As long as we are here, we will garden. We just need to pare down to what is more manageable. We spent so many years adding gardens that taking them out does leave a bit of a bitter taste. But life is all about change, about waxing and waning...…
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Two weeks after I would normally plant next year’s garlic crop, I realized I had completely forgotten. I cannot recall ever forgetting such a staple of our routine up here on the hill. I mean, routine is everything. Fortunately, my source was more than happy to supply me with what I needed.…
If I see an empty spot, I fill it. So what if it is impossible to get to the lone zucchini in the corner (which, by the way, I had to sneak in after being told NOT to plant any) without bushwhacking my way through the bushy, overbearing haricots verts overshadowing a row of lettuce, itself shadowed and obscured by another row of beans.…
GARDEN—5-6:30 p.m.; doors open at 4:30 p.m. “Evenings in the Garden: Space Saving Gardening Techniques.” Learn about potato towers and the square-foot garden with the Otsego County Master Gardeners. Cornell Cooperative Extension, 123 Lake Street, Cooperstown. (607) 547-2536 ext. 235 or https://cceschoharie-otsego.org/events/2025/05/21/space-saving-gardening-techniques…
There is a connection between pea planting and the buffoonery we witness daily in the name of curtailing government spending. There should not be. When Thoreau planted his beans on the banks of Walden Pond, he could go about with a clear head.…
Gardening is a labor of love, but over time the labor part trumps the love part—knees ache faster, arthritic digits stiffen, lower backs get creaky. We are committed to sitting down and making the hard cuts. We no longer need the quantities we’ve become accustomed to.…
I was working on construction in a high-rise building in lower Manhattan. My partner, “Roidney” Bunion, was 10 years younger than me, an ex-football player and a product of the “tune out and turn on” generation.…
In Memoriam Frances H. Thayer, 101 March 31, 1921 – January 23, 2023 FORK SHOP—Frances H. Thayer passed away peacefully in her sleep at the age of 101 Monday, January 23, 2023, at her home in Fork Shop. She was born March 31, 1921 at the family home on Jones Road in Oaksville, the daughter of Christina Pushlar. In 1938, her mother married William A. Semrov, and he became her stepfather. In her youth, Frances attended schools in Oaksville and…
Up On Hawthorne Hill by Richard DeRosa On Cutting Back This is the time of year when several things cross my mind. I think of those lines in Frost’s wonderful poem, “After-Apple Picking,” where he admits to being “… overtired /Of the great harvest I myself desired.” Not that we are burdened with a “great harvest” up here on the hill, but we do maintain a hefty assortment of gardens, among them two sizable vegetable gardens that meet most of…
Letter by Dr. Roger MacMillan Thanks to All Involved with CAA Flowerbeds While I wish to thank the Clark Foundation for their generous comments regarding the flower bed in front of the Cooperstown Art Association sign, I would be remiss if I failed to thank the many people who have aided me in this endeavor over the past years. One should note a large maple tree adjacent to this garden bed. Every spring, using forks and a mechanical tiller, the…
