Gardening
Brighten Every Room in Your Home with Plants
Humidity-loving plants like orchids are a good choice to grow in the bathroom where the growing conditions will be right.
Photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com
Anytime is a great time to add a few houseplants to your home. Adding greenery indoors expands your gardening opportunities and provides the many benefits of living with and tending plants. It can boost your mood and reduce stress while adding beauty or nutritious food to your home.
Increase productivity and creativity by including plants in your home or work office. Greenery helps reduce stress even when working at your desk or tackling homework at the end of a long day. Set a few plants on or near your desk or other workspace. Expand your growing opportunities with the help of stylish, energy-efficient full spectrum plant lights to fit any décor while directing light where it is needed to promote healthy plant growth.
Boost the flavor and nutrition of meals year-round by growing leafy greens and herbs in a sunny window or under artificial lights. Start plants from seeds or purchase transplants to grow indoors. Place your indoor kitchen garden in a brightly lit location, free of cold drafts and with easy access to harvest and use. Turn family meals and friend gatherings into unique and memorable experiences by enlisting them to harvest some greens for their salad and herbs to season their meals.
Grow ferns, orchids, bromeliads, and other humidity-loving plants in your bathroom. Consider these and other low-light plants like cast iron, pothos, and philodendron if natural light is limited. You'll enjoy stepping out of the shower into a mini tropical zone allowing you to ease into your day.
Get a good night's sleep with a bit of homegrown aromatherapy in the bedroom. Grow lavender, rosemary, chamomile, and other soothing herbs in your bedroom near a sunny window, on a shelf, or in another naturally or artificially lit, bright location. Just give the plants a pet to release their fragrance into the air before crawling into bed for a long restful sleep.
Create a miniature tropical, moss or desert garden in a terrarium to serve as a focal point in any room or as a centerpiece on the dining room table. Use an open terrarium for succulents and other plants that need airflow, lower humidity, and space to grow. Enlist closed terrariums for moss and tropical plants that benefit from the high humidity and condensation that provides continual watering.
Indoor greenery always makes a nice addition when rethinking or refreshing your home décor in any space. You and your family will enjoy the beauty and many other benefits plants provide.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including The Midwest Gardener's Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses "How to Grow Anything" DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda's Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Her web site is www.MelindaMyers.com.
Antiques
Golf Memorabilia
Photo courtesy of Wayne Tuiskula
The National Golf Foundation reported that 26.6 million people played on a golf course in 2023. Another 18.4 million played on driving ranges, using golf simulators, or with other off-course options. Golf is certainly very popular now, but it's been played for centuries.
Early records of golf being played date back to 1552 at St. Andrews in Scotland. China claims that a book titled "Wan Jing," ("Manual of the Ball Game"), laid out rules for a game resembling golf in 1282. A 1636 Latin book from Aberdeen, Scotland used images of golf to teach Latin and included the first known reference to "golf hole." The first rules of the game were written in 1744 by the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. Those 13 rules were adopted by more than 30 clubs over the next 100 years. Scotland was also responsible for the start of golf in the American colonies. In 1743, David Deas had 432 balls and 96 clubs sent from Port Leith, Scotland to Charleston, South Carolina. The first permanent golf course in the Western Hemisphere was the Royal Montreal Golf Club, established in 1873, according to Britannica. Although there is some evidence of golf being played earlier, the founding of St. Andrew's Golf Club at Yonkers, New York in 1888 is generally considered the first organized course in the United States.
Golf increased in popularity during the 20th century, raising the profile of some of the game's greats. Many of the top 10 all-time golfers played in the last 50 years. Tom Watson, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus appear on most top-10 lists and Tiger Woods is considered the all-time best.
There's a golfer with a local connection from earlier in the 20th century who's also a consensus all-time top 10 player. Bobby Jones was born in Atlanta, Georgia but had a memorable game at the Worcester Country Club almost 100 years ago. Jones hit a ball in the rough during the 1925 U.S. Open in Worcester. As he was addressing the ball (aka stepping up to it with his club behind it) the ball moved. No one other than Jones saw this happen, but he gave himself a penalty stroke. Jones finished tied with Willie MacFarlane, and MacFarlane ultimately won in a playoff. When praised for his honesty, Jones said "You might as well praise me for not robbing a bank. There is only one way to play the game of golf."
We will be offering some photos of Bobby Jones in our April auction. We also have an uncommon image of a golf swing taken by Harold Edgerton. Edgerton was an MIT professor who used strobe lights to highlight different points in a golf swing. I'll provide auction results for the golf memorabilia in a future column.
In the meantime, here are results for golf memorabilia from multiple auction houses. A 19th century pair of ladies' golf shoes sold for over $1,800 in June 2008. Wright & Ditson's Golf Guide [1901] went for $11,000 in September 2019. Wright & Ditson's earliest American golf guide sold for $42,500 in 2018. A rare Gene Sarazen 1932 Caramel card grading a 9 out of 10 sold for $28,800 in April 2019 and a Bobby Jones card with the same grade went for $105,000 in May 2021.
A set of golf clubs purportedly used by Tiger Woods to win all four major golf championships sold for $5.16 million in April 2022. There was a problem, though. Woods said they aren't the same clubs he used to win titles in 2000 and 2001. Perhaps the person who made the claim about the clubs needs to take a penalty stroke.
We are still accepting consignments of gold jewelry, art, sterling silver, coins, and other older collectibles for upcoming auctions. I'll be presenting at the Learning in Retirement event in Danielson, Connecticut on May 6th and appraising items for the public at the Concord Public Library on May 11th. Please visit our website www.centralmassauctions.com for links to other upcoming events.
Contact us at: Wayne Tuiskula Auctioneer/Appraiser Central Mass Auctions for Antique, Collectibles Auctions and Appraisal Services www.centralmassauctions.com (508-612- 6111).