EAST MONTPELIER – This past week, during the excitement of Valentine’s Day and the nocturnal activities of the characters who covered the windows of downtown Montpelier with hundreds of red hearts, a significant birthday passed almost unnoticed. While here in the north country of New England a mediocre winter defies[Read More…]
Columns
Monthly Musings
Medication or Meditation SHELBURNE – Children will tell you that school release is forever ago after recess or lunch. Many are itching to move. The kids arrived at Wonder & Wisdom after school with a lot of pent-up energy. We started with vigorous exercise or an energetic game before beginning[Read More…]
How Ebbing Snow Cover Affects Plants and Animals
READING – When it comes to winter in the North Country, brown is not beautiful. Climate change has brought sudden and extreme fluctuations in weather along with a dramatic decline in the amount of snowfall that blankets the ground. This is especially marked in the Northeast, where winter is warming[Read More…]
The Most Important Garden Tool
CABOT – Last February, I wrote about “showing love” to your garden tools: keeping them clean, sharp, oiled, painted and always stored under cover. This February, I want to talk about the care of your most important tool: you! Gardening is fun and rewarding. It’s also physically demanding. In the[Read More…]
Winter Survival Tips for Gardeners
by Nadie VanZandt PANTON – Gazing out your window on a wintry day, you might think that springtime is a distant prospect, but there are many activities you can do this winter to get ready for spring. Do you have old seed packets tucked away? Organizing them will make planning your spring[Read More…]
A Tale of Two Grosbeaks
by Susan Shea BROOKFIELD – Last February, several evening grosbeaks, which we rarely see here, visited our feeder. About the size of robins, the males were yellow with black and white wings, a black tail, and a bright yellow band above the eyes. The females were silver-gray with tinges of[Read More…]
It’s Hard Not to Feel Lucky
EAST MONTPELIER – Change, we have been told, is the only constant. In recent years, we’ve come to believe, change is accelerating at a dizzy pace. And how many times have we heard the phrase, “the good old days”? The good old days, I always muse, before antibiotics and novocaine[Read More…]
Weather Watch: Some Snow Makes a Return This Week
HARDWICK – Somehow the precipitation dodged us for the most part during the last forecast period, with the wettest parts of the region experiencing only up to two tenths of an inch of rainfall in heavier scattered showers on Saturday afternoon. We had more peeks of sun than originally anticipated,[Read More…]
Check Trees for Signs of ALB
by Ginger Nickerson, Extension Forest Pest Education Coordinator, University of Vermont BURLINGTON – When working in their sugarbush this winter, maple producers are encouraged to be on the lookout for signs of the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB). This wood-boring insect, native to southeast Asia, will kill many hardwood trees. However,[Read More…]
Valentine Flowers Have Special Meanings
by Deborah J. Benoit, Extension Master Gardener, University of Vermont NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Valentine’s Day is the perfect opportunity to show those we care for just how much they mean to us. Often, that means a gift of flowers. Throughout history flowers have held special meanings, making a gift[Read More…]
Midwinter Has Fared Much Better
by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – Our culture is pretty thoroughly saddled with rituals and celebrations that originated in our distant, non-scientific past, when we explained phenomena to be the result of supernatural prompting. I guess maybe they seem cute or quirky, and are thus charming. So we continue to[Read More…]
Growing and Eating Cardoon
by Henry Homeyer CORNISH FLAT, N.H. – Most years I start some onion seeds and perhaps a few artichokes indoors in February; this year I will also start some cardoon seeds at the same time. Cardoon, which is a lovely looking plant related to artichokes, is a delicious vegetable, too.[Read More…]
