I’m content to leave as much garden clean up as possible to the devices of nature. I’ve often been successful in delaying a project until decay has eliminated the need to undertake any labor at all, but in a garden that is situated at the edge of a forest of towering maples, oaks, and tulip…
Category: landscaping
This bud’s for you
In early October, the flower buds of paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha, below) are evident at the tips of branches that are cloaked by thick, blue-green foliage. The leaves will persist long into autumn, then will turn yellow and drop abruptly. Many plants protect buds from winter’s chill so that they are not so obvious, but on…
Berries in early autumn
Through spring and summer the foliage and flowers of beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma ‘Issai’, below) are unremarkable. The dull green leaves are carried on arching stems that are hardly graceful, and even when fully in flower the ornamental value of beautyberry is forgettable. But, in late summer the tiny blooms fade and small berries appear, which progressively…
The early autumn garden
As autumn begins and cooler temperatures arrive there are fewer blooms, and foliage shows signs of the imminent change to dormancy. With a relatively cool and wet summer, fewer plants have been stressed by heat, but several shrubs and trees have reacted to damper than usual conditions by dropping foliage early so that the garden’s…
Little harm is done
Scattered leaves and branches of two ‘Silver Cloud’ redbuds (Cercis canadensis ‘Silver Cloud’) and a blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica, below) are covered by the finely spun webs of fall webworms. Every day the webs grow, and the tiny worms devour leaves as they progress through the tree. Commonly available insecticides provide immediate control of the worms,…
Ignoring the obvious
I’ve been warned. Never, ever plant mint in your garden. Never. It’s too aggressive, I’m told, and once it’s planted it’s impossible to keep in bounds. Planting mint is an invitation to disaster. I have little doubt that this is sound advice, but either I’m a skeptic or not a good listener (or a slow…
Fewer bees and butterflies? Not here
The Seven Son tree (Heptacodium miconioides, below) was a favorite of pollinators (mostly bumblebees and wasps), and it is unfortunate that it was destroyed in a storm a year ago. I’m mostly satisfied with the red horsechestnut (Aesculus x carnea) planted in its place, but it is not a suitable replacement as far as the…
Forest grass
A friend tells me she has had a horrible time getting Japanese Forest grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’, below) to live in her garden, and she wonders how it is possible that mine flourishes. I’m reluctant to tell her that I’ve done nothing special to encourage it. It just grows, though it takes a few years…
The overflowing garden
Understandably, many gardeners prefer a large measure of order and tidiness in their gardens, even if their shrubs are not pruned into a variety of geometric shapes. Not that I refer to my wife as a gardener, but that’s her preference. She will mostly tolerate wide spreading shrubs and perennials that flop over one another,…
Subtle charms
There is a place in the garden for extravagant masses of blooms that can be appreciated by neighbors zooming past in their cars, though to my thinking these displays are best suited to commercial properties and entrances to communities. Many homeowners take pride in planting masses of petunias and impatiens that flower without interruption for…
A horticultural adventure
I can’t help it! My wife and I hosted our two sons and their wife and girlfriend over the weekend for a hike of Old Rag Mountain. This was a fairly ambitious undertaking for mom and dad who suffer from a variety of minor infirmities (mostly getting older), but we survived the ordeal without too…
Blue Mist in September
More than once I’ve been stunned to walk into a garden to suddenly come upon a mass planting of Blue Mist shrubs (Caryopteris) in full bloom. I’m too much of collector to expend so much space in my garden on such a large grouping of any one plant, but the mass of blue flowers is…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 