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By MICKEY RATHBUN

In the Orchard Arboretum, a little-known public garden in South Amherst, a living work of art is making its debut this spring. “I call it a daffodil ribbon,” explained Richard Waldman, a retired landscape architect from New York City who conceived of the project two years ago and has finally brought it to fruition.

By MICKEY RATHBUN

“Well-Being Grows in Tiny Gardens,” announced a recent headline in the New York Times. The article told of small garden plots in Stockholm that were established as a social program in the early 1900s to bring nature into crowded urban life. It was hoped that bringing people outdoors to work together in their gardens would provide well-being to those who might otherwise seek to lift their spirits with a bottle. Sweden boasts more than 50,000 such plots and there are long waiting lists to obtain them. It seems intuitive that gardening has health benefits, particularly when compared with the effects of heavy drinking. And legions of psychological researchers have found that gardeners tend to have fewer symptoms of depression and less anxiety, and that those who garden with others feel less socially isolated.

By MICKEY RATHBUN

I received the announcement of the Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association (WMMGA)’s spring symposiums earlier this month, when the wind was whipping the falling snow into spiraling towers of white. In early February, it’s hard for the imagination to break through the winter doldrums. Will we ever feel the touch of soft spring breezes or enjoy the sight of green shoots pushing through the cold dark soil? The WMMGA symposiums help us to jostle our gardening passions out of hibernation and into activity, even if only mental.

By MICKEY RATHBUN

The 2025 UMass Garden Calendar comes out every fall, just as we are putting our gardens to bed for the winter. As always, the calendar is a must-have for gardeners. It gives daily tips on indoor and outdoor gardening and other related subjects,...

By MICKEY RATHBUN

Late summer isn’t a pretty time in the garden, at least not in my garden. The recent mini-drought has bleached out what passes for lawn, several large hydrangeas are drooping as they beg me for water, the daylily borders are shriveled and brown....

By MICKEY RATHBUN

It’s August and in my household that means one thing: local tomatoes. For much of the year, our grocery stores offer tomatoes tough enough to endure machine picking followed by days or weeks in cold storage. Even the more expensive, so-called...

By MICKEY RATHBUN

Anyone with a passing knowledge of art history is familiar with the acanthus plant, whether they know it or not. The acanthus leaf, broad and serrated, is the decorative motif on the capital of the classical Corinthian column, more ornate than the...

By MICKEY RATHBUN

After long weeks of yearning for gardening weather, we’re suddenly inundated by spring. Endless outdoor chores beg for our attention — composting, mulching, edging, scrubbing birdbaths and, at least in my garden beds, pulling out multitudes of maple...

By MICKEY RATHBUN

The word “herbarium” sounds a bit quaint, even antiquated. We may think of Emily Dickinson’s herbarium, which she created during her year at Mount Holyoke in 1847-48. Although she had begun studying plants at age 9 and was helping her mother in the...