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More Romance

gravel-driveway.jpgI spent the better part of the day planting containers for a client who engaged me to design and install the landscape for her new lakeside home-last year.  Most of what I saw in ground today is a year old.  I was more than happy by what I saw.  I credit the degree to which her plantings have taken hold to the grading, the drainage work, and plant choices that matched her existing conditions.  I know am posting many too many pictures.  But perhaps the oversized collection of pictures will give you a feeling for the overall landscape.  Many of her John Davis climbing roses are now over my head.  The romance of that was considerable.

front-door.jpgBuck built the ipe benches specifically for this porch.   The concrete pots are our interpretation of an original French faux bois box.

katsura espaliers.jpgThe espaliered Katsuras in this 36′ foot long raised stone planter provide screening from the house next door, in a space barely a foot in depth.  These espaliers are well on their way to making a green wall.

lakeside-landscaping.jpgThe lakeside has a pair of perennial gardens, endowed by patches of little lime hydrangeas, and some birch.

wet-meadow-garden.jpgNear the water, several meadow areas planted with chasmanthium latifolium grass, wild daisies, and amsonia Blue Ice.

wet-meadow.jpgThe meadow garden

dock.jpgLater in the season, the meadow will feature monarda and asters.  Last fall, we planted lots of blue and white camassia-for this spring.  Some of them are still in bloom.

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The more formal perennial gardens feature nepeta, stachys hummelo, and phlox.

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The alliums-we could have planted many more.

nepeta-blooming.jpga view of the garden

lakeside-landscape.jpgIt is easier to see the design of the lakeside landscape from the second floor balcony.  Very formal landscape elements contrast with less structured gardens.

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Even informal gardens benefit from beautifully generated curves.

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The roses and clematis on the pair of pergolas-they are obviously very happy.  I am astonished at how much growth they have put on-in just one year.  This willingness to settle down and grow makes me feel like the selection and siting of plants was correct.  And that the maintenance has been good.

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There is plenty of romance going on here.

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roses and clematis

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pergola garden

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The June garden is represented by large flowered clematis, and John Davis climbing roses.

pergola-garden.jpgVenus dogwoods blooming

annual-planting.jpgcontainer planting at the front door

rosemary-on-the-roof-terrace.jpgrosemary, on the second floor terrace.

side-garden.jpgThis semi shady side garden is simple.  The privacy afforded the second floor terrace is courtesy of 14  6″ caliper Bowhall maples. All of them seem to be taking hold, just fine.  All in all, I am very happy about what I saw here today.  Planting the pots-my pleasure.

 

At A Glance: Landscape Materials

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A multi-story building downtown at 1001 Woodward had an entry plaza that I would call chilly and uninviting.  Bedrock Realty, the new owner, has an idea to warm things up.  Kelly Deines of Rossetti Architects asked if I could put together a landscape that would include 2 pair of our espaliered arbors.  We were happy to oblige.  The livestock tanks-courtesy of our local farm store.  The steel arbors-courtesy of Buck and his group at Branch.

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Espaliered pear arbor

espaliered-pear-arbor.jpgOwen was one of a crew of 7 that helped plant those trees.

artificial-turf.jpgArtificial turf

arbors-and-stock-tanks.jpgSteel forms for the espaliers

planting.jpgcosmos and pennisetum under planting the espaliers

1001 Woodward 2013 (43)finished planting

planted.jpgartificial turf bands on the stock tanks

turf-band.jpgartificial turf secured with hot pink zip ties

trimming-the-turf.jpgtrimming the turf square and true

furniture.jpgurethane furniture specified and installed by Rossetti Architects

downtown.jpgpeople in the space

landscape-materials.jpgThe linden trees in a granite planter box were underplanted with creeping jenny.  Espaliered trees, artificial turf, pink zip ties, galvanized metal livestock watering tanks, cosmos, little bunny pennisetum, molded urethane French style arm chairs and creeping jenny and a plaza typical of a vintage urban skyscraper-landscape materials that came together to create a place for people to congregate outdoors.

 

Stick Week

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The lion’s share of what we offer gardeners for winter and holiday pots and decor are fresh cut natural materials.  The fall harvest includes any natural material which is a celebration of the garden, and a feast for admiring eyes.  Just today we took delivery of this load of fresh cut birch poles in three sizes.  A tree farmer far north of us waded into thigh high water to cut these birch poles for us-they have had a lot of rain this season. I greatly appreciate his effort. How thrilled I am with this picture.  Big numbers of hefty birch branches are stable and striking, represented in four hefty steel boxes from our company Branch.  This is a picture which tells our tale.  Want to be comfortable with nature?  Be exposed, learn-and understand.  Looking for beauty that goes beyond any human construct-study nature.

cut-branches.jpgThe arrival of the fresh cut twigs is a sure sign of the winter season.  We deal with a number of twig farmers.  There are those who grow oranges, tomatoes and avocados, but we do business with farmers that grow twigs.  The art of growing twiggy shrubs with the idea of harvesting the current year’s growth at the end of the season is a practice known as coppicing.  Coppice wood has a long and varied history, in both gardening and agriculture.  Twiggy and woody stems have been harvested for fencing for livestock and vegetable gardens.  Branched twigs provided the first plant stakes for lax growing perennials.  Woven twigs make great vine supports.

fresh-cut-branches.jpgThe nursery industry world wide is responsible for the breeding of shrub cultivars whose twigs have great and enduring color.  Spring Meadow Nursery, in our country, is both proactive and successful in breeding shrubs of note in stem, leaf, and flower.   In the late fall, I am happy to be able to offer fresh cut twigs that are enchanting in color and form.  Stick week-a favorite week of my gardening year.

curly-copper-willow.jpgCurly copper willow might be my personal favorite.  The glossy stems are cinnamon brown.  Just a bunch or two can endow a winter display with a volume, texture, and motion that delights the eye.  The striking color will persist in completely exposed locations throughout the toughest winter.

grapevine-deer.jpgLet’s talk about grapes.  A few vines some 15 years old cover the steel pergola at the shop.  The sinewy vines have been trained to wind round the poles of that pergola.  Grapes need a very strong structure on which to grow.  The leaves cover the pergola roof during the heat of the summer.  The clusters of grapes-beautiful in the early fall.  Those vines, once harvested, are the basis for these deer sculptures.  Our supplier owns a vineyard.  She makes sculptures from the trimmings of the grape vines by forming them over handmade steel armatures.

grapevine.jpgThe cuttings of the vines can provide a material focal point for a winter gesture.  Detroit Garden Works is stocking for this winter season rolls of muscadine grape vine-twigs in the round. These long rolls of twigs in a curled form is the focus of this year’s winter decor.  We interfere with the natural curves of these rolled vines as little as possible.  They have a life all their own, which we mean to feature.  The most beautiful celebrations of the winter season are about letting the natural materials shine.

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When we dressed our linden trees with the grape vines, we following the vine lead.  Once the vines were round the linden tree trunks, we added rusted steel lead garlands.  This look to me is a good partnership.

red-bud-pussy-willow.jpgThe red bud pussy willow in the fall is strikingly beautiful.  I use it over and over again in winter and holiday containers.  More often than not, these cut twigs survive the winter, bloom, and leaf out.  Miraculous, this level of giving.

fresh-cut-twigs.jpgIt is stick week.  What sticks and twigs do you have in your garden that might provide a foundation for your winter garden expression? Looking to winter, those woody plants which have grown and matured might enlighten your winter garden.

Winter’s Icy Grip

icy-day.jpgA week ago, both my garden and I were laid low by nature’s icy grip. Steady rains over several days and declining temperatures resulted in a rare late December ice storm.  My garden was spared the worst of the storm, which mostly laid waste to landscapes north of us.  I was not so fortunate.  I woke up a week ago Monday with a miserably bad cold.  How could something so ordinary be so utterly debilitating?

ice-storm.jpgFrozen is a word that routinely characterizes the winter landscape.  But ice that accumulates on plants in the landscape can result in terrible damage to life and limb.  Water is very heavy.  Water that is glued fast to small branches can break them.  Ice on evergreens can bring their boughs down to the ground.  An ice storm last March broke a major branch on one of my dogwoods.  That branch, with only a little wood and the bark on the bottom side still intact, bloomed normally, and had a full compliment of leaves all summer.  It is loaded with flower buds for the spring.  Every few hours I would check out the window to see if the weight of the ice would break that branch off altogether.  Obviously the will to live is a strong one; the branch survived the ice.

ice-storm.jpgAll that night and into the next morning, I could hear the sounds of branches crashing to the ground. I only hoped that none of them were in my yard.  I do prune my trees and shrubs regularly, in the hopes that they will successfully weather wind, snow and ice.  But our street trees are not kept up by the city forestry department.  All of the pruning to the trees is done, on an irregular basis –  and in a very messy way – by a stormy weather event.  Dead, diseased or damaged branches weighted by ice did break loose from the trees.  Nature can be benign, beautiful, and violently destructive.  If you are a gardener, you have seem all of the aforementioned.

iced-over.jpgThe ice glittered, even though the day was entirely overcast.  Fascinating and frightening accurately describes nature’s icy grip.

winter-container.jpgThe winter pots in the driveway were all the better for the ice.  The curly ting and white leptospermum bowed their branchy heads in a most graceful way.

winter-container.jpgOnly the icy weather could create this swooping shape from materials known for their stiff and inflexible habit.  Bowing to the force of nature creates all kinds of unexpected shapes in the landscape.  Trees whose mature shapes are dictated by a windswept or otherwise hostile environment are a marvel to behold.  The marvel of the common cold is that the day finally comes when that virus loosens its grip, and you feel you might be able to breathe, eat and sleep again.

winter container.jpgI am happy to report that the ice is melting.