By Russ Allen If you’ve not yet grown some of the newer varieties of daylilies in your perennial garden, they are something you’ve got to try. The explosion in daylily hybridizing over the past 20 years has resulted in over 95,000 different registered varieties, but how do you know which will perform best in Connecticut gardens? The Most Rewarding Perennial Flower Many gardeners believe that daylilies (also known as Hemerocallis) may be the most rewarding perennial flower one can grow in their garden based on a number of considerations which include: The beauty of modern daylilies can be breathtaking with tremendous variety of colors, flower sizes and forms, heights, patterns,…
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Todd Harrington – Organic Pioneer
By Will Rowlands NOV-DEC 2018 – Todd Harrington is the owner and driving force behind Harrington’s Organic Land Care in Bloomfield. Todd grew up in Canton and worked for his father’s commercial landscape company after school and on weekends. He studied mechanical engineering at UConn for two years and then took a few years off to work for tree care companies. After resuming his studies at UMass, he received a degree in arboriculture and forestry. He started a tree care division for his father’s business in 1987. Three years later he started his own business, Organicare. In 1997, he changed the name to Harrington’s Organicare and then again to Harrington’s…
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The Branch Manager
By Anne Rowlands MARCH-APRIL 2018 – Meet Christopher Hawver who – in the late ’90s after 18 years as a celebrated chef – chose to make a career change and pursue life as a rustic furniture maker. Why the switch? Like so many of us who find inspiration and comfort in a natural setting, Hawver was looking for a way into the woods. In his youth, he wondered how to make it possible. Could he be a forest ranger? A fishing or hunting guide? At age 15, however, the door to the woods swung shut when he began a culinary journey that lasted many years until – after taking up…
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In Search of Native Hops
SEPT-OCT 2017 – Prior to prohibition, common hops, Humulus lupulus, were grown in Connecticut by folks brewing their own beer. Some of these may have survived in the wild, but may be confused with the invasive Japanese hop, Humulus japonicus. If common hops were found growing locally, they could possibly be more resistant to diseases (e.g., downy mildew) than cultivated varieties. Target breeding this disease resistance into a domesticated variety could reduce pesticide use for locally grown hops. The species are easy to distinguish as common hop leaves are three-lobed or non-lobed while Japanese hops have 5-7 (sometimes 9) lobes. If you find any common hops, please provide Dr. Jim…
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Cow Pots – The Pots You Plant
By Will Rowlands JULY-AUG 2017 – There are ideas and then there are ideas. Pet rocks, shoe umbrellas, Tamagotchi, etc., are interesting, if somewhat silly, examples. The Freund family, dairy farmers in East Canaan, came up with one that’s not only functional but benefits the environment in several ways. About 20 years ago, they were looking for a better way to manage the manure generated by their herd of some 250 cows and Matt Freund had an idea. Why not make pots from cow manure? Matthew and Ben Freund, second-generation dairy farmers, were there and took up the challenge. Actually, according to The New York Times, the genesis of the…
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Spear Head Spade – Made in Connecticut
By Will Rowlands MAY-JUNE 2017 – The Spear Head Spade® was designed by Daniel Mathieu when he was 85. With two artificial knees and two artifical hips, he was finding it increasingly difficult to dig and cultivate his garden. Fortunately, Mathieu is an inventor and designed a garden shovel that does a better job of penetrating tough New England soils. He began with a regular shovel and, by gradually removing bits and pieces of the shovel head, engineered a shovel that uses angles and edges to cut through obstacles and penetrate difficult soils with less effort. As it turned out, many of his friends immediately appreciated the benefits of the…
