The Natural World | Deborah Silver & Co.

Sunday Opinion: The Peaceable Kingdom

We have had quite a run of unseasonably cold weather the past week – night temperatures in the 20’s. The ornamental kales and cabbages that often persist without a blemish into December look wilted. I have reluctantly put away my tee shirts, and stacked up wool sweaters and fleeces in their place. The evergreens in my landscape have begun to change color. The winter color is a darker, or more bronze green. I can see that the winter and holiday container work will be more difficult than usual. I would work with any kind of soil rather than frozen soil. I am pleased our methods of construction have evolved such that only the final installation takes place in the field. Even so, our garage space is a chilly place now. I have traded sneakers for warm boots.

Nonetheless, there is much to look forward to. The garden going quiet means there will be time to reflect on the season just past. What not only worked, but worked peaceably. For instance, elements of garden design that contrast can be interesting. Elements of design that out and out fight with one another can make a space disquieting and uncomfortable. Simple landscapes where the relationships are subtly detailed and modest are liveable and restorative. High energy landscapes are certainly dramatic and exhilarating, but even the most devoted eye needs an occasional place to rest.

I do value evergreens, as they can make a sleeping garden feel warmer, and more visually inviting in the winter months. They make a landscape feel substantial. Even though they have gone dormant too, the green is a sure reference to life. As for the leafless trees and shrubs, and the remains of the perennials, there is an opportunity there to appreciate the subtle textures and colors of bark. The landscape may be gray and brown, but there are infinite variations of those colors. The variation in the overall shapes of plants, and their appearance in winter weather is an invitation to appreciate the sculptural forms in nature.

So warm and woolly is and will be the order of the day for months to come. But there’s no sense worrying about the months to come part. Only a few small bits and pieces of the landscape work remains-the weather turning has a lot to do with that. We have our winter and holiday containers and outdoor lighting season immediately ahead. This late season work makes it possible to enjoy the holidays and the winter season over a longer period of time than most. So why all of the pictures of the sheep today? The moment I start thinking winter and holiday, I think peaceable. As in the peaceable kingdom. Though the rams generally have horns, and some with multiple horns, a flock of sheep has a very peaceful aura about it. They are also an incredibly beautiful group of creatures. Though I am sure this American blackbelly sheep could be an adversary to be reckoned with, he has an affable and dignified expression.

From sheep101.com: There are more breeds of sheep than breeds of any other livestock species. Worldwide, there are more than one thousand distinct sheep breeds. There are more than 40 breeds in the United States alone. Sheep come in all different sizes, shapes, and colors. Their wool is prized for its warmth. This Valais blacknose sheep is native to Switzerland.

awassi sheep

unknown breed of sheep

cheviot sheep

manx loaghtan sheep

East Freesian sheep

Jacob four horned sheep

blue faced Leicester longwool sheep

Cheviot sheep

barbados blackbelly sheep

dorset horn sheep

boreray sheep

merino sheep

hebridean sheep

leicester longwool sheep

lundy sheep

Norwegian sheep breed

Romney sheep

sheep face

Texas Dahl sheep

Slovakian sheep

Wensleydale sheep

shetland sheep

Herdwick sheep

Texel sheep

sheep

flock of sheep

four horned sheep

Lincoln sheep

Jacob’s four horned sheep.

black Wensleydale sheep

So why all the loosely connected thoughts about landscape design, the peaceable kingdom, the holidays ahead, the garden season just past, and the beauty and diversity of nature? That is what a Sunday in November can do for a gardener.

Posted on: November 16, 2014 16 Comments

Filed Under: Winter, Strictly Opinion, Picture This, The Natural World Tagged With: wool, sheep, rare sheep breeds

The Stick Crop

The most glorious color award in the landscape must surely go to the fall season. From the asparagus to the sweet gums, color is in the air. The green of the evergreen shrubs and trees is all the more intense by contrast with the colors sported by the leaves of deciduous plants. Once those leaves fall, the landscape takes on a much more subdued and subtle palette. The natural birch branches, honeysuckle vine rolls, grapevine deer, wood crates and pumpkins in the above picture are one shade of brown or another. The bark of the linden is a gray variation of brown. So much brown! The garden is going quiet. For every gardener unwilling to go quiet, the branches, twigs and poles available late in the fall can offer a new lease on a garden life.

For those gardeners who live in more northerly zones, the time between the last of the fall leaves and the spring crocus can be a very long time indeed. This means that the shrubs and trees that sport bark with great color are of great interest. Planning a landscape for winter interest is a good idea in my zone. My dilemma-space. I have a very small urban property. I run up against the limits of the space all the time. Given a large property, I could have swaths of red and yellow twig dogwood, groves of bungeana pine, a group of London planes, and all manner of interesting willows. Lacking that kind of space does not mean that I have to do without some winter color. I am fortunate that there are farmers in this country that grow certain species of shrubs and trees from which they harvest cut branches. Our shipment of cut branches arrived a few days ago. The colors are astonishing. The dogwood branches have glossy bark in a variety of shades of red and yellow. The curly copper willow is a yellowy orange. The flame willow is the color of cinnamon. The red bud pussy willow has a glossy dark red brown bark, and red orange buds. This color and bark texture destined to last throughout the winter- so welcome.

The species red twig dogwood is dull and dark red. Cut from the garden, this dogwood has small branchlets, and cream colored growth scars. New cultivars of dogwood sport clearer and more intense color than the species. Spring Meadow Farms has been instrumental in offering great new cultivars of vibrantly barked shrubs to nurseries. Dogwood which is grown for branches is at some point cut back near to the ground. This process is known as coppicing. The English have been growing shrubs and cutting them back hard with the express purpose of harvesting the branches for fencing for centuries. A shrub that is cut back hard responds with vigorous new growth. The straight and unbranched new growth provides the best color, and the glossiest bark. The red twig dogwood “Cardinal” has the most brilliantly red bark of any cultivar I know. The color of these branches is as luscious as a red tulip.

Pussy willow is an enormous growing shrub whose main claim to fame is the fuzzy and silvery spring catkins that sally forth in the spring. But pussy willow branches are a gift to a winter landscape. We buy the cut branches at 6 feet tall or better. The green and chocolate bark, and the orange red buds are sensational. So how do I use these glossy barked and beautifully colored branches? In containers at the front door. On the mantle for the holidays. Over the door. They can be woven into wreaths. In any application, they are a lively reminder that the harvest from the garden can endow your winter seaso..

A casual bunch of branches has a more informal and traditional look. They pair well with other materials available for the season-grapevine, evergreen boughs, pine cones, dry hydrangea flowers and berries-even the sturdy remains of perennials from the garden. Ornamental grasses, cut and fixed to a bamboo stake make a graceful foil to the more substantial branches.

An arrangement of fresh cut branches can have a very contemporary look, placed vertically in a container. The height is a welcome addition to a winter container. Stems stuck into soil may very well root and sprout in the spring. The willow leafing out means the branches can be part of a spring container planting.

The branches are beautiful this year. They make an enormous visual impact in a winter landscape with minimal color. These poplar poles are much bigger than a branch. There are places where barked poles are the perfect thing. A celebration of the season in whatever style and shape suits you.

Detroit Garden Works is a source for branches, twigs, poles, and other natural materials in November. These materials help to make the celebration of the winter season all the better. These branches can help make a winter landscape all the more beautiful.

Posted on: November 10, 2014 4 Comments

Filed Under: Winter, Fall, Detroit Garden Works, The Natural World Tagged With: red twig dogwood, shrubs with beautiful bark, late fall container arrangements, fresh cut branches, coppice wood, winter container arrangements

The Driveway Garden

I have a whole lot of landscape surrounding my driveway. Why so? I drive up and drive out of it at least 2 times a day, maybe more. There are plenty of other places in my garden that I see only intermittently. An example that explains how frequent visitation drives design-see the following. As my house is on a corner, I drive by the front door every day. This is a drive by, not a visit. Until the hydrangeas come into bloom, I am only in that garden to water the pots. Let’s go to the back door. Lots of traffic there. My driveway is a daily experience. I suppose I could remove my driveway, as neither Buck nor I use the garage to house cars. I could do a narrow walk to the curb. But that makes getting groceries inside or taking the trash out a challenge. A driveway makes the transportation of vehicles, and items in and out easy. Given its size and function, it is also easy for a driveway to be unsightly. By that I mean, untouched by a landscape. A great driveway landscape is a quality of life issue. It should make you reluctant to leave home in the morning, and happy to get home at night.

My landscape crowds my driveway, both on the ground plane, and overhead. I I have trees that arch over both sides of my drive. This means I have birds singing here in the morning and evening. New to the driveway trees this past week-a solitary catbird. I only prune when Buck complains he can’t walk by, or the branches scrape up against my car. 4 Parrotias, 3 magnolias and 4 dogwoods. My driveway garden is congested. Lots of trees over a drive minimizes a big utilatarian paved space, and goes on to celebrate the garden. There are yews, both upright and spreading. There are garden spaces too. Hellebores, hostas and butterburrs. In a sunnier spot, there are delphiniums, nepeta, adenophora and alchemilla early on, and phlox and white hibiscus. It has a weedy and relaxed look. The lime green of the alchemilla flowers is especially pretty right now.

My driveway landscape is a big fluid mix of plants. This is an effort to make the driveway the least important visual issue, in spite of the need for a car park. The driveway is necessary, yes. Is the driveway the most important issue in the landscape? I think not. I would suggest that a thoughtful and beautiful landscape could make the necessity of a driveway a treasured feature. To follow is my take on that driveway. Let’s get back to that expresion of lime green. The flowers of alchemilla mollis- so beautiful. Other sources of that lime green come from variegated lily of the valley, hosta montana variegata, and gold drop hostas.

What looks like a brick driveway is in fact a concrete brick manufactured by Unilock called Capthorne. This material looks like it might have been original to my 1930’s home. Whomever designed this driveway in the beginning did a great job. The drive to the street is in the top left of this picture. The landscape completely shields it from the view presented by my deck. The parking area looks a lot more about piazza than parking. I have planted the driveway pots with much the same color scheme as the landscape.

Lots of green. And even more lime green. The driveway garden has a lot of old Sum and Substance hosta, which foreshadow the lime green Princeton Gold maples, and the lime sagina subulata in the upper level fountain fountain.

The lime green in the pots is coming from Wasabi coleus, variegated white sunpatiens, creeping jenny, variegated licorice, and several lime green tropical plants whose names I cannot remember. I am not so concerned if I cannot name a plant. I am very concerned if I cannot put together a garden that is cohesive. So many great gardeners I know have no knowledge of the botanical names. Sometimes, they have no names of any sort. But they know how to make things grow. That said, I have plants whose names are unknown to me in my driveway pots.

I aspire to the making things grow group. The design of my driveway garden pots needs to reflect the landscape all around. This means, to some degree, that I choose plants by instinct. Plants that strike my fancy. As this is my home landscape, I have no one to answer to beyond myself.

I do strongly feel that container plantings are an opportunity for any gardener to express themselves in a seasonal way. My driveway landscape has been many years in the making. The pots and annual plants in the ground is my opportunity to change things up. A chance to make a statement. Go in whatever direction suits me at the time. I have planted my driveway with lots of different schemes over the years. I like the yearly chance to re imagine.

This year, the lime represented by the green and gold plectranthus, the nicotiana lime, and the variegated sunpatiens, is enough lime green to please me. The one nicotiana mutabilis in a sea of lime green is an outlier. I try to design for that. The warm yellow wall looks so great, dressed in lime green.

I have worked for years to make the driveway landscape more visually important than the driveway. This year, I am pleased all around with the results. Everything in the landscape takes years to settle in. In my mind, everything is working together.

Sept 8, 2013 (192)
Tonight, both Howard and I have cause to celebrate.

Posted on: June 28, 2014 19 Comments

Filed Under: Good Design, Garden Design, The Natural World, Landscape Design Tagged With: the driveway landscape, the driveway garden, landscaping the driveway

Mother’s Day, 2014

We have had enough warm weather for any gardener to begin to sort out the landscape disaster at hand, courtesy of our 2013-2014 winter. As the weather warms, it becomes clearer what is surviving, and what will not. Evergreens pruned after August 1 show plenty of damage. Late season pruning may look smart, but it is an invitation to trouble. I would advise, if you have formally pruned yews, boxwood or arborvitae, quit cutting August 1. As for my roses, I quit dead heading them in mid August. In the interest that they might so better over the winter, intact.

The spring version of the state of the roses was alarming. The cold came so quick they did not shed their leaves in November. But I had hope. Even though I know that there is no negotiating with nature. The winter was what it was. No matter what I hoped it would be. $\winter-2014.jpg$ In February, I was buried in snow, and enduring below zero temperatures-for days on end. Now I really understand the winter we just had was incredibly hard. The damage to the landscape is impossible to ignore. I am still worried about my parrotias, and my dogwoods. Given a certain level and length of cold, treasured plants can fail. The end of a hundred miles of really bad garden road-devastating.

My rose garden is not large or elaborate. It is not perfectly maintained. In a good year, it delivers thousands of blooms. The perfume is exquisite. It has taken 7 years to get the climbers to represent high on my south facing wall. Never mind the time it took to attach each cane to that wall. I was living large, given my wall of roses. My shrub roses were 7 feet tall. Not so shapely, but beautiful in bloom. I treasured them.

Every night in June Buck and I go to the rose garden. To talk about the day, and to admire the roses. This is a ritual that helps bring order to my busy work life. For the past week, I have been studying the current situation. Today I am quite sure most of my roses are dead. The climbing roses are leafing out 8 inches above ground level. The Sally Holmes shrub roses are all dead, but for 2 lone shrubs who have shoots emerging from the bottom. The tops of the Carefree Beauty roses are leafing only intermittently. All of their 7 feet of height has died back to within 6 inches of the ground.

I will say the winter devastation to my roses is very tough to take. I know I need to prune every rose down hard. I hope the climbers will respond to my pruning call with gusto, and grow like crazy. As for my shrub roses, I am warming up the idea that they will need to be replaced. And that I will need to start fresh, and design a new garden. I won’t do a new garden tomorrow-I am still in the shock stage.

I lost my Mom in 2002. I think about her most every day. If she were still here, she would encourage me to get over my troubles, and move on. She would never dream of making fun of my disaster. She would feel for my loss-genuinely. That’s what Mom’s do. They help make their children grow. But she would nudge me in a new direction. I know I would be so grateful for her concern and counsel. A Mom-there is no one else quite like her.

My good friend Joey Randall posted on her facebook page this week that a Mom’s hug lasts long after she lets go. Her words are so much comfort to me today. If you have had treasured plants that have disaster written all over them, call on your heart. If your Mom had a lot to do with the length, width, breadth and capacity of your heart, consider yourself blessed. Consult her in any way you can. I cannot really explain this, but my memory of Julia will make my loss of the roses easier. A Mom is a delight, and a steadfast and most dear friend. A Mom is an ally of the most important sort.

Thinking of you today, Julia.

Posted on: May 11, 2014 26 Comments

Filed Under: Garden Stories, Plants, The Natural World Tagged With: Mother's Day, Roses

Sunday Opinion: The Peaceable Kingdom

The Stick Crop

The Driveway Garden

Mother’s Day, 2014

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