Landscape plans: garden

Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Green With Envy Garden Show

Ive been invited to take a stand at Green With Envys Garden Show. Its taking place on the 20-22 June at Green With Envy Nursery - 281 Vause Road, Berea, Durban.

If youre in the area you should definitely stop by - it should be interesting.

Its quite short notice, so Ill have to do some quick thinking...

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The Garden in a Different Light Digital Art

Purple Coneflower

It is 38 degrees and raining outside in my northeastern garden and thoughts of gardening are going through my mind. Inspired by some of my fellow bloggers, I thought I would put a new twist on some of my garden photographs and am trying my hand at some digital art to pass the day. I mainly used the brush stroke tool and then either softened or enhanced certain portions of each photograph. On some of the imaging I filled in with additional color and used a marbleizing effect on the corners. I have had this editing software for some time now and am still learning that there is much to explore!

Stella D Oro Daylilly

Aster

Painted Lady Butterfly on Coneflower

Coreopsis Zagreb

Cottage Garden

Dahalia

Grasses and Daylilies

Roseanne Geranium

Hydrangea Pink Elf

Star Magnolia Blossom

Peony

Ruffled Daylily

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my garden "in a different light". This digital artwork is fun but challenging. I will keep practicing and know I have much to learn so any comments or editing tips would be appreciated!

As Always...Happy Gardening

Author: Lee@A Guide To Northeastern Gardening, Copyright 2013. All rights reserved

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Garden Designers Roundtable Designing with Native Plants

Native plants have a particular allure for me. Perhaps they evoke memories of my childhood. I remember drawing Tolkien-esque maps of the forest that bordered our suburban home in the Alabama Piedmont. The thicket of Sparkleberry trees (Vaccineum arboreum) I drew to look like Mirkwood Forest; I sketched the huge Southern Red Oak—the meeting spot for my neighborhood friends—to look like one of the mythic trees of Fanghorn. And while I romped through these woods with a pack of irreverent boys, we all had a certain reverence for a cluster of Beech trees that resided at the intersection of two streams. When the winter sun backlit those copper leaves, that golden grove became our Lothlorien.

But the allure of natives is stronger than just memory; in them, I feel a more primal pull. For me, there is something very powerful about that attraction—something even ancient. I want to articulate why native plants have this appeal and how this can be used to create bolder, more emotionally-rich gardens and landscapes.

illustration by Alfred Parsons for The Wild Garden

Readers of this blog know that I am an advocate for native plants, but sometimes I get frustrated with the reasons I hear for using natives. Yes, the environmental benefits are real: their value to our bees, bugs, and birds cannot be understated. But as a gardener and plant lover, choosing plants based on environmental ethics is kind of a bummer. Life is serious enough already; I want to garden as an escape from weighty moralism.

To understand designing with native plants, you have to understand the garden itself. Designed landscapes and gardens are manipulated fantasies. They are our mental projections, our ideas, and our desires projected onto a piece of land. And gardens and landscapes don’t really live apart from us. Ultimately, without our input and continued maintenance, they would cease to be. That gardens are fantasies does not undermine their value; on the contrary, this very fact is what makes them art. If all gardens are fantasies, then native and naturalistic gardens are a particular kind of fantasy.

A native garden is a fantasy of what used to be. They are green anachronisms. Yes, native plants still exist in the wild, but the concept of using native plants in designed landscapes is connected to a sense of loss. Native gardens as a genre did not really exist before industrialization. They didn’t need to—native plants were everywhere. In fact, the earliest meaning of gardens referenced their enclosure, their otherness from nature. But now we plant native gardens as a memory of what once was. That doesn’t mean that native gardens need to be mournful or backwards-looking places. Pierce’s Woods at Longwood Gardens is one of my favorite native gardens. It is an exuberant celebration of the flora of the Eastern forests. But part of the emotional power—the source of its poignancy and meaning—of any native garden derives from the reality of loss.

Why does this matter? Most of the world no longer lives in meadows or forests. We no longer forage for our food or read the stars to find our way home. As a species we spent thousands of years navigating through native environments to survive; only in the last 150 years have we become removed from these places. But a part of us still longs for this connection. We yearn for a way we used to interact with the earth. Our bodies were not designed to sit in front of a computer for ten hours a day. When we pull weeds or dig in our gardens, we awaken some deep instinct that has long been dormant but still is remembered in our bodies.

Great landscape design—and native garden design in particular—taps into this deep emotional reservoir we have in relation to nature. When a small moment in the garden feels like an expansive meadow or reminds you of a clearing in the woods or gives you feeling of standing by a woodland stream, we have an emotional experience. The great advantage of using native plants is they recall a memory of nature better than some overbred rainbow colored rose. Of course, exotic plants also have emotional associations as well. But I would argue that natives are more closely associated with wildness and nature itself; they are therefore richer materials to explore our relationship to nature.

So how does landscape design create emotional connections? We must embrace the fantasy that is garden-making. The great fallacy of naturalistic design is to believe it is more natural. What is natural about creating some miniature replica of a native environment in our suburban yard? It is better to see the whimsy in this and make them more whimsical. The dark corners of our garden must become darker and more foreboding; our lighter areas must become more luminescent. Lines must be stronger, patterns more exaggerated, and contrasts deeper. Native gardens can have the same imaginative power of fairy tales.

Advocates of native plants focus on ecology—a worthy and necessary goal. But let’s not forget the human aspect. Gardens are for people, too. A return to naturalism’s romantic and humanistic roots would give native gardens an emotional edge they sorely need.

Let’s create gardens like fairy tale landscapes, places that seduce, tempt, and above all, lure the visitor to walk down the path.

For other takes on designing with native plants, check out these great posts from other GDRT members:

David Cristiani : The Desert Edge : Albuquerque, NM

Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In The Garden : Los Altos, CA

Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX

Mary Gallagher Gray : Black Walnut Dispatch : Washington, D.C.

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Genevieve Schmidt : North Coast Gardening : Arcata, CA

Douglas Owens-Pike : Energyscapes : Minneapolis, MN

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT

Monday, March 3, 2014

Fall Garden Maintenance Tips Its that time Again!

Are you getting your garden ready in Fall for the Winter months? Here are some helpful tips that will ensure the vitality and health of your plants.

Skip Laurel

Anti-Desiccant Spray: When the daytime temperatures start falling below 50 degrees (around mid- November here in zone 7) it is time to apply an anti-desiccant spray to your broadleaved evergreens such as holly, rhododendron, cherry laurel, skip laurel, mountain laurel, Japanese skimmia, leucothoe, aucuba and boxwood. These plants can be subject to severe winter burn due to water loss from the leaves by transpiration. Apply when the temperatures are above freezing and there is no threat of rain or frost within 24 hours. (This tip applies to areas going into their winter season-temperatures dropping below freezing: 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit.) If there is a prolonged thaw in mid-winter it may be time to re-apply anti-desiccant spray to your broadleaved evergreens, especially if there are more prolonged freezing temperatures on the way. For more detailed information go to: Winterizing-Evergreens-Anti-Desiccant-Spray

Watering During Fall Winter: A common question often asked is, "Is it better to keep watering my plants until the ground freezes or should I stop watering now?" It is important that prior to winter that there is significant moisture around your plants. Evergreens do not lose their leaves so they continue to transpire or lose water over the winter months and once the ground freezes it is difficult for water to percolate down to the roots. A well watered tree will over winter far better than a thirsty one and will not be as susceptible to winter frost damage and drying. Continue to water until the ground freezes.

Heuchera (Coral Bells) Caramel

Mulching & Frost Heaving: In freezing temperatures soil around your plants may be subject to frost heaving. This is when ice forms underneath the soil and expands upwards from the ground causing plants such as perennials to push upwards exposing the crown. Heuchera (Coral Bells) and Liriope are especially prone to this type of damage. As a preventive measure apply a protective mulch finishing to your garden beds in Fall. To remedy frost heaving, slightly tap the soil back down and brush the mulch back around the exposed crown of the plant to protect it.

Weeding: Do some Fall weeding and garden maintenance now to prevent weeds from getting out of control in the spring. Dispose of weeds that may have seeds on them in the garbage and not in the compost. Put a clean edge on your garden beds to prevent grass from invading and remove any decaying debris to prevent fungal infection.

Clean up your Perennial Garden: Remove any expired foliage and stalks that could decay over winter. Cut perennials four to five inches above the ground and apply a thin layer of mulch. Some perennials such as ornamental grasses should be left to cut down until late winter-early spring. For more info visit Fall Garden Maintenance: Pruning & Dividing Ornamental Grasses and Perennials.

Knock Out Rose

Pruning Trees & Shrubs: Early summer blooming trees and shrubs form their buds immediately after flowering subsides so pruning them too late may remove next years blooms. These shrubs should be pruned immediately after flowering. Late summer flowering trees and shrubs benefit from pruning in fall while they are dormant. Do not prune roses such as Knock Out Rose in fall. Pruning encourages new growth that may not harden off in time for winter. For more information and a list of pruning times follow the link above.

Bulbs: Plant spring blooming bulbs such as crocus, hyacinth and daffodils now in the fall before the ground freezes.

Lawn Maintenance: Clean up leaves from your lawn or mulch them. Spray to control broadleaved weeds and apply a lawn fertilizer in late fall to encourage a healthier and greener lawn in spring. Cut your lawn a final time before winter.

A little Fall garden maintenance now will save you time in spring and give your garden a good and healthy start. On that note...out to the garden!

As Always...Happy Gardening!