Organic gardener growing food and flowers, lovin' pollinators and birds.

Maple Season is Short and Sweet for Sugarhouse

Tony Denning, owner of Maple Leaf Farm, empties maple sap into the
metal bin in the pump house at his Plainfield sugarbush.
CANTERBURY, Conn. - After checking the sugarbush* on a partly sunny, 36 degree day, Tony Denning, owner of Maple Leaf Farm, drove past a small grocery store on his way back home.

"They have my syrup on the shelf next to Log Cabin in there," he told me. "Do you know what's in Log Cabin?"

I guessed corn syrup, the most overused substitute for sugar mass retailers can find.

"Let's go find out," Denning said, and he pulled his truck into the parking lot. Sure enough, the Log Cabin bottle was right next to the quart from Maple Leaf Farm.  Coyly coined "table syrup," the ingredients list does not include corn syrup as I suspected, but brown rice syrup. Denning's quart is nothing short of the real thing: 100 percent pure maple syrup.

The "sugaring season" is a short one, and maple syrup producers like Denning need to make the most of a limited time window - typically six weeks before rising spring temperatures end the season. "Maple syrup production [in Connecticut] is so under done," he said. He's right. Connecticut made up only 1 percent of the entire maple production in 2013, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, and it's not due to the lack of trees.

In addition, maple syrup producers are a close-knit community with a low profile. "A lot of people don't even realize how many sugar houses there are that are open to the public," he said. (There are 30 listed in the 2014 Guide to Connecticut Sugarhouses, available online here.)

Short season
For maple syrup production, the trees need temperatures in the low 20s at night and 45 degrees Fahrenheit during the day to help the sap flow.

"You want the trees to freeze all night. Not for an hour or two in the morning - that doesn't cut it," he said.

In the past five years, maple syrup production at Maple Leaf Farm has started as early as Jan. 6 and as late as Feb. 14. "Last year was better sugar content. Everything came off right last year," Denning said.

Denning stands next to a maple tree tapped into
the vacuum pump system at his Plainfield
sugarbush location (10 acres).
This year, the season didn't begin until Feb. 21 for Denning. This delay in the start of the season was thanks to the extreme cold temperatures - known as the "polar vortex" - Connecticut experienced this year. "We've only had two really good runs this year," he said. "This year we are just throwing the rulebook out - nothing is happening the way it should be happening. This is the latest I've ever started in the season. [And] I've never seen it run past the first week of April."

When trees are originally tapped, the sap runs clear, resulting in lighter colored maple syrup. As the season continues, the sap takes on more color. "The warmer the temperature is, the darker it usually is," he said. "[But] this year we didn't make any light syrup."

At Maple Leaf Farm, maple syrup is created with a machine that uses reverse osmosis to separate the water from the sap. It is then funneled into an evaporator and heated to a temperature between 219 and 223 degrees Fahrenheit. "I like my syrup thick," he said as he offered me a shot of maple syrup. I happily obliged - it was thick and sweet. "Everybody wants dark syrup," he said. "The darker the syrup, the more flavor. The lighter the syrup the lighter the flavor."

Dark syrup also has more beneficial properties than light syrup. Less than five years ago, a University of Rhode Island scientist discovered that pure maple syrup from Canada contained 54 beneficial properties. According to URI, "several of these anti-oxidant compounds newly identified in maple syrup are also reported to have anti-cancer, anti-bacterial and anti-diabetic properties."

"It's far more beneficial than using cane sugar or corn syrup," said Denning. "I have maple syrup every day." Besides the usual pancake topping, maple butter, maple candy and maple sugar that come to mind, Denning said kids can put it in milk to make maple milk. For the adults, "put maple syrup in your coffee instead of sugar." (Maple syrup can be substituted for white sugar in cooking, with 1 cup maple syrup for 1 cup of white sugar. The liquid in the recipe should be reduced by 3 tablespoons for each cup of syrup used. Source: Cornell University.)

Maple syrup inventory at Maple Leaf Farm in Canterbury, Conn.
Changing grades
The USDA grading system that Connecticut uses is classified into Grade A light amber, medium amber and dark amber. There is also Grade B and commercial grade, which is darker than Grade B. Now the system is changing.

A maple tree is tapped to the vacuum
pump system.
Denning said the labeling changes are letting maple syrup producers sell shades of syrup that are a little darker than before. By 2015 there will no longer be a Grade B category. The new grades will be Grade A "golden," "amber," "dark" and "very dark." (Vermont has already implemented the new grading labels this year.)

Maple syrup is produced throughout Canada (mainly Quebec) and the northeast portion of the United States.  According to Cornell University, "syrup flavor is affected by soil type, tree genetics, weather conditions during the maple season, time during the season when the sap is collected and processing technique." 

In this manner, maple syrup is similar to wine due the variations of local flavor. (Perhaps Connecticut should consider creating a Connecticut Maple Trail to accompany the Connecticut Wine Trail.)

Modern improvements in gathering sap
Denning said he likes the solitude of the woods, which is a good thing because the sugarbush requires constant maintenance. "I do it all myself, " he said. "If it was easy, everybody would be doing it."

Five years ago, Denning started tapping trees for Maple Leaf Farm. The following year he switched to a vacuum pump system to collect the sap. Each tree is tapped and connected with tubing. The tree's individual tubing is hooked up to the main vacuum line. "With a vacuum system you bring all the sap to where you want it," he said.

Sap inside the lines of the vacuum
pump system.
Between his three sugarbush locations spread over 20 acres, he has 2,000 taps on the vacuum system. On site, all the sap from six acres of trees comes to the sugar house, which he built himself. The other two locations have a pump house set up with tanks to collect the sap.

The trees need to be tended to daily. Lines in the vacuum system can be nibbled on by squirrels. They aren't the only animals with a sweet tooth. Raccoons, opossums and even young coyotes chew on plastic tubing used in the vacuum system "You know it's a coyote pup [when] it's ripped right to the ground and chewed on," he said. Deer, which also frequent the woods, leave the lines alone.

"The bigger the trees are the longer it takes them to thaw out," said Denning. Tapping the trees for the sap does not hurt the tree. When tapping a tree, the diameter of the tree trunk determines how many taps can be used. (Up to 18 inches in diameter, 1 tap; 18 inches to 2 1/2 feet, 2 taps; 3 feet or larger, 3 taps.) Any type of maple tree can be tapped, not just sugar maples, although the sugar maple is the most popular due to its high sugar content.

"They want to go," he said, referring to the sap in the trees. "They want to run."

Maple Leaf Farm is open Monday through Friday, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Visitors can watch maple syrup being made, usually between January and March. In the off season, the farm sells homegrown canned goods, wreaths and homemade pies to order by Denning's wife, Lynne. Organic eggs and wood are also for sale. 

* A maple grove that is tapped is called a sugarbush.
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Floral Friday

After posting the first ever (and last) Floral Thursday last week, I realized there already existed a similar (and better alliteration) of Floral Friday. So see ya Floral Thursday, hello Floral Friday.

Moth orchid in bloom today. 
Today's Floral Friday is also my mom's birthday. My mom always loved plants, particularly houseplants. As a child, I spent more time in plant nurseries instead of clothing stores because of her. On Wednesdays, my grade school would have early dismissal and we would drive the 30 minutes out to Long Island to visit Hicks. I'd get McDonalds, and she'd get a plant. We passed many Wednesdays that way.

Over the years her tastes in plants would change. She'd start out with begonias and eventually move toward orchids. She had better luck with orchids then begonias. I remember one lady slipper orchid that she kept in her bedroom window. One day she discovered, by surprise and accident, that it had bloomed. The window was covered in frost (these were OLD windows) yet the plant was covered in white blossoms. It was beautiful. She called me to her room to show me. She never took a photo, but I remember the pale white flowers dangling daintily on their stems. She just had luck with orchids, simple as that.

My mom passed away 8.5 years ago in the fall, and I took the news very badly. There was a time I constantly searched for her whereever I would go. I often found myself being brought back again and again to plant nurseries, trying to relive the trips that had happened before I "grew up" in high school and became "too cool" to go with her. (I would eventually return for sporadic trips while in college.) One day I missed her so much that I even returned to Long Island to the plant nursery where we would routinely go as I was growing up.

There, on several tables, were dozens of orchids in various shades of colors. I missed her so much that I bought three purple moth orchids and drove them back to Connecticut with me. If I couldn't be with her, I'd at least surround myself with the flowers that reminded me of her.

Then a funny thing happened. In springtime, just around her birthday, one of the three orchids rebloomed. I thought it was a funny coincidence, and left it that.

Now let me be clear that I am not an orchid expert. There are weeks where I even forget to water them. But every year, faithfully, at least one of the three purple orchids will bloom right before the anniversary of her death, or by her birthday.

On March 9, one of the orchids began to bloom. Today, on her birthday, it is almost in full bloom.

Over the years I have joked that the orchids do so well because they have a little heavenly magic. So today, on March 28, which would have been my mom's 69th birthday, I'd like to give her a little shout out during Floral Friday.

Happy birthday, Mom.

My mom, Anne Haggerty, in the 1970s before I knew her.



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Prevent Stormwater Runoff with a Fashionable Rain Garden

MANCHESTER, Conn. - With April showers imminent, you'll soon be reminded of how much stormwater leaves your property. Water rushing through gutters and down driveways will find its way to the street's sewer if you don't have a way to trap it.

Instead of letting stormwater wash away, create a rain garden to keep it on site.
Michael Dietz presented on Rain Garden Basics at
the CMGA Symposium on March 15. 

At the 2014 Connecticut Master Garden Association's Symposium, Michael Dietz, Ph.D, NEMO program director and water resources educator, explained how a rain garden can be installed. The benefits can be clearly seen in densely populated (and paved) cities.

"Older cities have a runoff problem," said Dietz. "The sewage and runoff from the house combine and overload the sewer treatment plants. If it's overloaded, it goes into the rivers."

The main problem with stormwater runoff is that it can collect pollutants along the way. These pollutants can find its way into lakes, streams, ponds and rivers.

This is where a rain garden comes in handy: it is designed to collect and infiltrate storm water runoff from a roof or driveway. This way on-site pollution will not leave your yard but will be treated on site. How? The top level of the soil has the ability to filter water and, for example, can absorb metals from older roofs. The bacteria in the soil can even break down small oil spots from a driveway, Dietz told his class.

The rain garden is simple in design. It is a depression in the landscape (about six inches deep) that is often planted with native plants and topped with a layer of finely shredded mulch. It should be located at least 10-15 feet away from the foundation of a house and at least 25 feet away from a well or septic system.

"Don't put a rain garden in a wet area of the yard," said Dietz. That means there is a high water table in that area. Dietz also recommended avoiding soils heavy in clay matter, but this area can be amended by increasing its size and adding compost.

A rain garden should not be confused with a pond. "Ponding [in the area] is OK, but it should be gone within three to four hours. You don't want to see water ponding for a day or two days after a storm," he said. (Read more here.)

Another challenge is working with compacted soil. "Compacted soil is the number one killer of a rain garden," he said. "If a house is constructed in the last five years, you will have compacted soil." This is caused by the heavy machinery that was used on-site to build the house. "Compacted subsoil is not good to grow in," he said. Dietz recommends replacing some of the compacted soil with a sand and compost mixture.

Sample of the sizing map as seen on
my iPhone. 
There's an App for That
The University of Connecticut has created a (very) helpful website to learn more about rain gardens. One of the most helpful pieces of information that I found on the website is the soil map. "It gives you a rough idea of what to expect at your house," Dietz said. On the page, enter your address to get an idea of what type of soil absorption your garden contains.  (For example, in my area, my whole neighborhood is characterized as "excessively drained" due to our proximity to the Connecticut River.)

Over on the Sizing Map, if you once again enter your street address, you can click on the satellite view of your house to calculate the amount of runoff that will enter your garden. Once you hit the calculate button, the site will tell you how wide your rain garden should be (remember to keep a depth of six inches for the ponding area and three more inches for the mulch when digging out the area).

What's even cooler is that there is a free app available for smartphones with all the same data found on the website. So you can even use the sizing map while standing out in your garden to measure how big your garden bed is. (Cool!)

To learn more about creating rain gardens, check out the Rain Gardens website created by the University of Connecticut Center for Land Use Education and Research's (CLEAR) NEMO Program.

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Floral Thursday

It's finally here! It felt like an eternity, didn't it? Even though it's still a bit cold in many parts of the country, the calendar says spring begins today, and that's good enough for me. I went outside this morning to cut back the old leaves on the hellebores, and also noticed some snowdrops peaking out of the ground. (Hoping more come up soon!)

And my beloved pansies are waiting for the weather to warm up a bit more before they are set free outdoors. It's so great waking up in the morning to see their smiling faces as I drink my coffee! It seems appropriate then that the pansies (and violas) should kick off the new feature on this blog, Floral Thursday. Every week I'll showcase what's blooming here. (If you join in on your blog, comment below so we can share links!) Without further ado...








What are you doing to celebrate spring today?

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Keep Your Notepad Handy as You Read 'The Beautiful Edible Garden'

Book Review

The Beautiful Edible Garden: Design a Stylish Outdoor Space Using Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs
By Leslie Bennett and Stefani Bittner

I found that while I was reading The Beautiful Edible Garden, I was constantly putting the book down to make notes of ideas that jumped into my mind for my own garden. The beautiful photography shines throughout the book and this collaboration by Bennett and Bittner really does inspire you to make a more beautiful, edible garden.

Some of the suggestions in the book obviously apply to warmer garden climates than mine (the duo are the co-founders of Star Apple Edible + Fine Gardening in San Francisco, Calif.). For example, growing lemons throughout the winter months outdoors or growing olive trees to give the garden a more Mediterranean feel.

This book's publication (2013) arrives while edible landscaping is trendy. The book is broken into three main categories: the edible front yard, the edible back yard and beautiful edible containers, window boxes, side yards and other small spaces. The authors advise "to keep annual edible plants pruned and disease-free so that they are a welcoming and pleasing focal point." They also recommend viewing colorful vegetables in the same design grouping as annual flowers when figuring out where to place them in the garden.

For the edible garden, Bennett and Bittner advise readers to choose certain hardscaping materials to complement the garden. They suggest too many materials create a "haphazard look." I never really throughout about my hardscaping elements until I read this book, and realized I combine wooden raised beds and metal arbors regularly, while accenting with bright blue elements. (Maybe this is why bamboo teepees look so out of place in my garden!)

The Beautiful Edible Garden should not be confused with a gardening "how-to" book. While the first few chapters do cover basic gardening information, the majority of the book inspires you to think of how to apply these (sometimes basic) concepts to your own garden. (For example, planting an herb garden outside the kitchen door for easy access while making dinners.) However, I was reminded of some gardening basics that I had forgotten about, such as underplanting low-growing plants underneath larger shrubs and fruit trees and how to divide a bed into three sections to successfully manage succession planting during the growing year.

The Beautiful Edible Garden retails for $19.99 and is published by Ten Speed Press. Star Apple Edible + Fine Gardening can be found online at starappleediblegardens.com or on Facebook.
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Make the Garden a Welcoming Habitat

Carole Sevilla Brown spoke during the
CMGA Symposium Saturday at Manchester
Community College in Manchester, Conn.
MANCHESTER, Conn. - Conservation biologist Carole Sevilla Brown feels all gardeners should take the Hippocratic oath: first, do no harm.

Brown was the keynote speaker at the Connecticut Master Gardener Association's Symposium Saturday. She explained her five pillars of ecosystem gardening and how gardeners can create habitats for native wildlife.

"We've paved over so much of the country [and] destroyed so many habitats," said Brown. Recent satellite photographs have shown that lawns now occupy more than 50 million acres in the United States. In addition, lawn irrigation on the east coast accounts for 30 percent of total water usage. On the west coast, that number is even higher - 50 percent. To save water, she recommended reducing lawn coverage in the garden by 10 percent every year.

"We need to rethink what a good-looking property looks like," said Brown.  "Healthy soil is able to fight disease and pathogens." One teaspoon of healthy soil contains more life than above ground; adding chemicals to the soil makes it sterile. "We are creating crack-addicted soils" by adding chemicals, she said.

Wildlife on the Decline
The list keeps growing for native species on the decline in America, including butterflies, dragonflies, frogs, bees, mussels, clams and fish. (The monarch butterfly has been given the most press lately, given its steep population decline over the past three years. Read more about the dwindling numbers in The New York Times.)

"Our gardens may actually be the last line of defense that wildlife has," said Brown.

Gardeners can do simple things to help native wildlife, such as not applying chemical fertilizers and pesticides to the garden. According to Brown's slides, chemical fertilizers are applied at a much higher rate in residential areas then in agriculture areas.

Pesticides such as RoundUp not only destroys milkweed (the host plant for monarch butterflies), but indiscriminately kills good and bad bugs in the garden. "Ninety-six percent of land birds need insects to feed their young. No insects equals no birds," she said.

Brown discouraged the practice of gardeners creating a "plant zoo" in their garden. "A specimen collection is not an ecosystem," she said. Instead of planting one of each plant, she recommended planting multiples.

More importantly, when making plant choices, it's necessary to include native plants in the garden design. This is one of the best ways to attract more native wildlife. "Most butterflies are specialists," she said. "If you don't have plants they need to lay their eggs on, they move on. If you have a host plant, they will stay."

Another easy way to create a habitat is to not remove fallen leaves from residential property in the fall. Insects such as butterflies lay their eggs on the fallen leaves to overwinter in the garden. Leaves can be put under shrubs as a natural mulch or collected in a compost pile, as opposed to being put out on the curb in brown paper bags. (Brown said 25 percent of landfills are filled with garden waste.)

"A lot of wildlife lives in those leaves," she said. 'When we take those leaves away, we take away the homes of wildlife we are trying to help."

To learn more about Carole Sevilla Brown, visit her website at http://ecosystemgardening.com.
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Short on Space? These Fruits Will Fit

MANCHESTER, Conn. - Lee Reich, author of Landscaping with Fruit, shared his suggestions for "luscious landscaping" Saturday during the Connecticut Master Gardener Association's Symposium.

Reich prefers to use the term "luscious landscaping" instead of "edible landscaping," but his main focus was fruit for small spaces. The author outlined several recommended plants for gardeners who are short on growing space.

"The ideal plant is small, ornamental and pest free, or at least low maintenance," he said.

Apple, nectarine, apricot and plum trees attract many pests, Reich said. "You don't really want to plant something that you have to spray."

Reich recommended the following plants during his lecture:

  • Strawberry
  • Raspberry, specifically "Fallgold" or "Polana"
  • Blackberry, specifically "Chester"
  • Lowbush blueberry
  • Lingonberry
  • Highbush Blueberry
  • Juneberry
  • Redcurrant
  • Gooseberry
  • Blackcurrant
  • Clove Currant
  • Hardy Kiwifruit
  • Tart Cherry
  • Quince
  • Medlar
  • Nashi

"Plant something you would like to eat," he said. "There are a lot of fruit plants that are ornamental." 


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Mid-March Gardening Chores

It's been a bit snowy and icy here in central Connecticut, so I've held off posting my March to-do list. Now that the snow is starting to melt and I can see bare ground again, this to-do list is actually starting to look attainable!

Delphinium seeds can be started now.
January and February are reserved for sketching ideas and ordering seeds. March is when things start to pick up in the garden. Here are some of the tasks that I will be looking to complete this month.

Sketching & Planning
- I usually keep changing my garden plans until April since I constantly get new ideas from magazines and books. It's a good excuse to buy new colored pencils, too.

Seeds
- The window for starting pansy seeds that will bloom by April is over, but now it's time to focus on starting seeds for New Guinea impatiens (or impatiens if you are in an area not affected by the blight), salvias, sweet Williams, coleus, snapdragons, some cosmos and portulaca. I will start tomato and sweet pepper seeds during the last week of March. Perennials such as delphiniums, yarrow, foxgloves and carnations can still be started in mid-March as well. (I will be trying delphiniums and carnations for the first time this year). If you are growing early crops of beets or lettuce, this is the time to start those, too. Last year I grew broccoli and eggplant from seed at this time, but I'm skipping them this year.

- Sow peas as soon as the ground can be worked. The adage of "Plant peas before St. Patrick's Day" won't be possible for me this year, but gardens a little further south will be able to. The reason they can be planted so early is that they are less likely than other seeds to rot in cold, damp soil. It's also important to get them started early before the heat moves in. Peas produce in cool weather so to get the most yield, you need to beat the heat.

- Sow bread poppy seeds in an area where they will be undisturbed in early spring. I've accidentally pulled them out in the past as weeds.
Trim wisteria if needed.

Pruning
- Finish pruning fruit trees by mid-March. (Ideally late February if you can reach them.) I trimmed our pear trees with my husband's help a week and a half ago. One pear tree I trimmed back a little more than usual since a lot of fruit was unreachable last season and fell victim to yellow jackets. (This tree was also growing too close to the power lines.)  I still need to prune my plum trees, but given that they are so young, I don't think I will be removing too much wood.

- Wisteria can be pruned, but don't cut off the flower buds. I grow Amethyst Falls, which is a less invasive version of wisteria. If the shape of the plant is fine, you can leave it.

- Remove older leaves of hellebores so new growth can fill in.

Bulbs
- The earliest of spring bulbs, such as snowdrops, will start appearing soon. Buy bulb fertilizer now so they can be fertilized when new growth starts to appear.
Coneflower seed heads in the snow. 

Cleanup
- Cut back perennials so that new growth can emerge as the weather gets warmer. I usually hold off on doing this until the ground is safe to walk on: if it's too wet, you can compact and damage the soil. I used to cut back perennials in the fall so it would look tidy over the winter but then I learned it's better to leave the plants alone so the good bugs can overwinter in them. Some plants, like pink coneflowers, also offer food to birds.

House Rabbit Garden
- I know rabbits can be pests to a garden, but in my home we have four house rabbits as pets. I like to try and grow food for them since it saves money. For that reason, I start cat grass in pots under grow lights for them to nibble on now. Rabbits love apple twigs, but I learned pear trees are acceptable too. So I take the pear tree trimmings and start to dry them out in the garage. After a week I start to offer them to the bunnies. This year I will also be ordering willow plugs to grow. Rabbits love willow leaves (and twigs). It's also a good time to start gathering seeds for plants I will grow for them to eat. Examples are fennel, chamomile, lettuce, basil and parsley.

What garden chores are you hoping to accomplish this month?

My garden is located in Zone 6b in Central Connecticut.
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Pansy Update

Just wanted to share a photo of my pansy seeds, started on January 6. This variety, called Frizzle Sizzle Raspberry, sprouted on January 17 and flowered today.


Last night I started seeds for New Guinea impatiens. What seeds are you starting this week?
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Bonsai's Greatest Lesson: Patience

Two bonsai trees on display at the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show on Feb. 20.

HARTFORD, Conn. - What's your vision of a backyard paradise? 

For a bonsai enthusiast, it might be a yard full of tiny trees that can fit in the palm of your hand. The Bonsai Society of Greater Hartford brought this concept to life with its display at the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show.

The display, designed by Geoffrey Holmes, included large Japanese design elements such as red Torii Gates. The trees on display included representation from Hartford, New Haven, Conn. and Springfield, Mass., bonsai societies.

The trees on display were also chosen based on access, since bonsai trees need to be kept outside during winter months.  "They have to go dormant. Every tree is kept in a cold environment or polyhouses," said Peter Hlousek, from the Bonsai Society of Greater New Haven. With the recent heavy snowfall, some trees were easier to get to than others.
Bonsai trees on display.

According to the Bonsai Society of Greater Springfield, Mass., "many of the trees in the display are either native to our area or can survive a winter here outside with some protection from freezing and the wind... without dormancy, a tree native to our area will die." Tropical trees can be kept indoors if they are provided with enough light.

The trees require daily attention; Hlousek said the trees need to be watered every day.

"You really need to watch them. Proper watering is huge." The soil used is very porous; there is no dirt, just gravel. "We feed the nutrients it wants," said Hlousek. Re-potting and root pruning every couple of years is also necessary.

For proper bonsai design, wiring and pinching new growth is required.

"You won't have a good tree if you don't wire," he said. When wiring the bonsai tree, the goal is to "get a triangle out of them. That's the Japanese design, " he said. "You will see a triangle out of every tree design if done correctly."

Black pines and junipers make good varieties to train into bonsai trees. "If you can shrink tree leaves or shrink the needles, you can make it [into a bonsai]," he said.

The trees need a lot of sun to get the darker leaf colors, which is common during summer months. (The trees on display were lighter in color because of the strength of the winter sun.)

For the budding bonsai enthusiast, the opportunity of getting a tree into a show in three to five years is an attainable goal. But the hardest part, Hlousek said, is the time element involved in creating a great bonsai. Patience is key.

"You can't learn from books only," he said. He suggests joining clubs to learn as much as possible. Through the club meetings, people of all skill levels are able to learn about bonsai.

Hlousek has been part of a bonsai club for more than than 15 years.  "It's very personally rewarding. Some of my best friends I've met through the club," he said. "It's fun."

To view more bonsai trees in the future or attend demonstrations, the Bonsai Society of Greater Hartford's annual show will take place in July. To learn more, visit www.greaterhartfordbonsai.com.

This is what a backyard paradise looks like to a bonsai artist.


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