Late Summer Fragrance

After a very busy July and a frazzled first week in August, I finally got to the garden today. What joy! I bought three late blooming daylilies Sunday to keep the white phlox company in the front border. Davis Brook Farm http://davisbrookfarm.com/ is a wonderful place to visit. It is located just outside of Hancock village, one of the most picturesque towns in New Hampshire. "Preppy Pink" is in fact a mid-blooming variety, but is still going great guns in August. It is a petite plant with warm pink flowers with a green throat. I planted it amongst the red Coleus. "Bonanza", a fragrant soft yellow with burgundy eyezone went next to the phlox along with Perovskia "Little Spire" and Crocosmia "Lucifer", and an orange species daylily that hasn't yet begun to bloom.

The poor crocosmia spent its best blooming time in a pot in front of my stone wall, and now that the wonderful scarlet flowers have gone to seed, it finally is in the ground. That's just how it goes some times. I am only grateful that it didn't die while waiting around. I was on such a roll, that I  dug up the overgrown iris and moved more daylilies around, dividing the "Stella d'Oro", and filling in some holes. I relocated some coral bells into a nice chartreuse grouping and moved a hosta over by the peonies.

I became even more inspired, and divided some over grown "Frances Williams" hosta, and now have numerous little yellow and green-edged hostas taking root on the slope in front of my house. That is such a difficult spot. the mulch runs off in a cloudburst and ends up in my driveway. I am hoping that in a few years the hosta will be thick and ground-cover-ey and won't need mulching. at least it is better than when I first moved here and had to mow a six foot wide strip of grass on a terrace by the road.

I worked till I got staggering silly tired, and then spent the rest of the day in a lawn chair reading my latest mystery (one by Louise Penny http://www.louisepenny.com/) and dozing off. I thought I would let little Esme, my new cairn terrier mix, dig that hole she has been longing to dig, but thought better of it when she started barking in Chinese. I had to drag her away from the hole but she finally settled in under the chair.

Anyway... I have finally gotten to the point of today's blog title, "late summer fragrance". As I sat luxuriating in the recliner, the loveliest lemony fragrance wafted past my nose. The sun had warmed the lemon balm and a breeze was in the air. It made me glad that I hadn't pulled out that weedy spreading plant altogether.

On my walk earlier in the day, I got close to the Clethra a. "Ruby Spice", just the sweetest smelling shrub in bloom. I went over to the potted kumquat trees to check on their fruit, and took a sniff of the blossoms so much like an orange blossom. Then after having moved to the "at long last shady" patio, for my evening glass of wine, the gentlest of fragrances blew by. I don't know what it was, maybe a mixture of fresh dug earth and zinnias, but I felt blessed to have a late summer day in the garden.

Dog Days

Here in Peterborough this has been the week for heat and humidity. I commuted the sentences of  the crabgrass... at least for another week. Still I did venture out an hour yesterday during an unusually pleasant morning to cut back the perennial flowers that are past. What a difference, you can actually see the white phlox.

Now while waiting for the afternoon thunderstorm, I thought that I would post some new photos of one of my projects from my summer design course. This is a design of a public space from my imagination. I chose to make a model of a portion of a larger woodland garden. There is a path, a few different sized gathering places, and opportunities for views of the pond and what lies beyond. It is a natural style garden, but I would call it "hyper" natural; kind of like Spiderman. It contains many groupings of flowering trees and shrubs, some of which would not be found together in a New England woods unless they were planted.

I had a lot of fun searching through my garden for the different shapes and textures that I used to make the model. Among the plants are varieties of sedum, lilacs, thrift blossoms, dried lambs ear blossoms, dried parsley, spruce, heather, and some purple and white things from Michaels. They represent oaks, maples, birches, dogwoods, redbuds, viburnums, azaleas, hemlock and others unnamed. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Click the link below for a slideshow.

https://picasaweb.google.com/116823766269242621801/Design2Model#slideshow/5775264296238001794

At last!

Dear readers, I bet you thought I would never post again. I have been taking a design class this summer at the Landscape Institute in Boston. http://the-bac.edu/education-programs/the-landscape-institute It was really fun but oh what a lot of work. I have finished my final design, and can't wait to share it with you. But it will take a few days to get the plan uploaded. So...in the meantime i am posting a small paper I wrote on one of the many remarkable allees in Stan Fry's garden. Enjoy.

STAN FRY GARDENS - PETERBOROUGH, NH

Linear space review by Laura Campbell, 7/2/12

The existing gardens were started in 1991.  Sited on a relatively steep slope,  terraces have been used to create level spaces and garden areas in the 12 acres. They feature over 40 garden areas.  The limited palette and repetition of plant material gives a unity to the whole. Evergreen material, such as boxwood, yew, and arborvitae have been used to provide structure and winter interest. The terraced form of the gardens has lent it to featuring a series of allees, typical of an Italian hillside garden.

To my mind, one of the most delightful linear spaces lies across the street from the main garden. on the edge of a formal hedged garden.

This space is quite long. The path is grass. Snowdrift crabapples flank either side in a staggered arrangement. The serpentine sheared boxwood hedges frame and accentuate the staggered arrangement. A border of hydrangeas (I think) lies beyond the street side boxwood hedge. On the other side, the lawn continues and a stone terrace with a tall yew hedge runs parallel to the allee.  This is the border of the formal garden, hidden from the street. there are two breaks in the boxwood hedge on the wall side to allow for cross paths from the formal garden. At either end of the allee, an urn planted with red annuals provides a focal point and terminus.

This linear design is on private property and not meant for heavy traffic. Still I think that using grass instead of having a line of paving material is important for the design. It gives one a sense of a different kind of movement. The eye travels down this long expanse, but without unnecessary speed. My eye wants to meander a little and take in those undulating curves and notice the shrubs  and wall beyond.

The crabapple allee is probably at its best in spring when the trees are blooming and one can walk through a fragrant world of white clouds. In the summer, the choice of the crabapples for the allee, works against a rigid formality. The trunks are just a little variable. They branch out at different heights, and some trunks are less than vertical. It looks like one tree had to be replaced, as it is smaller than the rest. Still, I think this less than total formality is appealing in this undulating grassy walk.

On a final note, because of the nature of the sloping site, the allees all run parallel to the slope and to the street as well. If one is walking or driving along the street, this space looks more like an edge than a path. It is like a pervious screen that gives glimpses of something mysterious beyond the line of trees and shrubs.