From The Old Farmer's Almanac.
No wonder I am tired of gardening. But wait! I’m making a comeback, maybe today and tomorrow only, but a two day respite is better than no respite.
Along with my sound advice channeled via KD Lang, don’t smoke in bed, let me add, don’t research nasty giant stinging creatures just before you go to bed. To wit: this ugly bastard
Cicada Killer Wasp
This creature has been swooping around the Lily Pond, scaring the crap out of me. Apparently, mostly harmless, until you read up on it, going through all the flying insect/wasp websites…just before going to bed. Then it will creep you out for HOURS.
Back to the garden. Not much of anything is happening. I have lots of Sungold cherry tomatoes, just like last week. The gold raspberries are starting to make their autumn comeback. I harvested 5 figs. The apples that should be turning red are turning red. I have about a half dozen small green eggplants coming along slowly. That’s it, my friends and fellow gardeners. The rudbeckia Goldstrum looks like its ablaze and it still makes me smile, especially at dusk. Ya know why they painted school buses that color yellow -its a screamer.
My friends who’ve had a better go of their vegetable gardens are bringing me lots of tomatoes. Indy, you could send me some of those green beans. Dee, whatcha got over there, girl?
The artichoke plants have withered and died. They were trampled one too many times by my lovesick springer who dances back and forth along the fence trying to get the attention of the big old blond next door. Her name is Sally and she’s a yellow lab. That’s where I’d planted all my green beans. They came up about 3 or 4 inches and poof! To resolve some of the dog stepping, we’re making plans to do a good sized raised bed (fenced) for veggies next year. I am hoping we could get it built this fall so it would be ready to go in March. But you know what they say about the best laid plans?
Meanwhile, this little burst of coolth, coupled with a gander at the bulb plantings of Jacqueline van der Kloet at the New York Botanical’s Seasonal Walk, has me contemplating the bulb catalogs. I know I swore off bulbs. Just for one year. Yet, here I am, already plotting plotting plotting. Such is the optimism of a gardener.
Until Week 25,
the head gardener at Ranch du Bois
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If you're a movie fanatic then the thought of designing your garden with the same principles isn't going to come as a real surprise. You understand the lingo, the framework of a good movie and the individual components so using them to put your garden together is going to be a cinch.
The first thing you notice about a movie is that there are only a few stars in each - unless, of course, it's one that seems to have EVERY star making a cameo. The rest of the actors play supporting roles or, if it hasn't been computer generated, they're extras playing bit parts.
It's the same with your garden: there should only be one or two stars, upheld by a few supporting others with mass planting extras to give context. Shouldn't it?
I remember one garden that Monty Don visited in his recent sojourn around the world. The owner, a landscape designer, had a philosophy of viewing nature and then recreating it within his garden designs. This meant that there were only ever 2-3 different trees, 3-4 different perennials and one or two groundcovers for each landscape. These limited choices were then mass planted to great effect and appeared to be naturally inset.
However, it's a far cry for someone who loves plants over design. If you want a landscape that can be planted, grown and then requires only limited maintenance then the "Blockbuster Movie" model is for you. But, if plants are what keeps you gardening then this style of garden design will bore you to death.
I guess its one of the tangibles that keeps gardening interesting. No two gardens are ever the same and what I like in a garden is not necessarily what you like. Just like movies.
To see a partial list of what’s bloomin’ now, just mouse over the photo as it goes by.
And a warm thank you to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for putting together the original Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day!
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Now this is a perennial display garden! At 185 feet long, 10 feet deep, the new Seasonal Walk at the New York Botanical Garden is in its glory right now. Sadly, I must watch it unfold online, but gladly, the folks in charge of this brilliant project had the vision and generosity to share it with us. Not only did they hire two international hort rock stars to design this beauty, they followed up with writer Tovah Martin and photog Rob Cardillo to chronicle the week-by-week changes. You can watch the Seasonal Walk develop by clicking right here!
I have already copied the plant list to Evernote, and have pegged a couple of photos of my favorite combos. I especially loved the July 17th combination of lilium speciousum v. rubrum planted amidst Cosmos Sonata Carmine. Feel free to try this at home. The plant combos, bed designs/layout/planting methods are all at your fingertips on the website.
Jacqueline van der Kloet and Piet Oudolf have designed these fabulous plantings. You are probably familiar with Piet by now, but I had not heard of Jacqueline. An article in the August 5th New York Times detailed her method of planting bulbs, a serious departure from our “plant in big clump” philosophy. As someone whose been known to rant about red+yellow bulb combos and bulbs planted in straight lines like soldiers, I thought for a minute, “WHAAAAAAAT????” But, after carefully reading the article, realizing she is adopting a more naturalized form of planting (can you call planting “naturalized”??), and checking out her planting methods and many photos of her work, I have fallen head over heals with this style of planting. Someone referred to it as “confetti style”.
The Seasonal Walk has been so popular, its run has been extended another year, through 2010. Catch it if you can.
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Walking the Walk: the Seasonal Walk at the New York Botanical Garden
From The Old Farmer's Almanac.
