Butterfly weed a late-blooming beauty
One of the slowest of herbaceous perennials to emerge from the soil in spring is the Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) with its bright green foliage and its sunny orange flowers, but they are well worth waiting for! These native butterfly magnets love full sun and...
Daylilies a real-life color-by-numbers
Daylilies got their latin name, Hemerocallis, from greek terms for “beauty” and “day.” They surely are beautiful but don’t let that “day” part throw you off! They are easy to grow and while a bloom might not last long, the plants produce plentiful blooms to add color...
Woodworkers: Live on edge with ‘higher power’
Making anything out of wood takes tools and plenty of hand work to reach a finished product. Local woodworkers add maintaining a live edge aesthetic to projects also relies on a higher power. Having part of the piece, whether it’s a cutting board, a desk or counter...
Wildflowers ‘make magic’ for wedding
The joy and hard work associated with growing things has always been second nature to Emily Jackson, the namesake of iconic Dorchester County family farm business, Emily’s Produce, now in its 24th season. Even as a youngster, she and younger brother Kyle were involved...
An age-old practice able to track nature’s “new normal”
Each growing season, gardeners yearn to learn the crucial dates indicating spring planting and first frost in fall. Seeking reliable guidelines, growers have regularly referred to the color-coded zone maps printed on the backs of seed packets, or their state Extension...
Summertime’s soundtrack
When summer rolls around, even if you can tucker your kids out enough to hit the hay, there’s still plenty of sounds around from all the critters. “Peepers” can be fun to listen to, but could you actually pinpoint what a “peeper” was? What about the other noises in...
Sweet, Refreshing Summer Snacks
Fireworks Injures
Electrifying history of the glass insulator
(Editor’s note: DeeDee Wood is the owner of Black Cat Curiosities, an online antiques research and sales venue.) Glass insulators are collected by antique enthusiasts for use in DIY home décor, seaside blues and greens themes, decorations for people who like Americana...
Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’ good until frost
There are not many plants other than annuals that will flower from summer into frost, but there are a few wonderful herbaceous perennials that live for quite a while and will bloom from summer until the first hard frost. Agastache “Blue Fortune,” also called “giant...
