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Bzzzz May 15th, 2011

Way back in 2007 I cataloged nine months of photos in the potager. I spent the next three years kicking myself for forgetting to do it again. I would get so wrapped up March cleanup, April and May planting, June maintenance and, well, life that I would forget all about taking those documentary photos.

I managed to get out there on May 1 and take the first of this year’s overhead potager photos. Two weeks have passed and a lot has happened since these photos were taken (thank you Mother Nature!), but you’ll have to wait until June 1 to see!

May 1 outside the potager

Looking back and 2007 has reminded me how useful these quasi-time-lapse photos are. The two backyard zelkovas that were planted ten years ago have reached a size to provide plenty of shade to sit under during the hottest months. We expanded the daylily border outside the potager, although it hasn’t yet been planted with annuals this year. Shrubs, including a willow, butterfly bush (‘White Splendor’?) and ‘Wine and Roses’ weigela have also been added outside the fence to soften the overall look and help the potager blend more naturally into the surroundings. This is the year of the flowering shrub! At last count we have added seven new ones.

It’s hard to believe that ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ willow standard started life here as a small 4′ tall tree in a container on our back patio. It grows so vigorously now that it’s difficult to keep in control and requires a tall ladder to maintain.

May 1 in the potager

The shaggy, hard-to-manage ‘New Dawn’ roses were removed and more of the garden has been given over to perennial crops and fruits to reduce the need for annual planting. The ‘Jubilee’ strawberry bed was installed and has proven to be an excellent investment, providing a bountiful flush of strawberries in spring and a smaller, but steady, crop until fall. The herb bed had gotten so over-run I moved it to a new location last year to start over and added a tuteur with a ‘Clair de lune’ clematis.

We have a fusarium wilt problem in the garden, so it’s no longer a place where I can grow tomatoes. The hunt for a tomato home is now an annual event and, I suppose, will be the motivator to dig new beds. It’s no small matter to dig new beds here and requires a man with a pick-ax and a strong back, a truckload of leaf compost and a lot of iced tea. I suspect that one summer I will just cover everything up with plastic to solarize the soil and take a cruise around the world or something while it cooks.

May 1 in the woodland garden

Back in January we had some undergrowth cleared from the east side woods to start a woodland garden. Harry has spent a good amount of time digging up roots and eliminating poison ivy, getting his first-ever, dime-sized poison ivy rash in the process. In the coming weeks our home-from-college son’s job will be spreading a nice layer of stone dust that I hope will become the bed for a nice layer of moss.

So there is installment number one for this year’s time-lapse journal. June, here we come!

(Note: Click on the photo to see a larger version.)

Posted In: Gardening, Gardening Life

Tags: Blogging, garden, potager, strawberries, zelkova

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Bzzzz January 19th, 2011

Ah, January. I have created a new folder in Photoshop Bridge entitled Garden 2011. I have one single photo in it, but it’s an important one—a shot of where we’ll be creating a woodland garden.

Out of necessity came opportunity. We had the local tree guys out to take down a large tulip tree that was in imminent danger of falling onto the chicken coop and across the driveway. It was a tricky undertaking because of its location. The older of the father/son pair is in his 60s, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he scampered up that tree. Starting at the top he sawed off limbs and then he topped it. I was in the house when the top 10 feet of the tree came down. There was a huge crash, which I would have been worried about except I heard the two men erupt into whoops of glee. Isn’t it great to take joy in your work?

Anyway, the rest of the tree came down, as did another in the way. I will also have to move a lot of the hostas I planted there in the past two years since they will now likely scorch in the sun. I’m not showing you photos of it all because the whole process made a humongous mess that I will have to deal with when the thermometer climbs above freezing.

While the tree guys were here they made me a good deal offer to clear some of the woods. I hopped on the chance to get this section of the woods cleared of underbrush and trash trees. It is the area near the house that we look on when we eat dinner outside in the summer. Without all the tangle of underbrush and trash trees, we’ll get a better view into the woods. We’ll also put in a path and a bench to overlook a ravine that you can’t see very well in the photo.

Whatever else goes in the woodland garden, I am determined that it will be low maintenance. We already have a healthy crop of moss. I like moss. Some of the hostas will also find a new home there. Then there will be bulbs. And a hammock. And my bottle tree.

So here you have it, the first view of the new woodland garden.

Posted In: Gardening

Tags: Blogging, garden seating, trees, winter, woodland garden

14 Comments