Readers occasionally write asking for wider views of the garden rather than only close ups of flowers, and recently I’ve featured several of these. I often find that when I take photographs of more broad areas that the camera flattens the view so that there is too little contrast, with one plant hardly distinguishable from another. This…
Category: ponds
The middle third
The rear garden is roughly divided into thirds, with three small ponds in the top third and thick, jungle-like planting so that one pond cannot be seen from another that is less than ten feet away. Stone paths meander through and two small patios provide vantage points to rest and enjoy the water features. The…
Please don’t sit on the furniture
A few days ago I included a photo of one of the patios where a green leafed dissectum Japanese maple is perched over two lichen-covered wooden chairs. Let this serve as a warning, if you should ever visit the garden, DO NOT sit on the furniture. This set once included a bench, which maybe ten…
Rain, rain, go away
This is getting a little ridiculous! I can hardly walk in the lower end of the back garden. The lawn is saturated, the planting beds are a swamp. and those are the areas that are usually dry. The depression that runs along the lower southern border stays damp through the year from the constant trickle…
Early May
I have only myself to blame. The garden now covers almost an acre, with only a few small areas of lawn. So, until the perennials grow up to shade the ground there are weeds in abundance, too many to keep up with. Seedlings from the Golden Rain tree are popping up everywhere, even a hundred…
Green Day
Whenever there are a few moments between rainstorms this weekend I will need to spray the daylilies and a few other choice perennials with deer repellent. Many perennials will not have enough foliage until late in April, but the mixed border of daylilies along the lower side of the swimming pond has been nipped a…
Shelter from the storm
I’m happy to report that I live an uneventful life, perhaps boring by most standards. I’m not a hermit, but I don’t care to travel, and I visit friends and relations too infrequently. I’m quite content to spend my days planting, keeping up with pruning and weeding, or lounging about enjoying the buds and blooms,…
Not so wonderful
Readers occasionally inquire about visiting my garden, and I suppose no harm could come of it, but I fear that many would be disappointed that the garden is not so grand as they imagined. As gardens go, mine is larger than most. The property totals just under an acre and a quarter, and besides the…
Garden ponds are a delight
I have been gardening this plot for more than twenty years, and no tree or flower has brought me a measure of enjoyment to compare with the garden ponds. There are five ponds in the garden, and another rainy season, dirt bottomed pond that captures runoff from neighboring properties and stays damp enough throughout to…
Spring garden show
I have been occupied this week constructing Meadows Farms’ display garden for the Capital Home and Garden Show in Chantilly, Virginia. Apparently there is an art to building show gardens, and after many years I almost know what I’m doing. We finished building a day early, and while the other gardens are still works in…
A low maintenance garden?
I suppose that I could learn to love planting, just planting, and not having to bother with the untidy chores that follow. No doubt there are gardeners who will say that they love pruning, transplanting, deadheading, dividing, mulching, and composting, and even some who find weeding to be therapeutic. I prefer to plant and forget, to…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 