A year ago the Seven Son tree (Heptacodium miconioides, below) was ripped from the ground in a violent summer storm. Unfortunately, it was not uprooted, for trees with roots intact can sometimes be replanted successfully. The manner of the Seven Son is to grow quickly and decidedly top heavy, so when the winds blew the…
Category: water gardens
Lost in the shuffle
Paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysanthus, below) seems to be well known among longtime gardeners in the southeast, though few seem to actually grow one in their own gardens. A handful of years ago, I hadn’t seen one in southern gardens, or in ones closer to my northwestern Virginia garden, but I was intrigued when I first read…
Save the irises
This weekend I saw that one clump of Japanese iris (Iris ensata, below) close beside the waterfall of the large koi pond was dangerously crowded by overhanging branches of an exuberant Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia). On the other side of the falls a rambunctious Winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) has invaded another clump, and both shrubs…
Why the garden must have five ponds
The development of this garden has not been an orderly process, but one better described as chaotic, and perhaps haphazard. This is not to say that the end result is not entirely pleasing. There was never a master plan to follow; sections were constructed as the budget allowed, and frequently well thought out planning and…
Caught speeding – 0-60 in 23 years
It seems like yesterday. Well, actually it doesn’t. I’ve been gardening this plot now for twenty three years, and it’s grown up. There are beeches and hornbeams that have rocketed past forty feet, and wide spreading Japanese maples and flowering trees. Small shrubs have sprouted far above my head, and some areas are planted so…
No mulch, lots of plants
A friend of my wife recently remarked that our large garden must require truckloads of mulch each year. I don’t know how my wife responded, but she should have told her that no mulch is added annually, and most parts of the garden haven’t been remulched since they were first planted (twenty some years ago)….
Odd and wonderful
Even in the heat of summer there are wonderful and odd happenings in the garden. One recent afternoon I was astounded by the number of dragonflies in the neighborhood of the large swimming pond, and no wonder there are fewer mosquitoes in the rear garden. There are plenty of mosquitoes in the side yard, in…
Groundhogs and snakes, oh my!
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,…
Are five ponds too many?
This spring the Japanese irises planted in the shallows of the swimming pond (below) seem to have doubled in size. I know that there is limited room in the gravel filled crevices between boulders that edge the pond, and those spaces have been filled for a few years, but the irises are more robust and…
The easy iris
I believe that irises have a reputation for being finicky, and I think that this is mostly with bearded irises that must be divided and watched for iris borers. I’ve concluded after years of trial and error (mostly error) that Japanese irises are the easiest and most beautiful of the the irises. I haven’t tried very…
Yellow flag
In May frogs bellow at each other beneath the yellow blooms and eighteen inch tall foliage of Yellow Flag iris (Iris pseudoacorus, below). Hungry koi and goldfish lazily swim through the shallow water searching for a meal, and many thousands of tadpoles feed on bits of algae that cling to stones at the pond’s edge. …
Mystery hosta
An abundance of hosta seedlings annually pop up in the garden, and while many must be removed because they grow immediately at the edge of a path, others are left in place and encouraged. In two years the clumps grow fat and full, and the leaves large so that my faulty memory presumes they’ve been…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 