Grass is a cool weather crop. This time of year your job is to help it ride out the heat. One simple way to reduce summer stress on your lawn is to mow high, high, high. Not only do you naturally crowd out weeds, you’re allowing native pollinators to thrive in that taller canopy. Conservation…
DetailsMost foxgloves are biennial plants, meaning that they flower at Age 2. The dwarf pink variety ‘Foxy’ falls into this category. After that, the plant dies. So if you have ‘Foxy’ you can leave the seed stalk and hope that it will spread some seed around your garden for another year. In 2016, this biennial…
DetailsRain gardens are becoming increasingly popular as more and more people are taking responsibility for their “ecological footprint.” A rain garden is a sunken garden that is planted with deep-rooted, water loving plants and grasses in a well-draining basin. Its purpose is to receive runoff from impervious surfaces such as roofs, sidewalks, and driveways. Storm…
DetailsAs more of us grow our own food, even on a small scale, there is much to learn about the life cycle of various plants in the vegetable garden. Most lettuce varieties are cool season crops. When the hot weather comes, they send up tall stalks that will flower and set seed. You’ll notice that…
DetailsIt’s not too late to plant some flowers that will lure in monarch and other butterflies and support their life cycle, while encouraging good pollination in your vegetable and fruit gardens. The leaves of Joe Pye weed are food for developing caterpillars. You may remember that the monarch caterpillars can feed only on the of milkweed…
DetailsTo encourage your lawn to thicken, we recommend mowing only when the grass reaches a 3-4″ height. Scalping it lower only encourages more light penetration, and then weeds spring up. Watering is best done in the early morning hours so that the blades can thoroughly dry off. An inch of rain per week is all…
DetailsHappy 4th! Let’s celebrate the continued birth of the independent, local, organic food growing movement sweeping across our Nation! We’re so happy to help folks grow organic food right in their own yard. Below is one of our clients in Harvard, Massachusetts we helped on that journey. This amazing 2,000 square foot vegetable garden was…
DetailsOne of our clients in West Concord, Massachusetts needed to create screening of shed and laundry line. This natural privacy screen is a source of habitat, beauty, peace and food! At Pumpkin Brook we’re committed to bringing that natural balance to every garden we create for our customers!
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A pest to watch out for this time of year is Rose Slug Sawfly (Endelomyia aethiops). It can be a nasty pest of roses in late May/early June. The pest gets its name from its ability to lay eggs in plant leaves or stems with a saw-like egg laying mechanism. The worm-like larvae are greenish yellow…
DetailsA Perfect Combination of Beauty and Resiliency Viburnum plicatum tomentosum ‘Mariesii’ Viburnum plicatum tomentosum ‘Mariesii’ (Double File Viburnum) almost acts like a tree. Reaching 10′-12′ tall and up to 15′ wide over time, it is notable for the double rows of blossoms that march up and down its horizontal stems in late May and early…
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