Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Plant Sales Begin As Garden Season Approaches

Mid to late May is generally considered the safest time to plant vegetables and more delicate flowers outdoors in the Tristate region. In anticipation of the beginning of summer gardens, several organizations are holding their annual plant sales. The libraries are a good source for plants divided out of successful home gardens; they also usually offer “starts” of edibles such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

Freund’s Farm Market in East Canaan, Conn., is offering hanging baskets at the Douglas Library of North Canaan, Conn., sale on Saturday, May 21, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and Sweet Haven Farm in North Canaan has donated flower arrangements for the sale.

Anyone who is dividing their perennials is invited to bring them in containers for the sale. Call the library at 860-824-7863 for information or send an email to douglaslibary@comcast.net.

The D.M. Hunt Library in Falls Village, Conn., will hold its annual sale on Saturday, May 21, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sunday, May 22, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Plants will include tomatoes, vegetables, annuals and perennials, and houseplants including geraniums from Housatonic Valley Regional High School in pots and hanging baskets. Proceeds benefit the library and the high school. For more information, or to donate plants and pots, call the library at 860-824-7424 or go to www.huntlibrary.org.Drop-off for donations is Friday, May 20, from 2 to 5 p.m. Perennials, annuals, houseplants, decorative pots and garden accessories are welcome.  Early drop-offs may be placed by the library’s back door near the faucet.  Label all plants with their name.

Weatogue Farm in Salisbury, Conn., will begin its annual sale of vegetables, flowers and herbs on Friday, May 13, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily into the first week of June.

Call Elvia with questions at 860-435-0345. The farm is at 78 Weatogue Road in Salisbury, near the border with North Canaan, Conn.

In Stockbridge, Mass., the Berkshire Botanical Garden’s annual Plants-and-Answers Plant Sale is scheduled for Mother’s Day weekend, May 6 and 7,  with regionally appropriate plants hand-picked by the Garden’s horticulturists.

The sale is open to the public Friday, May 6, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, May 8, from 9 to 5 p.m. Admission and parking are free.

And the Trade Secrets Rare Plant and Garden Antiques Sale, which draws gardeners from all across the U.S. and supports Women’s Support Services in Salisbury, Conn., will be held this year at Lime Rock Park in Salisbury on Saturday, May 14. The next day (Sunday, May 15) is garden tour day, with a mix of public and private gardens open to visitors. For more information, go to www.tradesecretsct.com.

Cynthia Hochswender

Latest News

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

Left to right: Hannah Wheeler, Matin Malikzada and Yonah Sadeh.

D.H. Callahan

On Monday, Oct. 26, a group of students, teachers and local residents gathered at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville for a screening of the new short documentary “Matin.” The film tells the story of Matin Malikzada, a seventh-generation Afghani potter making a new life in New Milford, Connecticut. The film was made by local filmmaker Yonah Sadeh, creator of the Video Wall at the David M. Hunt Library, and Berkshires-based potter Hannah Wheeler, who were both present for the screening, along with Malikzada himself.

As a member of the seventh generation of his family to master the art of pottery, Malikzada had done things the way his family had for over a century. Istalif, the village where his family has lived for generations, was known throughout Afghanistan for its pottery, with wares sent across the country for use as everyday cups, bowls, plates and other vessels. The pottery-making families of Istalif gathered clay from the same mountain, about 30 to 45 minutes away by donkey. Every July, they would head north toward the Uzbekistan border to gather ishkar, a plant they processed by hand to make their signature glazes.

Keep ReadingShow less
film

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.

L. Tomaino

When Meg Sher came to Falls Village in 2006 from Old Lyme, Connecticut, where she grew up, she never imagined she’d someday be the executive director of the David M. Hunt Library.

Although, in hindsight, perhaps it makes sense.

Keep ReadingShow less
our community

Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, conducts the audience at a performance.

Steve Potter

For Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, music from centuries past is anything but a relic. It is a living, breathing art form, full of drama, emotional complexity and, occasionally, surprises. As the regional choral and period-instrument ensemble launches its 23rd season, Gevert is once again bringing forgotten masterpieces into the present.

“Early Music has been my lifelong passion and the focus of my specialization in Europe and South America,” Gevert said. “Bringing this repertoire to our audiences in a nuanced way that does justice to its incredible depth, intensity, and beauty is deeply important to me.”

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music’s 35th season opens with “Saluting the Clarinet” featuring clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein.

Provided

For 35 years, cellist Yehuda Hanani has been inviting audiences to experience classical music in unexpected ways. As founder and artistic director of Close Encounters with Music, Hanani has built a concert series that goes beyond the music itself, exploring connections to literature, history, politics and the human experience.

This year, Close Encounters celebrates its 35th season with “Celebration & Discovery,” a seven-concert series that opens Sunday, Nov. 1, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts

Shinbone Alley brings spooky songs to Spencertown

Shinbone Alley brings spooky songs to Spencertown

Seeing isn’t always believing. Sometimes it’s the lack of a defined picture that can be the most compelling. And when Alex Harvey of Shinbone Alley sings his supernaturally charged sea shanties and street ballads, the unseen will be downright scary. On Oct. 30, the historically inclined storyteller and performer will create a spooky evening of forbidden tales and yarns through a carefully chosen series of songs at Spencertown Academy of Arts.

The repertoire for the performance is a bit fraught. Over the years, Shinbone Alley has explored the world of folklore through music. Though the group usually features two musicians, Harvey, a multi-instrumentalist and singer, will be performing solo. That is, of course, unless you include the spirits.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts

Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa meet in Sheffield

Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa meet in Sheffield
Vieux Farka Touré
Proivded

Desert winds rarely blow into the Berkshires, but on Nov. 5, they will carry the Malian blues and Moroccan Gnawa music to Race Brook Lodge.

That evening, Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, often called “the Hendrix of the Sahara,” and Moroccan musician Samir LanGus will play at the lodge’s Event Barn in Sheffield, Massachusetts, at a benefit for the foundation Touré directs.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.