Though it’s no secret that I find garden maintenance loathsome, I take for granted that some labor is necessary to maintain a minimum of order so that the garden is not given over completely to briars and brambles. In recent years, parts of the garden without an adequate cover of shredded leaves grow prodigious crops…
Category: Native plants
For the birds?
Gardeners, I suppose, are an optimistic lot, sometimes ignoring the obvious for years, or even a lifetime. There is ample evidence that I am a slow learner, with lessons too often requiring a decade or two, if they are ever to be learned. And, so it is with winter berries, or at least many berries…
Gordlinia
Two gordlinias (x Gordlinia grandiflora) have recovered nicely after defoliating completely in colder than average temperatures last winter. The evergreen, shrubby trees are of questionable cold hardiness, and certainly I would not have been surprised if both had died. Now, I’m pleased with their rejuvenation, though only one has grown vigorously. The gordlinias are planted…
Not ready for winter
Somehow, this year has passed too quickly. When cold persisted too long into spring, the internal clocks of many plants became muddled, and mine also so that it seems only a short while ago I was nursing too many shrubs through their winter injuries. I was jolted, along with the garden’s hydrangeas, by fifteen degree…
A snake’s paradise
Several years ago, through one summer a garter snake resided in the vigorous clematis (Clematis montana ‘Rubens’, below) that covers the rail on one side of our deck. I suppose there were occasions when the small snake followed the sturdy trunk of the vine down to prowl the ground below, but my wife and I…
Sick of sycamores
Autumn is most noted for foliage that turns to marvelous reds and yellows before falling to carpet the ground. In this garden at the forest’s edge, perennials and small shrubs (as well as garden tools) can be lost forever (or just for months) if deep piles of leaves are left for long. So, a few…
Turning cold
After several nights with temperatures dropping into the twenties and teens, most foliage has fallen from trees and shrubs, and the few scattered blooms that remained on toad lilies (Tricyrtis) until a week ago have turned to brown. Splendidly colored leaves remain on Lion’s Head (Acer palmatum ‘Shishigashira’, above) and a few Japanese maples that…
Sparkleberry with few berries
The garden’s Sparkleberry hollies (Ilex verticillata ‘Sparkleberry’) need a friend. Or, at least a nearby pollinator so that pollen is passed between male and females so there will be more berries. I think that at one point I planted a male holly in the vicinity, but that was long ago, and the details are fuzzy,…
What a difference a night makes
A freeze was inevitable sooner than later, only I didn’t suspect there would be one the night I opened my big mouth to say that beginning the second week of November it was unusual not to have had one. So, temperatures dipped below freezing, and in the week ahead they are forecast to drop into…
Yellow, more yellow, and red
To look out over the rear garden and the neighboring forest, most foliage has turned to yellow in early November. The predominant swamp maples (Acer rubrum) that border the garden (popularly called red maples) do not show a trace of red, only a drab yellow that is more faded and lifeless than vibrant. Only cultivars…
Autumn foliage and more
As outdoor temperatures turn inhospitable, this should be a period for rest, and certainly I do my best to avoid chores that pile up by the day. Winter weeds have gotten off to a roaring start with ground that has remained damp for weeks, but it is the autumn accumulation of leaves that I most…
Black pennisetem
I notice that the grassy field that surrounds the nearby farm pond now consists mostly of black pennisetem (Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Moudry’, below) that has displaced the long standing fescues from the relatively recent past when this property was farmland. For several years I’ve seen ‘Moudry’ encroach to line the edges of this pond, and now…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 