“The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.”
~ Henry Van Dyke (American author, diplomat, educator, clergyman; 1852–1933)
Author Archive: Betty Hanselman
HAPPY GREEN DAY!
“May your heart be light and happy,
may your smile be big and wide,
and may your garden always have
lots of green inside.”
~ Irish blessing
Adapted by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& green devotee)
Can we add the all-season beauty of green in its many shades and textures to your garden this year? Give us a call: 717-653-1273. We’d love to partner with you to make your garden green and glorious everyday of the year!
PRIVILEGED SPACE
“A garden should make you feel you’ve entered privileged space–a place not just set apart, but reverberant–and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer poetry.”
~ Michael Pollan (in Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education)
Gladly shared by Betty HanselmanGardener’s wife (& “Oh WOW!” garden beneficiary)
A CURE FOR GRAY
On the drab and dreary (rainy or snowy!!) days when winter and spring seem to be playing an interminable game of hide and seek, how refreshing to have the varied shades, textures, and shapes of evergreens to brighten the landscape! Here are some of the ones in my garden. Do you have any favorite evergreens that delight and lift your spirits all year long?
Contributed by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& evergreen enthusiast!)
Pictured here are Japanese White Pine, ‘Edith Bogue’ Southern Magnolia, Nordmann Fir and Umbrella Pine.
A WALK IN THE WIND
There is something invigorating about a walk on a cold, blustery day. With the wind slashing at every extremity or exposed bit of skin, there comes a sharpness, a keen reminder that I am alive! The cold somehow narrows my focus; I notice things I walk right past on pleasant days–the textures of tree bark and boulders, a delicate spray of Pine needles on a weathered rock, a splash of berries clinging to leafless branches . . . .
Without the brilliant colors and clamor of the other seasons, the structure of the landscape is sharpened and clarified. And, while the walk is brisk (after all, the bitter cold IS real!), there is time to give thanks for the ‘everywhere’ beauty of our garden and the chance to rub shoulders with it in each season of the year.
Contributed by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& winter garden wanderer)
SPRING’S FIRST HERALD: HAMAMELIS ‘Arnold’s Promise’
In late winter, when the cold has outworn its welcome, few things are more heartening than hints that spring is just around the corner. In our garden, the very first sign of spring is the blooming of our ‘Arnold’s Promise’ Witch Hazel (Hamamelis) shrub. Even before Vs of geese chorus across the sky, before the first robins begin hopping about on the lawn, and before the Crocuses push up through the damp soil, delicate yellow blossoms appear on our ‘Arnold’s Promise’ Witch Hazel. And it always takes us by surprise!
Not long ago, while I was out walking, a fresh, airy–yet floral–scent grabbed my attention. I couldn’t imagine where it was coming from, since I hadn’t yet seen any flowering trees or shrubs. A quick search led me by the nose to our Witch Hazel shrub. Of course! I should have remembered: this is always our first sign that spring is coming!!!
Joyfully reposted (from a few years ago) by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& spring scent seeker)