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2 weeks ago | 
hk-now.com | Joanne Nesti |Terry Twigg
By Terry Twigg(April 11, 2025) — Do you want to try growing plants from seed, without spending a lot of money? Have you already blown this year’s garden budget on a few special plants, with nothing left over for flowers and vegetables? Brainerd Memorial Library isn’t just a book library—it’s also a seed library! We offer a wide variety of seeds. Some are tried-and-true varieties, others are new cultivars. Take home the flower and veggie seeds of your choice.
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3 weeks ago | 
hk-now.com | Joanne Nesti |Terry Twigg
By Terry Twigg(March 31, 2025) — The U.S. has 433 national parks (though only 63 are called that; the others have names like National Monument, Seashore, or Recreational Area), encompassing 85 million acres. That seems like a lot, but it’s less than 4% of the 2.26 billion acres we call home.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
hk-now.com | Joanne Nesti |Terry Twigg
By Terry Twigg(December 5, 2024) — Finally, a hard frost! It was a long time coming, but it’s really winter now, at last. The long grass in the back meadow is frosted over, there’s a skim coat of ice on the pond, and forgotten flowerpots, which showcased bright geraniums throughout the summer, now hold only solid blocks of frozen potting soil. In another month I’ll gather seed catalogs and start making wish lists, but just now there are still a number of garden chores needing attention.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
hk-now.com | Joanne Nesti |Terry Twigg
By Terry Twigg(October 1, 2024) — Most people with even a casual interest in gardening can name the best-known villains in our niche of the ecosystem: bittersweet, barberry, and multiflora rose. Then there’s the one that more recently muscled its way into our awareness: the dreaded, almost-impossible-to-eradicate Japanese knotweed. Right now it’s in bloom, so its frothy white flowers are identifiable in alarming amounts along our roadsides.
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Sep 1, 2024 | 
hk-now.com | Joanne Nesti |Terry Twigg
By Terry Twigg(September 1, 2024) — This article started out intended to focus on fall-blooming trees, but the lists are heavily populated with non-natives. One exception is our native witch hazel, hamamelis virginiana, but its flowers don’t bloom for me until Thanksgiving, and anyway, they’re quite small and inconspicuous. In my yard, there’s only one standout bloom right now:the snow-white and egg-yolk yellow, camellia-like flowers of the Ben Franklin tree, Franklinia Altamaha (photo above).
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Aug 3, 2024 | 
hk-now.com | Joanne Nesti |Terry Twigg
By Terry Twigg(August 3, 2024) — I’m caught in a never-ending game of catch-up. Last year I surrendered to the unrelenting heat and neglected my gardens for the last half of the season. I promised myself I’d make it up come spring, but was sick during those critical weeks in which inch-high weeds bolt to a foot and a half and formerly well-behaved perennials sprout long ungainly stems, the kind you want to just cut back by half, but can’t, because the only leaves are at the very top.
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Jul 2, 2024 | 
hk-now.com | Joanne Nesti |Terry Twigg
By Terry Twigg(July 2, 2024) — This summer, so far, has been characterized by record-breaking heat and close-to-record-breaking rainfall. Hurricane Beryl, strengthened by warm oceans, was the earliest-ever Category 4 hurricane, now up to Category 5. Closer to home, suffocatingly hot afternoons give way to nights filled with thunderstorms and cloudbursts, and in the morning I can almost see steam rising from the sodden earth.
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Jun 4, 2024 | 
hk-now.com | Joanne Nesti |Terry Twigg
By Terry Twigg(June 4, 2024) — Every once in a while, someone who knows I write this blog asks to come see my gardens. I always shudder inwardly, because I know they’re expecting to see the magnificent gardens that exist only in my head, instead of the very imperfect ones in my yard. I’ve made as many mistakes as anyone else, and then some. The most common, and most fatal, mistake any new gardener makes is to plant for the site conditions you wish you had, instead of the ones you actually have.
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May 2, 2024 | 
hk-now.com | Joanne Nesti |Terry Twigg
By Terry Twigg(May 2, 2024) — As I’ve mentioned before, just prior to moving to Haddam I visited Spain, queen of courtyards and courtyard gardens. I was enthralled with the exquisite walled gardens of the Alhambra, with its long reflecting pools. And so, as my own courtyard was taking shape, I dreamt of installing a similar pool down its length. But that seemed overkill, considering I already had a large pond in the back, not to mention that it would have been rather pricey.
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Apr 1, 2024 | 
hk-now.com | Joanne Nesti |Terry Twigg
By Terry Twigg(April 1, 2024) — In centuries past, obscenely wealthy people who didn’t yet have the option of flaunting their wealth by building spaceships found another path to ostentation in their own back yards. Not content with building private houses larger than many hotels, they shuffled hills and valleys, redirected rivers, scooped out private lakes, and transplanted full-sized trees.
