Karen Shreefter
Author's posts
Mar 09
Moira Banks-Dobson & Sanjiban Sellew
Garden is about growing and beauty, but so much of life is also filled with sadness. In the Berkshires where I live, two people who made the world a better and more beautiful place recently died. Sanjiban Sellew, a filmmaker and so much more, died because cancer still has the last word. His short films Road Kill …
Feb 24
Spring Yesterday, Winter Today
One day the air brims with geese Vs returning, damp warming soil aromas, and tufted titmouse birds performing mating calls. The next day, heavy, gray/white snow, somber, quiet stillness, and chilly, wet intruding cold. As my hubby would say, “Just like real life.” Yet, given our lack of snow and rain of late, mercifully, you …
Feb 24
Winter Vegetable Gardening
Coldframe Magic Fresh greens for dinner. What a wonderful phrase to use in the winter… Here’s how you do it: Purchase a coldframe – I like the company Juwel, because their products last. Purchase one of Juwel’s automatic openers. This ensures plants aren’t killed on on warm and/or sunny days. Plant spinach and other cold …
Aug 02
Discovery
This summer I’ve had many new clients from whom I have learned much. One client wanted a predominantly blue garden. My research led me to “Twist-N-Shout, a blue lace cap hydrangea for zone 5. Just looking at it makes this crazy world in which we are living disappear. Another client had recently purchased a home …
May 02
A tools for all reasons
Karen Shreefter Landscape Design’s Favorite Tool! Hori Hori – Japanese Farmer’s Knife It will dig out most weeds; it’s great for dividing plants, and even planting plants; and it will slice fingers (I know from experience).
Mar 29
Spring always arrives
The grey/brown got to me today. So I kept peeking at the yellow flowers of Hamamelis or spring witch hazel (cultivar Arnold’s Promise), and decided to take the plant at its word. And, just to be on the save side, I’m off to the south to see colors.
Mar 15
Japan in Happier Days
I gardened today to ease my worry and sorrow about Japan’s tragedy. It didn’t help. When I saw the moss I have been cultivating, I remembered the moss gardens in Kyoto that brought such calm. When I used my Japanese tools, I ached, worrying about my almost Japanese cousin Hiromi, who brought them to me …
Mar 11
Green Tips, Weeding & Damage
Good news! My daffodils are 3 inches up and Ladies Mantle has begun to show green. Bad news¡ I did my first weeding today. News I can’t yet face. Many branches of my new mountain laurels were broken by the winter.
Mar 08
Snow’s Striptease
Chris and I went to NYC where there was no snow. He had never been to the Cloisters so off we went, and in one of their gardens, I saw snowdrops – not in the sky, but growing at the base of a very old espaliered pear tree, and then nearby, surrounding quince trees. I …
Mar 01
Growing in the snow
Out every window there is white. I love snow, but… My seeds have arrived, and I’m ready for my note-filled, The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible, by Edward C. Smith. He helps with my annual redo of the vegetable garden design. So it may be ice-jams outside, but it’s luscious tomatoes, crispy greens, and messy strawberries inside …