Gardens Archives - Page 6 of 6

Natick issues mandatory water use restriction: Don’t blame us

August 11, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The Town of Natick has announced a mandatory non-essential outdoor water use restriction in light of the light rainfall totals so far this summer. In other words, turn off the sprinklers to help ensure there’s enough water left for public health and safety needs, such as fire protection.

As you can see, we’ve been doing our part, with our two-tone lawn of fading green and crispy brown.

Here are the specific rules:

Watering Schedule

Residents and businesses occupying a building with an odd number street address will limit non-essential water use including lawn and garden watering to Monday and Thursday from the hours of 5:00 pm on the select day until 9:00 am the following day.
Residents and businesses occupying a building with an even number street address will limit non-essential water use including lawn and garden watering to Tuesday and Friday from the hours of 5:00 pm on the select day until 9:00 am the following day.
No non-essential outdoor water use Wednesday, Saturday or Sunday.

Non-Essential Outdoor Water Use Recommendation

Water lawns only when necessary. Please be aware that a healthy lawn only requires a maximum of one (1) inch of water per week.
Maintain your lawn at a height of at least two (2) inches. This practice will protect roots and retain soil moisture.
Water is lost to evaporation when watering during hot days
Visit https://www.epa.gov/watersense/watering-tips for additional watering tips.

Essential Outdoor Water Use Definition

Essential Outdoor Water Use shall mean those uses that are required for the following:

For health or safety reasons;
By regulation;
For the production of food and fiber;
For the maintenance of livestock;
To meet the core functions of a business (for example, irrigation by golf courses as necessary to maintain tees and greens, and limited fairway watering);
Irrigation by Plant nurseries;
Agricultural operations as necessary to maintain stock or establish new plantings;
Pest management;
Wash equipment to prevent damage and/or maintain performance;
Irrigation of parks and recreation fields

More: Subscribe to our Natick Report daily email

Natick Community Organic Farm flower operation is in full bloom

July 31, 2020 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The first message you get when driving up to the Natick Community Organic Farm (NCOF) is to slow down. If the sign isn’t enough to convince you, the pot holes should do the trick. They’re deep, wide, and will swallow your vehicle whole if you don’t navigate the driveway just right. So be warned. But don’t let that minor challenge scare you off from visiting the 30-acre certified-organic farm that has operated on Town-owned land since 1975.

I stopped by recently for a tour of the farm’s quarter-acre flower fields, led by Heather Livingstone, the farm’s flower manager. Although her domain may not be large in size, sales from flowers bring in a sizable income for the non-profit organization. Livingstone, along with assistant Jen Campos and a crew of volunteers, sees to it that the the farm stand is kept stocked daily with bouquets. In addition, they keep running the Community Supported Agriculture subscriptions that range from five-weeks of spring blooms for $100, to a 20-week vase subscription delivered to your home or business for 20 weeks for $600, and other options in between. The NCOF has a table at the Natick Farmers Market every Saturday, and also sells to local Whole Foods markets and specialty grocery stores. Putting together arrangements for weddings and events is a regular part of what they do, as well.

The flower gardens are planted in tidy rows and in full bloom right now with zinnias, dahlias, cosmos, statice, celosia, viburnum, dahlias, rudbeckia, snapdragons, sunflowers, asters, and more, all organic, and all bursting with color. Pollinators such as bees, wasps, and butterflies crowd the gardens throughout the April through late-October growing season, taking advantage of the abundance.

Weeds also compete for space in the rows. Livingstone says they manage to keep unwanted plants at bay by laying down organic weed mats in some spots and humble cardboard in other areas. Still, invasive species do experience a measure of success. In their quest for world domination, weeds creep in and try to crowd out their floral cousins, who prefer to stay in their lanes and focus on looking amazing. Livingstone is philosophical about the realities of gardening without the use of herbicides. “We’re an organic farm, so we use only sustainable farming practices. Sometimes, when you’re farming organically, you have to let go a little.”

The flower operation is a decidedly low-tech concern. Workers get the job done using trowels, hoes, and other hand tools. No big machinery is used. And although the farm is on town water, the farmers try to use sprinklers sparingly. This year, they’re experimenting with a no-till system in an effort to improve soil structure, reduce erosion, and minimize the compaction of soil in the planting area. At other farms, there have been some reports that using a no-till system makes weed control a losing game. Still, Livingstone is interested in seeing what the results will be at the NCOF.

The NCOF is open to visitors, but there are several protocols in place right now to keep workers, visitors, and summer camp participants safe from COVID-19. The picnic tables, barn, and buildings are closed, though the outdoor composting toilet is open and the barn-side sink is operational. Bring your own hand sanitizer.

In addition, the outdoor barn-side stand is open for purchases. The stand is stocked with eggs, maple syrup, woolen yarn, vegetables, and floral bouquets. The selection changes throughout the day based on what’s harvested. Note: eggs are in limited supply until the farm get more hens. Meat may be purchased online.

There’s something about a working farm in the middle of a suburban community that brings in people and keeps them coming. “I started volunteering when I was 15-years old,” says Livingstone, a Franklin High School graduate. “I came to work for a summer, and now I’m out of college and I work here. This place fulfills me and makes me happy.”

Over 20,000 visitors that come annually to the farm agree. They find their own happiness and fulfillment whether it’s in picking up a bouquet of flowers, or fresh lettuce for dinner, or dropping off their kids for a Budding Farmers program. In a location where farming has been part of the landscape continuously for over 350 years, agriculture at the NCOF spot feels like it should be a permanent part of South Natick. The town agrees, and in 2009 the NCOF’s acreage was preserved forever as conservation land by the people of Natick.

Its future secured, the NCOF is busy teaching the next generation about stewardship, land use, community service and, of course, organic agriculture.

Natick Community Organic Farm
117 Eliot St, Natick, MA 01760
(508) 655-2204

Admission is free.
The NCOF is open for you to explore on your own from sunup to sundown, every day, year-round.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

More: Subscribe to our Natick Report daily email

Elm Bank Garden Tour, free for a lucky 15 Natick residents

July 8, 2020 by Admin Leave a Comment

Enough already of touring the world virtually. Massachusetts Horticulture Society, The Gardens at Elm Bank, is offering a free, in-person tour, limited to 15 participants. Join this lovely garden tour to admire shrubs, trees, flowers and learn about the history of this fascinating estate as well as horticultural plant identification and background stories. Highlights include the Bressingham Garden, Weezie’s Garden for children (including pollinator plants), the seed-to-table vegetable garden, and the show-stopping Italianate Garden by the Manor House. Some seats available throughout the gardens, but be prepared to stand and walk. Please wear comfortable shoes, hat etc. Bathrooms are NOT available on-site.

DATE: Tuesday, July 14, 2020

TIME: 9:30am – 11am

ADMISSION: Free

RSVP REQUIRED: skirby@natickma.org

MEETING PLACE: the main parking lot of Elm Bank, 900 Washington St., Wellesley

More: Subscribe to our Natick Report daily email

Natick garden visit—it’s like stepping into a painting

June 27, 2020 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

When it comes to how much time they spend planting, weeding, and generally fussing out in the yard, gardeners can be a coy lot. “Oh, I wander through before breakfast, deadhead the roses, pull a few weeds, and that’s pretty much it,” they’ll claim with a straight face.

Gardeners are such liars.

Joyce Hannaford is different. She comes clean right from the get-go. “I’m out here 60 hours a week,” she tells me when I stopped by recently for a tour of her almost quarter-acre property just outside Natick Center. When she copped to that 60 hours, it was the second time in two minutes my jaw had dropped. The first time was when I entered the garden. I wasn’t sure if I’d walked into a painting or a dream.

Joyce and Charlie Hannaford, Natick garden — Joyce and Charlie Hannaford in their Natick garden. Joyce says the ever-changing color combinations are the result of decades of trial and error.

From the front, the home Joyce and her husband Charlie share looks like your average Natick home that’s maybe better tended than most. The lawn is perfectly edged, the windows sparkle, and there’s not so much as a stray leaf on the brick sidewalk leading up to the front door of the almost 100-year-old, two-story Colonial. But once you go around back, the concept of “average” disappears. This is no ordinary suburban spread.

Color is everywhere you look. A pink clematis vine winds its way up a wooden lattice fence next to a yellow rosebush. The Asiatic lilies look like they’re going to burst any second now, which will make the combination of three neighboring perennials in bloom at the same time complete — the gardener’s trifecta. Further along the path, purple delphiniums tower, leading the eye visually to the red maple tree, and the stacked stone wall behind. On a small stone patio near the detached 2-car garage, an enormous clay pot bursts with pinks, blues, and whites. A light-green galvanized watering can on a battered table completes the sense of a still life.

The garden, divided into seven rooms, is filled with such vignettes. It wasn’t always that way. The Hannafords bought the home in 1999. “It was a dump,” Joyce says. But it was a dump that met the seven criteria she’d demanded of her realtor: “It had to have a wood-burning fireplace; my oriental rug, grandfather clock, and canopy bed had to fit; it had to have garden space; the basement needed to be dry; and I wanted gas heating — no oil tank.”

Boxes checked, the Hannafords closed on the place and got to work. Although Charlie’s supposedly not much of a gardener, while I was there he looked pretty proficient with the extended clippers as he tamed the climbing hydrangea threatening to make a break for it and cover the garage. He’s also had a hand in creating the many stone sculptures scattered throughout the garden, and apparently takes orders from Joyce cheerfully enough. But for the past 21 years it’s been Joyce’s endless passion to experiment with color, form, and combinations. There’s no question that there are over 1,000 perennials in this garden, in various stages of bloom. “There’s always something popping,” the retired personal chef and caterer says.

Natick garden, Hannaford — Purple delphinium towner on one of seven garden “rooms” in Joyce Hannaford’s Natick garden, while perennial sweet peas go wild on, covering part of the fence.

A member of the Natick Garden Club (the people who design and tend the planters on the bridge over the Walnut St. commuter rail tracks, among other civic projects), Joyce frequently opens up her garden for tours. She also keeps a vegetable garden at the Hartford Street Community Gardens. “I’ve been gardening since I was 3,” she says. “Dad in New Hampshire had a huge vegetable garden. We ate from its bounty right through winter.”

She and Charlie aren’t all work and no play. Their place is made for entertaining. I eye their two-car garage and ask if they keep their vehicles inside. Gardeners are notorious for giving over garage space to gardening tools and equipment. Don’t ask me how I know this. But no. This is Joyce, and she keeps things just so. Charlie opens up the garage and behold, a car occupies one of the two bays. There are also twinkle lights that sparkle on the ceiling, and draperies that can be drawn to hide the workbench and hanging tools. A screen on the same type of track system as the garage door can be pulled down to keep the bugs out. It’s a working garage, but with a flick of the wrist, it’s also a party garage.

I take a few more pictures, then reluctantly leave Eden. Comparisons are unhealthy and all, but personified, my garden looks like a bohemian who’s had a too much absinthe (for details on that hot mess, check out my rack and ruin garden). Personified, Joyce’s garden looks like a top model who has her life together. I vow to make a better effort in my own yard. Truthfully, though, I ‘d rather just be Joyce’s backyard neighbor, who has a view of the garden without having to do all the work.

“Come by anytime,” Joyce calls out, with a wave.

Oh good. I haven’t been cast out of Eden. I’ve been given a chance to return and maybe and learn a few things.

MORE PICTURES:

[Read more…]

Beyond Natick: a visit to Boston’s Arnold Arboretum

May 28, 2020 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

I’ve missed out on all my favorite garden-related visits this spring — the Beacon Hill Garden Tour, the Art in Bloom exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, the Kelleher Rose Garden in Back Bay’s Fens area, all canceled or closed due to COVID-19 concerns. But there are still flowers and spring beauty to be seen out there in the world, this much I know. But how to do so without rubbing elbows during these socially distant times?

I’ve put a few common-sense practices into action to help me get out and about while staying socially distant. The tricks are to get moving early, stay off the beaten path, and and find the wide-open spaces. In my search for serenity in an outdoors setting I’ve found destinations that are far less crowded than the obvious popular hot spots. Let others embrace spoiled walks on crowded paths as they glare at those without masks and draw back in horror at the approach of others, later posting bitter complaints on social media. To them, I cede the trail.

If you’re looking for a more tranquil experience, try out Arnold Arboretum in Boston, 13 miles from Natick Center. A recent Saturday morning visit left me refreshed and vowing to return to the 281-acre National Historic Landmark, owned by Harvard University. Parking can be found at various small lots around the perimeter of the property. I arrived at 9am and found a spot in the lot at the corner of Walter and Bussey Streets. When I came back to my car a little before noon, there were still spaces available. The Arboretum suggests that the savvy work around the peak hours of visitation of 4pm – 7pm on weekdays and 2pm – 7pm on weekends. The Arboretum is open dawn to dusk.