Karen Shreefter
Author's posts
Jun 26
Love at First Bite
Below is article in the Spring Edition 2013 of Edible Berkshires On our first date Chris Blair offered to cook dinner for me. As an architectural designer he felt the need to redo his kitchen, but consequently, given his addiction to cooking, he was suffering withdrawal. To ease his pain, he searched for places to …
Jun 07
Stick with Karen in the Garden- Azalea
Azalea ‘Karen’ is one of my favorites…the name is a coincidence……This wonderful shrub lasts a long time, thrives in our Berkshire winters, and is maintenance free. The magenta flowers jump out, particularly against white plants such as Dicentra Alba (white bleeding heart). I also love it, because the way it feels like an impressionist painting. …
May 22
A New Garden for a Great Client
Low maintenance, natural looking, and color. For low maintenance we filled the area with perennials, groundcovers, shrubs, and trees. We also took down a a very sickly spruce that was block the view of the garden from a terrace.
Apr 11
Edible Berkshires – The Best of the Garden
We don’t have to separate veggies or fruits from flowers. Blueberries like soil that is really acid or low pH, and that’s just what hydrangeas with blue flowers love…so I love putting them together. Read my article in the spring issue of edible Berkshires and learn so many wonderful tips and so much more. Enjoy!
Mar 27
Linda Pastan’s Garden & More Poem
April By Linda Pastan A whole new freshman class of leaves has arrived on the dark twisted branches we call our woods, turning green now – color of anticipation. In my 76th year, I know what time and weather will do to every leaf. But the camellia swells to ivory at the window, and the …
Mar 01
Landscape Design in the Snow
The snow is melting….maybe…so it’s time to begin making plans for your gardens, which sure beats watching for signs of spring, since like a watched pot that doesn’t boil, spring comes slower when you stare at the ground. Here’s a plan: go inside and enjoy a grey day by going through your gardening books and …
Feb 20
Long Division (landscape design-wise)
In a matter of weeks you can begin adding plants to your landscape design for free…yes free! Often when I visit a new client’s home, I will point to hostas, astilbes, echinacea (coneflowers), irises, and more plants and explain that by dividing perennials, they can have at least 10, sometimes 20 free plants. While hostas …
Feb 05
Rugged Lenten Rose in Your Landscape
How’s this for a resume: Lenten Rose or hellebores prefer shade or part shade, bloom in very early spring, oftentimes popping out of a light snow cover in zones 4 to 9; the shiny green leaves stay luscious throughout the summer and most of the winter (except when I accidentally step on them); they are …
Jan 30
Whoosh in the Landscape
Wind, like the mythical and elusive town of Brigadoon, appears only occasionally, and when it does, magic happens. Nothing celebrates that magic element like tall grasses. Grasses also can provide privacy as they do for this firepit by the water, and they come in all sizes and can even grow in the shade like Hakone grass, …