There’s a new groundhog in the neighborhood. Well, not just in the neighborhood, but under my garden shed. Another groundhog lived under the shed until last year, then he mysteriously disappeared after the snowy winter. Perhaps he had grown too fat and lazy, living in the relative luxury of this garden with ample water, food,…
Category: gardening
Almost back
Over two winters the three Southern magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora, below in bloom) in the garden were beaten and battered by snow. The main trunk of ‘Bracken’s Brown Beauty’ was broken once in the heavy snow of 2010, and more damage was inflicted in the wet snow a year later. While the trunk of ‘Greenback’ was…
Enthusiastic, not invasive
The past few weeks have been hot, real hot! In only a few weeks lawn grasses turned from lush green to straw colored, and the deep greens of the garden faded a few shades. Some plants pay no attention, and even thrive in the heat. Plume poppy (Macleaya cordata, above) grows exuberantly to fill whatever space…
Buttonbush
There are few woody plants that prefer constantly damp soils, and fewer that thrive in standing water. A year ago I was marginally aware of the native buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), but took more notice with a swarm of bees and butterflies buzzing about a small patch of glossy leafed shrubs with odd, pin cushion-like blooms…
Enjoy the blooms
Over the past few weeks I’ve spent far more time in the garden tearing things up rather than enjoying, and its become wearisome. First, a grove of bamboo that had been a nuisance for the past decade was removed, then two dead hornbeams and a damaged spruce were cut down. When this was finished and…
Goodbye bamboo!
The bamboo is gone! My wife and I chopped it to the ground last weekend, her using loppers and me with the chainsaw. The chainsaw does the job much more quickly, but the bamboo frequently grabs the blade and pulls it loose from the bar, so while I’m fiddling with the saw my wife was…
Gone in a moment
The storm rumbled over the Blue Ridge directly from the west so that winds swept over the nearby foothills and across the open lawns of neighboring homes. Few trees obstructed to slow the wind’s approach, so the first gusts crashed into the garden and the sliver of forest that borders the southeastern property line. In…
Wilting, but willing
The foliage of the passion flower vine (Passiflora incarnata, flowering in August, below) has wilted. I can’t imagine that this vigorous native vine is in trouble, but I’ll be certain to give it a sip of water or two through the hot, dry weather that’s expected over the next week. I planted the passion flower…
Ready for summer
Over the weekend I noticed that coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea, below) in the neighborhood are flowering, and it hadn’t occurred to me until now that they’ve disappeared from my garden. There are a number of reasons. I’ve planted a handful of newly introduced coneflowers over the past five or six years, and many gardeners have found…
Long overdue
Twenty some years ago I planted three columnar hornbeams and variegated bamboo in the spaces between the trees to screen the neighbor’s property. You’d think I’d know better. I blame it on youthful enthusiasm, but when youth turned to middle age (hopefully I’m still “middle” and not plain old) the bamboo has run amok. Why…
Unintended pruning
A few weeks ago I noticed the toad lilies (Tricyrtis, flowering in September, below) were getting a bit taller than I prefer, though they were not at all leggy. Some years I’ve pruned them to be shorter and more compact, and other times I’ve let them grow. If left unpruned they will bloom a few…
In search of Japanese maples
I’ve been visiting tree and shrub growing nurseries across the country to buy plants for nearly thirty-five years. In the early years my traveling partner and I kept a close watch for Japanese maples as we traveled through neighborhoods visiting nurseries just outside Portland, Oregon (the Japanese maple growing capital of the U.S.). Here were…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 