By Hannah Van Sickle When I was a kid, come Christmas morning, there was invariably one large box under the tree wrapped in sections of the Sunday comics. Part of me was giddy at the idea of a gift so big wrapping paper wouldn’t cut it; the other part of me would pause for a...
By Hannah Van Sickle My daughter was home for a long weekend in October–her first visit since leaving for boarding school in late August. Following an otherwise routine lunch, Kathryn got up from the table and headed straight for the compost bin to the left of the kitchen sink. With one swift flick of her...
By Robin Catalano We’re fortunate to live in an area of the country that’s treated to a fireworks-spectacular change of color every fall. If you enjoy autumn colors as much as we do, the timing is perfect for incorporating more of them into your home landscape. With soil temperatures remaining warm but air temperatures cooling...
By Hannah Van Sickle Already dreading winter and the piles of snow that will inevitably accumulate in the coming months? Tackling a fall to-do list between now and the end of November–the kind professional landscapers employ to prepare their own outdoor living space for winter–is the smartest and easiest way to ensure your landscape is...
Fall in New England is practically synonymous with apple picking or heading to the farmers’ market to stock up on sweet, juicy pears. If you’ve ever wished you could enjoy these and other tree fruits right in your own backyard, a home orchard is within your reach. All it takes is some careful planning, early...
By Hannah Van Sickle live in the country and my lawn–for lack of better terminology–is green but not so grassy. In fact, this summer’s abundance of rain has actually caused a large, seemingly dead area in my front yard to become teeming with weeds and I am ecstatic. But does everyone feel this way? I...
By Robin Catalano Photo Credit: The Mount Say the name Edith Wharton, and classic American novels like Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence, and The House of Mirth come to mind. But for gardeners and nature lovers, Wharton’s name evokes a different kind of reverence, for the stunning gardens the author—also a talented interior and landscape designer—created in 1901...
I know it might sound oxymoronic–or in other words impossibly contradictory–but the simple act of disconnecting in order to connect is a powerful practice. Case in point: the overwhelming prevalence of technology free summer camps. My 14-year-old daughter just returned from two weeks of horseback riding in Connecticut, and her iphone sat on top of...
By Robin Catalano You’ve probably read that in the Berkshires and surrounding areas, if you don’t start your garden by Memorial Day, it’s a lost cause. But nothing could be farther from the truth! In fact, there are plenty of crops that grow better when sown from seeds in July, well after the threat of...
By Hannah Van Sickle The recent prevalence of fine, yellow dust coating everything in sight from cars to countertops—pollen from the native white pine—is a not so welcome reminder that June is National Pollinator Month. Bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles (just to name a few) are all pollinators that positively affect our lives; in...
