Seasons Greetings

Happy Holidays to all of our Juniper Hill 

blog readers, Facebook and Twitter friends!

from

Joe, Paula...

Farm Manager, Caleb Corgi...

Assistant Managers and Vermin Consultants, Chelsea Cat and Wendellberry...

Our legal team, Louisa Goat, Charlotte Goat and Emily Goat from the law firm

Oberhasli, Oberhasli &Oberhasli...

the woolly Baa-Ram-Ewe Board of Directors...

and all the barnyard employees at Juniper Hill.

A Winter Tour of Juniper Hill

 

If you are fortunate enough to walk in a garden which looks and feels good in mid-winter, you will realize that it does so because of its use of space, the patterns created by its paths and walls, the shapes of its shrubs, the shadows of its evergreens and the silhouettes of its tree trunks and twisted branches.--Rosemary Verey, The Garden In Winter.

I love the garden in winter!  You get to enjoy all the beauty without any of the work.  The bright flower colors of summer are gone, replaced by a much more subtle and earthy palette of tans, beiges, and reddish-browns, which appeal to me.  And if your garden has the good structure that Rosemary Verey talks about, evergreens can look stunning, so dark and deep green, especially against the backdrop of a gentle snowfall like the one that occurred here this week. That first real snowfall is special and I couldn't wait to grab my camera and snap some photos around the garden.  To join me on a winter tour of the gardens here at Juniper Hill, 

just click on the photo of the gate below.

Wait, Wait...I'm Not Ready!

Every year at this time, the holidays seem to run together
and Christmas sneaks up on me.
Its an old trick of Saint Nick, I think.
And before I can say "just charge it on Visa,"
It's time to hang the holiday wreaths...
and then it's here.

Who Let The Sheep Out? The Town Pound

The town pound in Lyndeborough, NH dates from 1774

The modern animal shelter that houses homeless or abandoned animals owes its beginnings to the animal pound which dates to medieval times.

The Gallery

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet and artist who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848.  His work is said to be a major precursor to the Aesthetic movement which became prominent in Europe during the 19th century.  Rossetti's paintings were characterized by their sensuality and medieval revivalism.

Baby It's Cold Outside

There is hardly ever an ugly moment in the garden.  Even during the dead of winter, if your garden has good structure, there will be plenty of winter interest to carry you through until the spring thaw. Some of the most beautiful moments in the garden come during the early stages of winter when, on a chilly morning, a light frost can make a plant sparkle as if it were a jewel.  There is sleet and freezing rain, which can down power lines and wreak havoc on the roadways, but can transform a tree into a crystal chandelier.  And, there are those occasional early snowfalls that will catch a few of the flowering plants still in their prom dresses, but can make everything look like a scene right out of the Nutcracker.  To see some early winter images that were captured in the garden here at Juniper Hill (many by Karl Smizer), click on the photo above.

The Gardens of Mount Desert Island: Asticou Azalea Garden

Mount Desert Island, Maine is one of the most beautiful spots in the country.  With Acadia National Park at its core, the diverse landscape of the island and its rugged coastline have been drawing visitors for centuries who marvel at its natural beauty.

Happy Thanksgiving

photo by Andrea Geesaman

Keeping Up With The Pace Of Technology: QR Codes

QR Codes: Where Horticulture and High-Tech Intersect

One of the things I like best about gardening is that it provides an escape from all the high-tech electronic buzz that usually fills my head during the day.  Between emails, text messages and what seems like constant googling, it's all too easy for me to fritter away my entire day tied to one electronic device or another.  Once I'm in the garden it doesn't take long before I undergo a real digital purgation, where my head is emptied of all those bits and bytes.  There isn't anything virtual about the garden.  Out there, an electronic reminder usually means I've weeded a little too close to the electric fence (ouch!) and a tweet means that there's a real bird following me around and not someone on Twitter. Isn't reality wonderful?

However, as much as I like to keep the two worlds of horticulture and technology separate and distinct for reasons related to my own sanity, there are a few cases where I permit them to intersect. This is chiefly because I'm lazy and always looking for ways to make my gardening life a little easier.  For example, not long ago I wrote about how my IPhone became one of my favorite new tools once I found out what it could do for me in the garden.  And now, there are QR codes which are not only very cool and appeal to the nerdy side of me, but also seem like they could have great potential in the world of gardening.

Fall Cleanup--Turning Over A New Leaf

Our gardens here at Juniper Hill are completely surrounded by woodland which means that at this time of year I am practically swimming in a sea of fallen leaves. And, at a time when there are so many other end-of-season gardening chores to attend to, there are only so many hours one can devote to raking.  After all, there has to be a little time left over for other important fall pursuits like trying to figure out why we are paying all that money for 350 cable channels but will face yet another long winter with nothing to watch.  That's why, wherever possible, I try to rely on mulching rather than raking.