Archive for the 'Gardens' Category

50 year-old pine tree uprooted the deer fence

It has been almost 2 weeks since Hurricane Sandy ripped through a good part of the east coast, including our little hillside.  Given the difficulties that many have faced with loss of homes and struggles for power and services our own difficulties pale in comparison.  Nonetheless there has been an impact.  Not the least of which was the loss of internet for 5 days, which slowed my abilities to report on the storm, but it was compounded by viral bronchial infection that hit both of us — hard — for about 10 days.  Fortunately the good folks at Comcast came through in the end and a local contractor repaired the roof damage very quickly.  Also, thanks to Chris and Kevin, the same young guys that installed our deer fence, we have the deer fence intact again.

We were without power for only about 4 1/2 hours when the storm first hit.  And given the way the trees were uprooted along our street it could have been much worse.

About 100 yds along our road a fallen tree in the forest knocked out power and internet cables

We live about 1 mile from the Monocacy River and the state highway bridge across the river was really not far above the water.

Monocacy River was well over its banks

In addition to the 50 year-old pine in our neighbor’s yard that came down in the storm without hitting either house, we lost the 35 year-old sugar maple that has regularly been a feature of our comments on fall color.

Sugar Maple toppled by the storm

Numerous white pines in the forest and pasture were felled or broken off halfway up by the storm.

Fallen Giants

Fallen White Pines in the windbreak

Many breaks were halfway up the tree

Losing these trees along the windbreak gives one a whole different impression about what the descriptor ‘windbreak’ might really mean.  All the white pines were planted back in 1976 from seedling trees from the Maryland Forest Service.

On the good side of the ledger the greenhouse, newly constructed, withstood the storm with flying colors.  We are beginning to feel healthy again.  The repairs have been made.  We have a new semi-shade garden spot where the neighboring pine used to starve other plants for light and water.

Restored Deer Fence

And some more firewood…

Remains of Sugar Maple

The fall, despite the storm, remains remarkably mild.  I have seen viburnum and azaleas beginning to flower.  Even the spring blooming camellias are beginning to put out blossoms.

Double Camellia showing spring bloom

And the Geranium hybrid ‘Rozanne’ is just a non-stop flowering wonder…

Geranium ‘Rozanne’

And with that I will close just counting our blessings, including four more years with president who doesn’t believe that 47% of the population can be dismissed just because they weren’t born into wealth…

Saturday afternoon found me at Brookside Gardens in Rockville, Maryland at the seed exchange sponsored by Washington Gardener’s Magazine.  I was there not for the seed exchange but for the results of the photo contest which I had entered a few weeks ago.  The challenge was to submit your best pictures from 2011 in four categories with the resultant winners to be published in the magazine.  As it turned out I won first place in the Garden Vignette category for my photo of an illuminated watering can

Watering Can First Prize Winner

And in addition I picked up an honorable mention in the Garden Creatures category for my photo of a blue-winged wasp from last July.

Blue-winged Wasp Honorable Mention

Actually the most rewarding part was reviewing all my gardening pictures for the year and thereby whetting my appetite for all those flowers and associated creatures that will be arriving in 2012.  In addition to appearing in the magazine the photos will also be on display in Silver Spring for a couple of months and I’ll share that information when it becomes available.

I took advantage of the trip down Rockville to do a little garden exploring at Brookside.  They have a lot of snowdrops in bloom right now (some in an interesting green and white ivy) and a few early daffodils.  Unfortunately they still have a lot of trees and bushes wrapped in Christmas lights which detracts from wanting to photograph the winter forms of the bushes and trees.  However, I did see a lovely little Japanese Flowering Apricot in bloom.

Japanese Flowering Apricot (Prunus mume) 'Kobai'

The flowers are small but very pretty up close.  There was also a spectacular hybrid Witchhazel with vivid orange coloring to the petals.

Witchhazel (Hamamelis x intermedia) 'Orange Peel'

As I walked around this small (about 50 acres) but well cared for garden I was reminded once again how much this is a community garden, one which strives to inspire and be a part of the surrounding neighborhood.  There are many walkers and joggers who look like they use the garden on a regular basis.  And for those of us who are less often there, the pathways and views provide ample reason to return again…

Brookside Gardens

Beth tilling our new garden in 1976

This winter is cause to take note of this old photo of a very pregnant Beth demonstrating her best one handed tilling technique with what was our most expensive purchase at the time, outside of car and house.  In the background is our neighbor’s house and along the fence line he had grapevines against a wire fence with metal posts.  And the pine trees in the picture were our neighbor’s as well — there was very little planted on our part of the hill, though you can see the deep trench where I was putting in asparagus.

Moving forward 35 years to last spring and you can see that a substantial crop of weed trees and vines grew up over time in addition to our garden crops.

Garlic row with Weedy boundary fence

Strawberry bed with boundary weeds in the background

When our neighbor’s husband passed away, the vines and trees simply flourished and the grapes went wild.  I had put in a deer fence with double height T-bar posts and they ended up falling over into my neighbor’s grapes.  Some of the weed trees were 15-20 feet tall and were the only thing holding up the fence.  With the collapsing fence it no longer stopped the deer and I was getting really discouraged about the deer situation in general.  They started eating our 35 year old blueberry bushes for the first time in Nov and Dec and for several years they have frustrated my attempts to start a new orchard.  This week I discovered the biggest of the new trees has just about been girdled by deer.

Deer damage on Apple tree

We have finally come to the conclusion that the years of coexistence on the hill are at an end.  The only way to garden here is to exclude the deer.  And to exclude the deer we had to begin with the mess on the side of the garden.  Fortunately a few things conspired to help.  We found two willing and able workers who have greatly magnified my effectiveness, the weather has been great,  and we’ve finally come up with a concept that will at least give us a start at excluding the deer from a lot of the area where grow valuable plants. When done (hopefully within the next month) we will have about 3/4 of an acre fenced in protecting the blueberries, the lilies, the azaleas, the tulips, etc. while still leaving the orchard protection as a future task.  In just the last week and a half we now have a totally cleared boundary for the garden with split rail fencing installed, deer posts in, and weed fabric laid down.  It’s been a really satisfying way to start the season.

New split rail and deer fence

They even preserved my neighbor’s grape vines

Neighboring 35 year-old grape vines

In fact it went so well that we decided to eliminate some additional sources of vines and extend the split rail/deer fence concept up the side yard.

Continuing the split rail

Others might enjoy skiing but I’m finding this a really delightful way to spend the winter.

It’s partly been made possible by sunny weather that is also moving the plants along ahead of schedule.  The Winter Aconite are just about ready to pop.

Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) ready to open

The Anemone Coronaria, which has not flowered since it was planted in 2009, is looking beautiful in bud.

Anemone coronaria 'Governor' in bud

Heck, the bud is so pretty I will make do with that…

And the Lungwort is already showing color.

Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) in bud

Hey, life is good…

Bee on Dahlia

I spent last weekend at a garden photography workshop at Chanticleer Garden outside of Philadelphia.  The weather was intermittently mixed clouds and sunshine but we got enough good lighting for some interesting photo opportunities on Saturday.  The workshop was conducted by Alan Detrick and Roger Foley with a small group of enthusiast photographers who were really pleased to get early morning access to the gardens (with good lighting and before the public showed up).  Roger and Alan gave regular and helpful advice as we tried to isolate our own respective visions of what was worth photographing in these early fall scenes.  Both of them have extensive garden photography experience and have previously been judges for the Gardening Gone Wild photo contests.

Chanticleer is truly a pleasure garden in every sense for a gardener.  They have seven horticulturalists who specialize in different sections of the garden and the attention to detail really shows throughout the garden.  A weekend of photography might sound like a lot, but it barely scratches the surface of what is possible at Chanticleer.  By the time you set up your shots the light is already moving on, not to mention the bees and butterflies.

One of the benefits of a small workshop like this one is that you get to share and comment on the other visions that people bring to their photography.  I’ve seen time and again that different people will always bring different photos away from the same scene.  And it only takes a few times of people pointing out the annoying branch you left in the composition before you start to think about it before you click the shutter.

Anyway, despite the weather being less than ideal, I had a great time and I’d like to do it again.  If the thought appeals to you they are likely to run this workshop again next year.

Here are some selected photos from the weekend.

Bee on Dahlia - Version 2

Grasshopper on Celosia

One of the points that Alan emphasized was the way the early morning light can delicately light the edges of a subject like the grasshopper in this image.  And if it’s cold enough, they don’t run from the camera.

Celosia sans grasshopper

Backlit Celosia

Bee on Celosia

Toad Lilies ( Tricyrtis hirta 'Miyazaki')

The Toad lilies are almost shrub-like and completely line the path through the Minder Woods.  They are flagrantly in flower at this season, shaming all those spring blooming flowers that have long gone by now.

Colchicum

I’m generally not a big fan of the Cochicum which flop all over the hillsides at Chanticleer, but they do have their moments.  Mostly I prefer the less gaudy fall crocus which are just now showing up in our lawn.

Perennial Gotta Pea (Amicia zigomeris) detail

Sulpher Butterfly with Proboscis unfurled

Clitoria ternatea

This is tropical vine that was up on the terrace in the house garden.  I think it has to be started from seed each year.

Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe involucrata)

I really liked the detail on the Callirhoe — it would be well worth adding to our hillside garden.

It’s also time for another Gardening Gone Wild Photo contest.  Saxon Holt has selected a theme of filling the frame.  I’m going to take this opportunity to enter a photo that I think truly fills the frame, though perhaps not in the way that Saxon Holt originally conceived.

Aibika (Abelmoschus manihot) detail

This close-up image of the Aibika, a relative of okra, will be my entry for the October Picture This Contest.

Iris ensata 'Agripinella'

We arrived home last weekend and got up on Sunday to find this lovely Japanese Iris in bloom it was like a delightful postscript on what had already been a wonderful extended weekend in Philadelphia.

For Christmas, our daughter-in-law had given my son and Beth and I, via AHS auction, a personal tour of Chanticleer, a highlight of the Philadelphia gardening scene.  Personally, it may be my favorite garden in the U.S.  So it was a joy to be escorted around the garden by Bill Thomas, who incorporates the history and philosophy of what is characterized as ‘ a pleasure garden’.  For three and a half hours we got to see both public and private parts of Chanticleer.  There is a recent book on Chanticleer by Adrian Higgins (pictures by Rob Cardillo) that captures a lot of the spirit of Chanticleer and I recommend it to anyone contemplating a journey to the Philadelphia area.  The garden incorporates spacious views that key off the large old specimen trees and is also full of delightful smaller spaces where plant treasures can be found.

We had spent a day at Chanticleer two years ago during which I took a lot of pictures, partly as inspiration of things to bring back to our little country dwelling.  One particular element was the colorful Adirondack chairs that we have now added to our hillside.

Adirondack chairs at Chanticleer

Another source of inspiration at Chanticleer are the chartreuse-colored Black Locusts at the entry to the garden.

Robinia pseudoacacia 'Frisia'

We have now planted two on the hillside here.

Some other memories from Chanticleer follow:

Chanticleer

The Ruins

A field of Poppies

A field of Kniphofia

Goat's Beard (Aruncus dioicus) in the woods

Globe Flower (Trollius europaeus)

Spuria Iris (Cinebar Red) (credit ID to Jonathan)

The day after visiting Chanticleer (where we wrapped up our stay with a picnic on the lawn, apparently a Friday evening tradition judging by the number of other visitors who stopped by just for the evening), we went by Carolyn’s Shade Garden.  Carolyn is a fellow blogger who participates in such traditions as Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day and the Gardening Gone Wild Photo Contests.  It was an open house day for Carolyn and it was delightful to be able to stop in and meet her and her husband.  Her garden and nursery sits under some magnificent old trees in Bryn Mawr, just outside of Philadelphia.  Unlike Chanticleer, which studiously avoids labels, Carolyn has carefully labeled many of her plants and you can see how they mix artfully together in the following views down the terraces and back on the far side of the house.

Carolyn's Shade Garden #1

Carolyn's Shade Garden #2

Carolyn's Shade Garden #3

We bought a few plants from Carolyn as mementos of our visit but more than that we enjoyed visiting with another avid gardener who very much understands the enthusiasm that we find in novel plants.

Arriving back in Frederick we threw on some clean clothes and went downtown to the opening of a new photo gallery where three of my images are on display for this month.  We mingled with visitors and the other photographers, had some wine and generally reflected on what a great weekend we had enjoyed…

Opening of Shereen's Gallery

This month’s Picture This challenge from Gardening Gone Wild is to illustrate the Genius Loci — The Special Atmosphere of a Place.  The judge, Andrea Jones, asks that we share our special place in a photograph that illustrates why it’s special.

We’ve been fortunate to see many of the great garden scenes that she illustrates with her pictures.  And while I have pictures from our tours in the U.S. and abroad, I thought it would be more appropriate to stick closer to home.  When we moved here the pasture that we inherited had no trees at all.  There was a small patch of woods that were entirely Scotch Pines that have long since died off.  All the landscape that we have was created slowly over 36 years and so there are a lot of aspects of our hill on Ball Rd that our special to me.  But I notice in reviewing our photos that one area stands out in recent years.  Behind the garage is a hillside that drops off into pasture in front of a line of tall White Pines that were planted during our first spring here.

Daffodils on Hillside

This is where we see the Daffodils in the springtime.  It’s also where the wildflowers are planted for the summertime.

Hillside Wildflowers

It’s where we have put two bright red adirondack chairs as a place to have a glass of wine as the day winds down.  Often there is a sunset to be seen from this hillside.

Red Chairs at Sunset

The pasture provides extended interest with the various grasses that grow up over the season interlaced with wildflowers.

Orchard Grass

But this special place also creates it’s own atmosphere come wintertime.  The Red Chairs against the snow with the White Pines in the background presents a holiday atmosphere that shows that gardens are not limited to the time of flowers.

The photo that seemed to me to best capture this special place came after a snowstorm just as the light was fading from the day and this is my submission for the February Gardening Gone Wild Challenge.

Late Afternoon Light

Light basket in Leaves

November continues to be a welcome Indian summer — I am amazed that we still have lettuce, peas and Swiss Chard growing in the garden.  I dug the Dahlias today but they were actually starting to grow again from the base.  I decided that I could not in good conscience dig the Glads — let them at least get frozen off for Pete’s sake.  I noticed in town today that some of the shrub roses are still doing fine and show many blooms.  We are off to New York for Thanksgiving but I wanted to share a couple of discoveries.

One is the use of a mattock for fall bulb planting.  I had bought a small hand mattock for moving and installing flagstones.  It turns out that it is also marvelous for putting in bulbs.  So long as you avoid hitting your hand or leg, it is much easier to dig a quick bulb-worthy hole with a one-handed swing of the mattock than with a trowel in our rocky soil.  I’ve long used bigger mattocks for planting larger plants, but the use of a little one for bulb planting is a more recent discovery.

Small mattock for bulb planting

Having the right tool is what makes many a job a pleasure to do on a warm November afternoon

The other item worthy of note is the discovery of an excellent garden writer in our midst.  Marianne Willburn writes of the joys and sufferings attendant to growing plants with the experienced pen of one who has battled slugs on the front line and somehow retained a knowledge of the English language in the process.  I highly commend a look at her writings at The Small Town Gardener.

A Small Town Gardener

Take a look at the recent article A Rose by Any Other Name to get a sense of her writing.  How could I miss such a talent just a few miles away in Brunswick, Maryland?   Mea Culpa…

Wild Garden, King John's Lodge

The Gardening Gone Wild Photo Contest for August asks that we submit a gardening image from our travels (“On the Road Again”).  Since our travels this summer were more about nature per se than man-made gardens I’ve gone back to one of my favorite gardens for my submission to the photo contest.  Two years ago we had the privilege of visiting about a dozen outstanding gardens in England during the heights of springtime.  Even though we went to some of the best-known gardens in England one of the most memorable was that of the lodge we stayed at in East Sussex.  King John’s Lodge goes back to the 14th century and has been lovingly restored.  Although we were able to stay there at the time, it looks to me as though it is only open for tours now.  In any case I highly recommend it if you find yourself in the area.

Although the vista from some angles make it appear quite grand it’s actually got a wonderful simplicity which is part of the appeal.

King John's Lodge

There are almost 8 acres altogether set in a wonderful stretch of English countryside.  You can wander the grounds on paths that go past ponds, woods, surprising sculptures, and cultivated gardens.

A sunlit Pond

Artwork along the path

Looking out from the back steps into the garden

But what really enchanted me each morning as I walked around before breakfast was the ‘wild garden’ which had a meadow filled with small fruit trees, ‘found objects’, arbors, and paths mowed between seemingly random bulbs and wild flowers.  You have to imagine that walking these paths was accompanied by the sounds of the birds and barnyard animals.  It was a wonderfully bucolic scene that totally hid the efforts that must have gone into its creation and maintenance.

The Wild Garden

More Flowers in the Wild Garden