Gardens
My Own Mini Staycation
Jul 17th
We’ve been having some pretty hot weather the last few weeks (highs in the 90s to 100 degrees) in my neck of the woods. It has meant that I’ve had to increase the watering time on the lawn and garden, and the air conditioning is on a lot more in the house. Don’t get me wrong, though, because I’m not complaining. After an usually cool, wet spring that stretched into June, the heat has finally spurred the vegetable garden to take off. The tomato plants that didn’t seem to grow at all for two weeks are growing tall and full with lots of small green fruits promising caprese salads in a month or so. The melons and squash are likewise making up for lost time, as are the beans and eggplants.
Last year at this time, having been in our new home for only a few months, we looked out on dry earth and weeds. Now, with the infusion of a lot of hard work and more than a few dollars and a whole lot of plants, our back yard is a lovely sight to behold. Nearly everything we planted last fall survived the winter freezes, and while there are spots where young plants still need to grow into their spaces or where I haven’t yet found the right specimen for that location, overall I am pleased with how my vision has become a colorful reality. The climbing roses are starting to cover those broad stretches of bare fence; echinachea, Shasta daisies and agastache have filled one flower bed with bee-enticing blooms; and the herb garden offers fresh flavors for tonight’s dinner.
Even following the hottest days, by 7:30 or 8:00 p.m. the sun has slid far enough to the west for shadows to stretch across the lawn and allow our patio to become a comfortable platform from which to drink in the scents, sounds and sights of a summer evening. Swallows dip and dart across the sky, snapping up insects for their supper, while mourning doves and yellow finches stop by the birdbath for sips of cool water. Our small fountain provides a soothing murmur accompanied by the mellow tones softly tolling from our wind chime as a slight breeze coaxes an occasional note from it. Now and then we’ve spotted a long-eared jackrabbit slip under the fence and meander in and out among the shrubs until the awareness of our presence sends him frantically bounding off to the field next door.
Such evenings are a welcome and restful conclusion to long, hot and sometimes hectic days. At such times I am as content and happy in my own little retreat as I would be on a terrace in Sicily, a taverna on Santorini or a beach in Hawaii. I’ve enjoyed my rambles to such far-flung and lovely spots, but it’s nice to know I don’t have to hop a plane to enjoy such peace and beauty.
Even if you can’t get away for a much-needed vacation soon, I hope you can find a quiet, pleasant niche in your own corner of the world for a little R & R after a long, hot day.
– Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor
What Boston Offers
May 13th
I am enjoying my brief stay here in Boston at the Fairmont Battery Wharf, overlooking the Boston Harbor. The north end of Boston has a very quaint, relaxing and historical feel to it. Although I grew up in western Massachusetts, I never spent much time in Boston other than to visit my sister on campus at Boston College. With only two days to make the best of my business trip, I tried to enjoy some of what Boston has to offer. There is plenty yet to discover.
Until then, here is a brief menu of things to taste in Beantown:
1. Take a stroll through the historic Public Garden. Created in 1837, this park is spacious and tranquil and offers rides on the famous swan boats.
2. Try Neptune Oyster on Salem Street for fresh oysters and a lobster roll for lunch. Compared to some of the oldest restaurants in Boston, Neptune Oyster is fairly new to the city but feels like an old pro.
3. Sip cocktails at the beautiful Fairmont Copley Plaza. The lobby alone is enough to leave you breathless.
4. Enjoy the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall or Tanglewood. Indoors or on the green, Boston has an array of options for the music lover, including free evening concerts in the park.
– Courtney Centeno, account executive
Cherry Blossoms in Bloom
Apr 29th
Now is the time to visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and see the cherry blossoms in full bloom. This weekend also marks the beginning of Hanami, the ancient Japanese tradition of cherry blossom viewing. If you’re not in Japan, Brooklyn is the next-best place to celebrate this traditional rite of spring.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden holds the most diverse collection of cherry blossoms anywhere outside of Japan, with 42 different species blooming on display. Each species blooms on a different time schedule, and each bloom lasts no more than 10 days.
Sakura Matsuri, a traditional Japanese cultural weekend with more than 60 events and performances including taiko drumming, flower arranging, tea ceremonies and workshops, will take place beginning this Saturday at 10 a.m. through Sunday until 7 p.m. It is the nation’s largest event held in a public garden.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden website features this time-lapse video of more than 3,000 digital photos taken every three minutes from April 18 to April 26, 2008. It is one way to view the beauty of the cherry trees in a New York minute!
– Courtney Centeno, account executive
Roses Are Red
Apr 17th
It’s Valentine’s Day at my house. I know it’s mid-April, but this is when my Valentine’s Day roses arrive every year. In February, when most folks are scrambling for those dozen red roses from the local florist, I go online to the Antique Rose Emporium and select the rose bushes I want, my husband’s gift to me.
Doesn’t sound romantic? No surprise gift? It’s quite all right with me. My passion (besides the romantic kind for my husband) is gardening, and I’d rather have the ever-blooming, fragrant blossoms just outside my window all summer than the cut varieties that don’t last a week in the vase.
These are no ordinary roses. They are “survivors,” long-living varieties that have lasted for decades, even centuries — Antique, Earth-Kind, Pioneer and Old Garden roses. They thrive even in the harsh conditions of my yard: clay soil and little protection from cold winter winds. Incidentally, roses have been on Earth for 35 million years and have been formally cultivated for 5,000 years (first by the Chinese).
I’ve loved roses, not for 5,000 years, but for as long as I can remember. Both my grandfathers grew them in their gardens. We recently went to see Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and I was reminded of my childhood fascination with the Red Queen’s gardeners “painting the roses red.”
But it was a trip about 10 years ago to the rose garden at Elizabeth Park in Hartford, CT, that clinched it for me. Once I saw this magnificent and magical place, I knew I had to grow roses in my own garden. (A side note: Since then, my younger son was married at the park, and my older son had his wedding photos taken there.)
The world-famous rose garden — the oldest municipally operated rose garden in the country — consists of two-and-a-half acres featuring 800 varieties of roses that amount to 15,000 plants. Rambling roses cover arched walkways in the garden — a favorite spot for photos — and the beds are filled with roses of every shape and fragrance and color. Fences of climbing and shrub roses along the border provide a colorful background for other plants.
Elizabeth Park was born from the American Park Movement of the mid-19th century, a response to what was seen as negative influences of the Industrial Revolution. People viewed urbanization as a change for the worse for American life and sought to preserve open space. The park was created on land from the Charles Pond Estate and named for his wife, Elizabeth.
It seems wherever I travel, I seek out gardens. I’ve been known to insist on a detour to a park — in Portland, Ore., I made my husband and sons spend an entire afternoon at the Rose Garden — or rush through a castle tour just to get to the splendidly secret walled garden, like the one at Bunratty Castle near Shannon, Ireland. I’ve even based my decision on where to stay on the plantings: My reasoning is that if the owners of a B&B are nurturing enough to tend a garden, they’ll also know how to tend to their guests.
The style of garden doesn’t much matter. I’ve been equally mesmerized by the intricate patterns and hedge mazes of the formal Renaissance gardens at Chateau de Villandry in the Loire Valley and the more naturalized botanical garden and arboretum at Cornell Plantation.
What does matter is that someone has taken the time to plant an artistic array of color and aroma, and I have time to, well, stop and smell the roses.
– Jan Hecht, associate editor
