Category: Flora & Fauna

Bugs, Slugs and Rock Gardening at the Brookfield Garden Club

Brookfield MA – February 25, 2018

The spring equinox is less than one month away. The roller coaster weather of February has brought a telltale shade of blush to new growth on fruit trees and shrubs. The buds are starting to form and make ready for pollinators. This Sunday started out with a mess of sleet and snow on window panes. By noon, things improved to a cold dismal light rain, the kind that liked to aggravate arthritic joints. The elements did not dampen the turnout as a large crowd streamed into Brookfield Congregational Church’s Fellowship Hall. The cheery crimson red tablecloths warmed up the room. The buffet set with homemade torts, scones, cookies and treats resembled a high tea. People felt warmed and welcomed as they came to the Brookfield Garden Club’s monthly gathering to hear “Gardening is Murder” by Neal and Betty Sanders.

Neal Sanders told the audience he left the corporate world of investment banking after thirty-two years of service. He converted a spare room in their Medfield MA home to a writer’s nest and began a second career as a murder/mystery writer. Twelve years later, the self-published author has penned eleven books from his own Hardington Press with the twelfth due out March 2018. Sanders likes the control of being his own publisher. He prefers to write in the off-season to be free for his role as principal under gardener for his wife Betty. He said his job in the garden is to “dig holes and move rocks”. The affable Sanders shared the garden glories of removing tree stumps by hand, outsmarting a squirrel raiding a compost container and creating a rock pile four feet high, three stones wide and 125’ long. Each rock represents a plant that was planted or transplanted within the garden.

Betty Sanders is a Certified Master Gardener with the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association, a nationally accredited floral design judge and a nationally accredited horticultural instructor. She writes the Horticultural Hints column for the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s newsletter: The Leaflet. Sanders has her own webpage: BettyOnGardening.com and has given numerous talks on gardening throughout Massachusetts.

The event drew an audience of 50+ including invited members of the Leicester and Monson Garden Clubs. Sanders advised the crowd that internet gardening may not provide the best answers.  In seeking a solution to remove slugs from the yard, Sanders said the search returned five million results with the top responses offering suggestions of natural products that could have devastating effects on pets and wildlife. Solutions included using invasive plant species, expensive plant extracts and lava rocks to thwart the slugs. The most practical solution of baits containing iron phosphate as the active ingredient came on page 32 of the search from the Master Gardeners of Iowa. Sanders said about Google, “they don’t know the difference between good advice and bad advice. All they know is popular advice. The results are what everybody else is clicking on first, whether or not it’s any good.”

Sanders set up a table for book sales including “The Garden Club Gang” based on what he thought was the fictitious town of Brookfield. What a surprise it was to be lost on the way home from a trip to the Berkshires and stumble upon Route 9 traveling through the Brookfield’s. The inspiration for this story is based upon the real experience of a mature woman being ignored at the local pharmacy. She had sent in prints for pick up and felt snubbed by the teenage clerks who were more interested in ogling a pretty girl in the makeup aisle. The woman’s attempts to finish the sale were put off. She said, “I am invisible”.  The woman ended up helping herself to the printed pictures and left without paying the cost of $1.98. The clerks didn’t care if she was there or not. This incident was matched to witnessing an armored carrier picking up the cash receipts from the Topsfield Fair entry gate. He wondered what would happen if four women stole the cash. This book led to two more in the series: “Deadly Deeds” and “Fatal Equity”. Neal Sanders admits he flunked retirement. He loves to write and is “proud of each and every one of his books.”

The Brookfield Garden Club meets at the Brookfield Congregational Church every 3rd Sunday of the month from 2 – 4 p.m. Meetings are open to non-members. Contact Bonnie Thomas for information on club membership through their Facebook page.

Blog page link to Neal Sanders: The Principal Undergardener

Published in The Citizen Chronicle: Brookfield Green Thumbs learn “Gardening is Murder”

Reflections on the Day ~ Garden Going to Rest

And so, on this warmer than usual weekend in November, the garden becomes the reflection of what has been. The leaves are off the maple trees and thrashed to shreds in the lawn. The grasses are still green from plentiful rains. A few violets have reappeared, confused by the waning sun but warmth of some days.

It’s time to harvest the herbs. Lovage, thyme and tender oregano are picked and dried for many a lovely pot of stew. The blueberries almost recovered from the attack of the gypsy moth caterpillars in June. The greedy things ate all the leaves giving the bushes a desperate, deadly appearance. A second foliage did grow out by September. No berries, not a chance.

The peach tree blossomed and produced a massive crop of fruits. After three years of late frosts that nipped the buds, success! To quote a line from Nathaniel Hawthorne’ s Introduction to Mosses on an Old Manse, “and peach-trees, which, in a good year, tormented me with peaches, neither to be eaten nor kept, nor, without labor and perplexity, to be given away. ” I learned to make a lovely peach butter blended with blackberries. A scrumptious dessert for everyday.

The perennials give way their strength and return to the earth. The vinca vine seems to be spreading over rocks and into the field. The lilac is perfect. The forsythia has gone crazy and is overwhelming everything. How did they get so large! Plenty of pruning for winter afternoons. Now is the best time to consider the winter trim to the massive maples starting to cast too much shade on the yard. How high they reach to the sky now. All to do still.

The one friend who won’t be returning to the garden next year are the dear old shoes. Four years of tramping all over has worn them to shreds. These shoes were always a bit too large. We went all the way to Sicily together the first year. They climbed up the hillsides of Segesta, past the fig trees into the amphitheater and gazed out at the azzure blue sea. We climbed the cliffs at Scala dei Turchi. We walked through the great cities of Modica, Noto, Taormina, Naro, and Ragusa. They felt the pain of the blood blister that grew to be a frightening thing. We stood in the mists over Tripani and felt the presence once again. She is here. The goddess did make herself known at Donnafugata, Ortygia and Erice. My foot was so swollen by the time I got home. How I will miss them. Maybe I’ll save them for the annual brush burning and give them a dignified exit. Let the element of fire take them to ashes. How I will miss them.

So, the bunny comes out of hiding once more to greet the walkers on their daily journey. This bit of whimsy under the rhododendron and settled in a bed of sweet woodruff. Now comes the dream time to plot and plan for that great garden to be. Next year, I promise to be more attentive and grateful for this space. This beautiful garden. My solace and my savior.