thanks!

Thank you to everyone who came to our garden during the Garden Conservancy Open yesterday.  I met some wonderful and interesting people and appreciated the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response to the garden.

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why I do this

I absolutely love my job, and every once  in a while I get an extra boost of joy from it.  This morning I did plant layout for a sun drenched drought tolerant garden that frames an old orchard.  We recently sculpted the area with stone walls, large stone slab stairs, stone edging and a gravel area for raised beds.  The naturalistic plantings soften the stone with masses of Lavandula x intermedia ‘Grosso’, Nepeta x faassenii ‘Walker’s Low’, Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’, Calamagrostis ‘Overdam’ and Nassella tenuissima edged by generous amounts of Helianthemum x nummularium ‘Cheviot’ and Thymus pseudolanuginosus.  The design goal was to make it seem as if the landscaping has been there as long as the orchard.  It is wonderful. 

I checked on the project at the end of the day to see how the planting progressed.  The garden was quiet and deserted except for two large tiger swallowtail butterflies circling the new beds and making themselves at home in the plants.     It was such a joy to see them in the new garden.  It did not take them long to find it!

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patience, young jedi

I was told that “patience is a virtue” many times when I was young.  While patience is not a virtue I inherently possess, I am forever learning. This is not only my problem.  With instant access to just about anything, collectively we are more impatient than ever.  Gardening may help balance this need for instant gratification.  While it is possible with ample resources and the right care to have an instant garden with large specimens, the most breathtaking gardens are the ones shaped by the hand of time.  This is affirmed each year as I eagerly await the changes in my own garden - moss creeping between the patio stones, lichen coloring the rocks, trees stretching their limbs and groundcover filling in fluffy at the bed fronts.  These changes are valuable to me because I had to wait, teaching me an important lesson about patience and the joy of anticipation.

This leads me to plant spacing and patience.  Like many designers, at times I have planted tight for immediate abundance.  After all, why wait five years for a garden to fill in when you can have it all now.  That pesky impatience thing again.  A happy medium can be reached if some rules are followed.  Dense planting of perennials is one thing, not allowing enough room for trees and shrubs is quite another.  Perennials are relatively easy to move and most will require division at some point in time.  In a new planting, some perennials will not thrive.  Thus, moving perennials is part of the garden editing process.  On the other hand, trees and medium or large shrubs should be planted for permanence.  Moving them is difficult and damaging.  There are some things in particular that truly resent root disturbance like Camellia and Daphne.  To keep your woody plants happy, place them for permanence and be sure to get that tape measure out if you are unsure of the spacing.  Planning for the mature size will allow you to rejoice five years down the road when your trees and shrubs are filling in gracefully instead of crowding each other, causing die back and misshapen forms.  The mistake I see frequently is planting too close to the house.  Keep those trees and large shrubs back from the structure.  Don’t just consider height, width is of more concern.  Having tree branches reach out and gently touch the house can create a pleasant effect, but placing them right at the foundation so only one side grows is not.   To get a feel for the mature size of trees and large shrubs, pay a visit to your local arboretum.  It can be quite eye opening.

Timing is everything when it comes to perennial adjustments.  As we are beginning to see warmer temperatures in Western Washington, hold off on transplanting until the cooler fall weather.  It’s time for you and the garden to relax.

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garden conservancy open days…this month

June is here!  Well, at least the calendar says so.  Ho hum – warmer weather has been promised for next weekend so I’ll invest my hope in that.  June is not only the time for more sun than rain, this year it is also the month for the Garden Conservancy Open Days on Bainbridge Island.  I am very excited to be a part of the program this year, and to help support the Conservancy’s mission of preserving worthy gardens that may otherwise be lost.  As we gardeners know – gardens are ephemeral and once the dutiful and loving hand of the gardener is no longer there, they can disappear. 

I was fortunate to have my garden featured on the poster and post card, however my garden is just one of 6 fabulous gardens that are featured.   I look forward to welcoming visitors to our garden.  This will be the last year of holding the garden open for a bit..at least that is the plan now.

June 26th 10am – 4pm…for more information, see  www.gardenconservancy.org/opendays/events.pl?ID=352&SortBy==  Hope to see you here!

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sun?

Here in Western WA, the sun has been tough to find the past several weeks.  Although we are in the “drought” season, we have been hit by storm after storm.  At first, I reveled in the lack of watering duties.  Now as some plants are a bit squashed from repeated hard rain lashings, the slugs have set up shop for longer than usual and I am starting to see some humidity/saturation issues – - I am not too thrilled.  So let’s keep our fingers crossed for some good day sunshine before too long…

In the meantime – here is your quota for today:

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