back with my annual thoughts on holiday gifts for gardeners. In the meantime, take a look at this little Wordle concoction and think about what words you might add to your holiday season. Send me out your personal Wordle accomplishment if you get a chance. Click to enlarge.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where Karl the Wonder Dog made two abbreviated trips outside this morning before retiring to a quilted bed and a snoring routine that has no cadence but suggests restfulness. More later!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Social networking at Facebook as George Africa and on Twitter as vtflowerfarm. On FB try the Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens link under my name.

Pocket Doors and Pocket Gardens

Thursday, December 8, 2010

Already 8 AM here on the mountain but the thermometer has not budged since 5:15 when I booted up. It's still 5.3° and that makes it the coldest night so far. The drop in temperature, thick frost and snowflakes yesterday afternoon make everything a dull white this morning as if someone took a bakery shaker and shook confectioners sugar everywhere. It's nice but I'm sure the critters and birds would like to see some sunshine. Apparently Karl the Wonder Dog has a built-in barometer as he refuses to budge too!

When fall clean up is finished, my daily activity turns to working in our 70 acre forest. It's too big a piece of land to set one-man goals to get it all spruced up but I work away at maintaining woods roads and cutting firewood for subsequent years. Just when I think I am making progress, a big storm comes along and downed trees make me redo previous accomplishments. Last week's record winds made me take several steps back but actually the winds brought down some dead trees that needed to fall but might well have been dangerous to approach and cut.

With winter, Gail and I can read more, and catch up on needed correspondence. We also watch television shows on what else--gardening-- and garden design--but also on home renovation and restoration. When you have grown up in New England and have an appreciation for anything old, you know a lot of unusual things including what a pocket door is. A recent show discussed single and double pocket doors which slide from inside the adjacent wall(s) providing privacy when needed. No traditional door knobs on pocket doors but interesting pulls and locks. They can be opened without taking up floor space when "free and open" is the desire. The show reminded me of efficiency of space and that led to thoughts of smaller garden spaces--pocket gardens.

The world of gardening continues to change as society influences what is "in" and what people have time, finances and space for. Everything seems to go full cycle and the gardens of my youth which were acres large and provided food for the next year, have shrunk to lot sized gardens, some under 100 square feet in total, next door to a condominium entrance door. As scale diminishes, creativity prevails.

I like to meet gardeners who have downsized their available space but still want to have an eye catcher of a garden. My friend Marie from Barre, Vermont moved to a condo and immediately missed her gardens at her previous house. She worked through the condo administration and gained permission to landscape the woodlands adjacent to her property and her gardening happiness continues, challenged but undaunted. I'm really proud of her persistence and what her efforts lent to her neighborhood. She is an excellent gardener with great color, texture and contrast skills.

So my thought for today is that the throes of winter is a good time to plan pocket gardens when you have or must downsize. I suggest that what you might already have started is a good place to rethink and continue on. Here's an example from one of our old gardens.

Years ago I began a shade garden off Peacham Pond Road. Before we began our new nursery, that garden drew thousands of visitors per year and offered some good ideas for gardeners and landscapers. This picture is a small segment of that garden which I suggest could be the start of a pocket garden where space is limited. Center image are three hostas beginning with Just So at the bottom, June in the middle and On the Marc at the top. To the right are some big leaves of a mature Hosta Fortunei Hyacinthina. The hostas are surrounded by tall native ferns which allow the hostas to be the attention receiving accents.

If this was your pocket garden, there are lots of possibilities. Any of the dark actaeas, Hillside Black Beauty, Pink Spike, James Compton or Brunette, each maturing at about 4.5 feet, planted towards the back, would provide some vertical to the design. More towards the middle or side, a painted fern or a maidenhair fern (both pictured just below) could replace one of the natives to provide varying color and texture. A few Japanese primroses could be planted next to a stone accent and then a couple different trollius could be added to draw out the hosta coloration from June through most of July here.

Obviously these suggestions are geared to zone 4 Vermont. The example I want to convey is that a pocket garden, as small as it may be, can offer the gardener and her visitors a fun assortment of plants in a small space. With real winter almost here, and while were talking pocket doors and pocket gardens, become a "garden idea pick pocket" and while you are reading gardening magazines and perusing seed catalogs, scratch out some ideas on paper and see how nice a collection you can put together. I'll bet you will be surprised!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where only chickadees and a single nuthatch keep me and a cup of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters hazelnut company this morning.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Using social networking to reach more gardeners every day. Try Vermont Flower Farm and
Gardens or George Africa Facebook pages or view us on Twitter via vtflowerfarm

Garden Writing

Saturday, December 4, 2010

A 3-4 mph wind comes and goes here on the mountain at mid day. The snow has slowed for a few minutes, enough so now that small birds are able to get to the feeders for a late breakfast buffet. There is a quiet sanity about today that is so respectful compared to earlier this week, Wednesday through last evening, when rain and incredible winds toppled trees by the thousands and took electricity so quickly it seemed we had no ownership to its use. Over three- plus days I have been through tanks of chain saw gas and have filled the tractor twice to operate the brush chipper.....but yes, things are coming around.

After twenty years of living in this house, we have fine tuned our emergency preparedness so that Wednesday night about 7:05 when the "everything electric" stopped in silence, we knew what we needed and where it was. The kerosene lamps and box matches came out first although admittedly the lamps are "kerosene" in name only as we now burn a clear, odorless fuel . The wicks fired up flawlessly as we gathered in the front room and tossed another log on the fire. There was no idle chatter about what had happened or when electricity would be restored as the wind and rain pounding the house and the repeated crashing of trees in the adjacent forest and along the road made it clear that this was out of our control. Like a big trout taking line, it had to play out. Without speaking but as if on cue, we each gathered our individual reading material and settled in like chickens entering their coop for the night.

The interruption had come when I had just finished reading an old post from a garden blogger in Texas who I enjoy very much. The blogger is Sue Tomlinson and she writes The Bike Garden. Sue is a great writer and a very talented naturalist, artist and college professor. I had just finished reading a blog from her Garden Design section. It was titled The Bike Garden: A garden writing room of one's own, written on May 9, 2010. Sue's "before" and "after" pictures of a garden spot she turned into a writing area were sufficient to give example to what an outdoor writing room can look like.

Seeing Sue's creation brought back an instant memory of the Ogden Pleissner Gallery that Gail, Alex and I visited at the Shelburne Museum in late October. In 1986, the museum moved Pleissner's studio from Manchester Vermont to Shelburne. Although much of Pleissner's war time paintings are now at the Pentagon, the balance of his collection is in Vermont. Seeing the studio from which much of this work came is an awesome experience and as with Sue Tomlinson's outside place to write, Pleissner's studio makes you want it for yourself .There is a fireplace, some overstuffed chairs, window light, materials to sketch, paint and write. There is a peace about the room that encourages creativity.

Reading in the shadows of oil lamps and thinking about Sue's outdoor writing area and Pleissner's studio made me speculate about where my favorite writers created. My office is an 8 foot X 12 ft affair at the end of our front room. It comes with a big window, a view down the valley, an outside bird feeder and an anemometer. The office is interrupted in the middle of the longer wall by the back side of the chimney for the wood stove on the other side. Computers, monitors, printers, a scanner, speakers, lights, a paper shredder and filing cabinet share the space with three bookcases, photography gear, a fax machine and a home style weather station. A lithograph and also a die cast model of Gail's 1957 John Deere 320 U tractor adorn a book shelf along with an old fishing creel and a native gourd pot filled with wild turkey and crow feathers. There's an old print of Abe Lincoln explaining something to his children and there's a 1929 map of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. There's a changing collection, dropped just inside the door, of whatever doesn't fit someplace else in the house at a given minute. This is the place where I write. It's nice. It's mine. I like it!

Last night I had an opportunity to hear four writers read favorite portions of their work.
The Center for an Agricultural Economy sponsored the event in Hardwick as a fund raiser to the area's food pantry and to the Center's Food Access Fund. Appropriately each author read about food. I won't go into any description of the readings but I do wish they were recorded and available for others to hear. They were excellent and made the crowd applaud with hand clapping and smiles and cheers. And to a guy like me who came to Vermont at age 5 and lived through so much of what each was reading about, the evening ended too quickly. Here is a summary from the Center's Who's Who list.

"Caroline Abels is the editor of Vermont's Local Banquet, a quarterly magazine about local food and farming. She lives in Montpelier and writes primarily about animal agriculture.

Bethany M. Dunbar of West Glover, is an editor at the Chronicle, a weekly newspaper in Barton. She has a background in farming and is working on a collection of photographs and essays about farmers and food in the Northeast Kindom. (Her new book will be titled Kingdom's Bounty. I believe I recall her saying the family farm she worked until 1991 was seventh generation!)

Ben Hewitt has seven cows, four pigs, six sheep, one wife and two children. He lives in Cabot and likes cheese very much. (I like his first book, The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food, very much and I told him so!)

Julia Shipley, a writer and subsistence farmer in Craftsbury, is collaborating with Andrew Miller-Brown of Plowboy Press on a collection titled Bales of Prose. She recently received a Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council to complete a book of agricultural essays."

I wish each of you could have attended the readings as you could smell and hear and taste Vermont at every sentence. The authors all like writing, are very good story tellers, and I'll bet they have interesting places they write from. Perhaps not a chair in a garden or a formal studio, but I'll bet they have a place. And you? Do you have a special place where you write? I wonder. Descriptions welcome.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond which was frozen over but now is not because of the high winds earlier this week. Current temperature, as I finish my writing at 8 PM is 18.6°. Perhaps the pond will freeze over again tonight.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Social networking works! Find us at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens on Facebook or on Twitter at vtflowerfarm