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ON THE INSIDE with Jacqueline Hériteau To Be Changed
We wander through the gardens at Brookside and the American Horticultural Society’s River Farm to smell the roses and gather beauty secrets — like how tying asters together with soft twine makes a statement in height and color — and how a fountain of tall variegated grasses can soften a brick corner.
Walking the grounds at Monticello you have an experience of a different order. Yes, on a clear day the 360-degree view from Thomas Jefferson’s “little mountain” is extraordinary. Yes, the 1,000-foot long vegetable terrace is an ode to the beauty of beans staked on weathered poles, to silver artichokes, aromatic herbs, and to the talent of its present curator, Maggie Stemann. Yes, this exquisite little mansion is beautifully restored, and the gift shop has been stocked with taste.
THE EARTH : My Russian Adventures
The life of an organic farmer may be hard at times, but it certainly is not dull. Since 1991, my husband and I have traveled in Russia on four occasions, meeting farmers and gardeners. In the process, we’ve had great adventures, met lots of really wonderful people and made dear friends. We volunteer our time for The Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI), an exceptionally effective non-governmental organization in San Francisco.
Mount Vernon: Moonlight Tours and an Old Fashion Christmas
Step back in history and enjoy the 18th-century sights, sounds and scents of the holiday season at George Washington’s plantation home. The “Holidays at Mount Vernon” program is held daily from December 1 through January 6, 1996, including Christmas and New Year’s Day. In the Mansion, guides will introduce guests to the custom of the “Christmas Pye,” describe Washington’s family holiday traditions and direct visitors to the rarely-seen third floor. Outside, guests are welcomed around a bonfire for complimentary cookies and hot cider. This year, the Holiday program opens with “Mount Vernon by Moonlight” -
FROM GARDENER TO TOUR GUIDE
Some years ago when I decided to admit to being a gardener, I never considered using the activity for anything more than a hobby. Then after people asked me about plants, soil, the weather (always the weather), I started writing books dealing with specific garden subjects. That worked so well that over the past twenty years I’ve both written and illustrated eighteen garden books on subjects ranging from ornamental grasses to perennial borders to rock gardens to all annuals found on today’s market. But you could have knocked me over with a loaded wheelbarrow when Fugazy Travel of Asheville asked me to be a tour leader to the gardens of Southern England.
On the Inside with Jacqueline Hériteau: The Tulip Library
The landscaping season is just getting under way in and around the Capitol. A favorite spot of mine is the Tulip Library, a neat garden located between the Tidal basin and the Jefferson Memorial. There are about 100 small beds, each planted with one to two hundred varieties of tulips, most of them samples of the tulips that bloom around town. Early this month you may still be in time to see some of the lovely little species tulips that have been planted there this year for the first time at the recommendation of Rob DeFeo, chief horticulturist for the National Park Service. Species tulips come back in my garden, along with the tall tulips that the squirrels steal and bury in the pachysandra, but other tulips rarely bloom a second time for me. As I understand tulipology, after they bloom, the mother bulbs of the big beautiful Dutch tulips make bulblets instead of making flowers for next year’s blooming.
On the Inside with Jacqueline Heriteau: Flower Power at the White House
When the garden goes to sleep, do you get this deep, gnawing hunger for fresh flowers? One way I get around it is to pick flowers from some of my houseplants — a cyclamen blossom and the tip of a fern frond, for example, makes a sweet little nosegay, and a geranium set in a tip sprig of variegated pothos is adorable.
But of course, I also feast on perfumed and pampered florists’ flowers. Some of the most elegant, simple, arrangements I’ve ever seen were created by a veteran White House florist Rusty Young. I interviewed him years ago for Family Circle Magazine shortly before he retired. The flowers he worked with came from the wholesale market and even from the supermarket, but in Rusty’s hands they became arrangements fit for a First Lady!
THE EARTH : One Person Can Make a Difference
Last November I had a rare opportunity to be in Rome for the United Nation’s World Food Summit as a delegate for the World Sustainable Agriculture Association. An unusual thing happened at the Summit. People from all parts of the world were really talking about food security, what it meant, how to eliminate hunger, and what they can do about it back home. For the first time I felt there was an agreement among diverse people, organizations, and governments to look at the problems in-depth relating to the security of food.
On the Inside with Jacqueline Hériteau: Have You Ever Communed with a 100 Year-Old Maple?
The Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is everything a botanical garden can be: a glorious place to spend a golden fall day, a great center for learning, a storehouse of treasured native plants, and not too far from an interesting city—historic Richmond in this case.
But what is even more exciting is the evidence everywhere of this young botanic garden’s vision of the contribution it hopes to make. To introduce plants adaptive to central Virginia and to expand the plant palette is one way they state their goal. But it’s way bigger. They hope to teach future generations about the interdependence of people and plants. Holly Shimizu, who left her position as Assistant Director of the US Botanic Garden in DC to join the Ginter Garden, puts it this way:
THE EARTH :Back To Basics: Growing Food
Every year at this time I turn to the upcoming season with much anticipation.With the seed catalogs arriving, I spend time finding new varieties and old favorites that I want to grow.My thoughts also turn to the needs of the garden and preparations for the new season.This gives me the opportunity to review some of the basic elements that are needed in gardening.For those of you who are old hands at gardening as well as those who are new gardeners, I would like to briefly share with you a few important items that are essential for a successful garden.
Location of the Garden Site:
Feeding in February is ‘For the Birds’
February is National Wild Bird Feeding Month, the seventh observance since the event was established by the National Bird-Feeding Society.
The reason, of course, is that February is one of the most difficult times in much of the U.S. and Canada for birds to survive in the wild. For example, consider that:
* A typical backyard bird doesn’t weigh as much as two nickels
* They spend most of their waking hours searching for food — without the help of “hands” and “fingers”
* They may consume 20% of their body weight overnight just keeping warm enough to survive
