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A Snowy Interlude

As near as I can tell, we had 16 inches of snow fall yesterday. Actually, it didn’t really fall-the wind blew it every which way. It started out slow, but it was steady. At 5 pm yesterday, I had decided the weather forecast people had been outwitted by Mother Nature once again. We had some snow-but we always have snow. A winter in Michigan without snow is rare. The piddling daytime accumulation surely was not the volume of snow we had had by this time last year. I was yawning. By 6pm the speed of descent had really picked up, along with the wind. Hmm. By 10 pm, I knew the snowfall would be considerable.

This was our first snow storm of the winter. As much as I detest being shut out of my garden, the winter landscape can be quite beautiful. If a landscape has been designed with a winter season in mind, there should be plenty to look at. I suppose I should be censured for still having my garland and wreath up in February, but it has a wintry look to me. I like having it to look at. I feel the same way about my winter lighting. How the lights melt the snow-bravo, those lights.

The evergreens in my landscape are beautiful, given either a dusting, or a drubbing of weather. We had lots of wind; would that I were able to photograph it. It was fierce. The big Norway maple in the back left of this photograph was swaying, and creaking. The sound was as spectacular as the motion.

In the morning, the landscape was all about the depth of the snow, and the height of the drifts. Beautiful. Some storms can be utterly destructive and horrifying. This snow, everywhere, whipped into the most astonishing shapes, was breathtaking.

It took an hour for one of my landscape crew people to shovel the drive. They look after me in the winter. I will admit that I backed the suburban blind down the driveway to the street to clean it off. There really isn’t any other place to put snow here. The Suburban snow went in the street.

Once I cleaned off the bus, I backed it back up the driveway. I would need to gun it out of the drive into the street. Only the momentum established by this heavy vehicle would propel me 1/2 block to the next street over-which had been plowed. My city only plows the main arteries in a neighborhood. I would be on my own, getting to that plowed street.

Before I left for work, I had to take more pictures. We had a landscape/weather event, and I am a fan of such. I am trying not to think about another snow storm, as the snow piles are 6 feet tall from this one storm. But all the snow was beautiful. I shoveled the upper deck myself. The snow was dry and powdery-I just pushed it off the deck into the yard.

My winter pots had a look this morning not of my own creation. Given a rock solid construction, they were unfazed by all of the snow. Just so much better looking. So striking, the forms generated by the snow.

These plastic picks with rhinestone dots were unbowed, and still glittering this morning.

The fountain yard was sculptural beyond anything I had been able to achieve with this space. It was corgi-proof. Even Milo would not venture off the bottom stair. I love the peace and quiet of it. How the landscape is muffled.

This thick blanket of snow illustrates how the garden is sleeping in the very strongest of graphic terms.

garden bench in winter

fencing, stone wall, and yews-interpreted by the snow.

The snow has transformed my winter landscape-all for the better.

Posted on: February 2, 2015 18 Comments

Filed Under: Landscape Design, Winter, Picture This Tagged With: winter interest, the garden in winter, winter landscapes.

Easegill Head Farm, Cumbria

I suspect it is a rare person who looks for and finds a place to work while they are on a trip, but but nothing surprises me to find out what constitutes a holiday for Rob. Easegill Head Farm in Cumbria belongs to a family that raises sheep. They have a guest cottage available for anyone who would be interested in staying, and participating, in the routine of the farm. This farm was featured in a very popular 5 part series filmed by the BBC in 2011, called Lambing Live.

I had lots of questions to ask when I first saw his pictures. What do the colored dots mean? The color on the backside of a ewe indicates which ram is responsible for her pregnancy. How do they possibly keep track of this? During mating season, each ram has an identifying color repeatedly applied to his chest. This is a farming version of kiss and tell. Color on the front of a ewe indicates how many babies she is carrying. A pregnant ewe needs extra food. A ewe with multiple lambs coming needs lots of extra food. What is Rob doing with an orange bag? The sheep recognize a feed bag, and will follow anyone who is carrying one. His main job, separating the ewes with 1, 2, or 3 lambs on the way.

Their prize sheep are known as Swaledale sheep. They are found throughout the mountainous regions of England. They are one of three distinct breeds associated with sheep farming in the Lake District. They can be identified by their curling horns (both the males and females have them), their off white wool, and the white markings on their faces and around their eyes.

As a breed, they are noted for their ability to thrive in exposed locations with inhospitable winters. In general, they do not need to be raised indoors, but for lambing time. The ewes are exceptionally good Moms, and look after their lambs. A ewe who does not become pregnant will, on her own, go back to the original ram for a second mating. Extraordinary, this.

Their flock numbers around 1100 now.

The sheep farmers in the area all have the right to graze their sheep on what amounts to common land. Each farmer takes responsibility for culling out the sheep that belong to a neighbor, so they can be returned to their rightful owner.

Looks like this trip suited Rob.

The landscape, the sheep, and the moody winter weather-this had to have been an unforgettable experience.

in case you would like to visit…

Posted on: February 19, 2015 31 Comments

Filed Under: Detroit Garden Works Tagged With: swaledale sheep, sheep farming, Lambing Live, easegill head farm

The Landscape at 3 Years

The very best part of doing containers for clients at the last of a landscape installation for a new house is the chance I might be able to to come back the following year. The opportunity to come back means I can watch, and be part of how that landscape settles in and prospers. The summer container planting comes around once a year, every year. In the best of all possible worlds, the process of the landscape design and installation results in a relationship that is on going. Planting seasonal containers is ongoing. I was happy to be invited back. The John Davis roses, which were part of the original landscape installation, are just about to the roof of the pergola, this June of year 3.

Any new landscape comes with troubles. What you thought would be perfectly happy in this spot refuses to perform. What seemed like a reach takes hold like you never imagined. Anyone who gardens knows trouble-and how that trouble can be difficult to foresee. This property fronts on a lake. The very heavy clay soil refuses to dry out. We had no end of troubles, getting this landscape to take hold. It is difficult, and takes time, to establish plants on a clay based soil. In the middle of year 2, a daunting year 2, we were making progress. Year two was not my favorite. It just had to be lived through. But once the plants take hold, they go for broke. Year 3 is looking good. Along this path to the side yard, each Rozanne geranium is the size of a small shrub. The astilbes are loaded with flower spikes. The yews have settled in, and are lush and dark green. And the roses-well, you can see for yourself.

John Davis is a climbing rose which is incredibly vigorous and long lived. If pink flowers are to your liking, this rose will reward you with steady growth and lots of roses. I have a client withe John Davis roses that are better than 20 years old. It is undeniably hardy-bear in mind these roses on planted on the lake side, and subject to terrific winds and cold in the winter. Our last two winters were fiercely cold. I see damage to plants everywhere from those vicious winters. These roses never skipped a beat. Planting this summer annual container next to this John Davis in glorious bloom-what a treat.

This landscape has begun to come into its own. I did not know this, until the moment I got there with a truckload of flowers for the pots. The best part of spending the day here planting the containers here was the pure pleasure of experiencing a landscape and garden that has rooted in and has settled down. Everything is breathing, regularly. There is new growth on every plant, from the yews, to the Venus dogwoods, to the Himalayan white barked birch, to the hydrangeas-to the columnar red maples. The landscape is thriving. The heart of it is beating regularly, and strongly.

The boxwood dots in the lawn have put on a lot of weight. That dark green I see everywhere is a healthy green. How is my client managing a landscape on soil that does not drain? She manages, as she tends to the landscape. Her thoughtful work is obvious. The views from the second story deck was beautiful. That beauty is not of my doing, some three years after the original installation. It is hers. All a garden needs is for someone to take ownership, like she has.

I did plant lots of containers for her today. She wanted orange geraniums, and nasturtiums. I planted them wherever I could. Next week I will plant her cutting flower boxes. We have had incredibly cold and rainy weather. I have postponed planting the zinnias and the sunflowers until next week.

The wet meadow is loaded with amsonia Blue Ice-it is in bloom now. The shadier portions are planted with species monarda, and northern sea oats-Chasmanthium latifolium. The fact that it seeds is all to the good. That wet meadow will dry sometime soon. Cleome and sonata cosmos will provide color in this garden all the summer season long.

Though my trip here was to plant containers, how the landscape has taken hold has my attention. Plants in the right place is all the work of a garden-and all of the pleasure.

Willy’s garden is presided over by a big group of columnar red maples. Their foliage is lush this year – finally. The hostas are fanning out. In the front of the house, the peonies were full of blooms. The birch are growing. The katsura espaliers leafed out beyond all belief.

All of the containers featured orange in one form or another. I was pleased that this urn was stuffed with annual plants in a relaxed fashion. My crews do an amazing job of arranging all the plants that are scheduled to go into a container in a lively, lovely, and unpretentious way. From the start.

I cannot really convey with words what it meant to walk on to a property with a landscape wrought by a relationship with a very special client that seems happy in most every regard. I ws so pleased with everything I saw. My working life right now is busy-jammed packed and intense. Most days I am up at 4:30 am, and drifting home at 6pm. This seasonal planting settled me right down. Thanks, Harriet. This landscape is growing just as you would want it to. I am sure I heard that growing going on.

Posted on: June 13, 2015 13 Comments

Filed Under: Landscape Design, container planting, Good Design, Garden Design

Early Fall

The beginning of the fall season is a beginning to treasure. All of the hard work growing from the spring through the summer of comes to fruition. Literally. The tomatoes ripen. The farmers market is bursting with racks of brussel sprouts, giant rosettes of cabbage, and fresh and fragrant onions. Home vegetable gardens yields such that there is plenty for neighbors and friends. The spring planted perennials have put on a lot of weight. The trees planted in the spring seem to have weathered the transplant shock, and look happier – more settled and comfortable. The memory of insults dealt to the landscape and garden from the hard winter past fade. No need now to remember them. The beginning of fall can be the last chapter of a very good short story, or the last quarter mile of a long and exhausting run. Or both. There is a good amount of time before the fall sinks and sets in, to enjoy the fruits.

Fall is a favorite season for Rob. He endures the heat of the summer. Every plant gets watered as it should. He good naturedly tolerates the glare. Once the season begins to shift to fall, he is energized. He is back and forth across every square inch of the shop, making changes appropriate to the season. Materials he has ordered for the fall season at the shop months ago arrive every day. Much to my delight, he tracks back and forth across a 100 mile radius from the shop, selecting pumpkins and gourds for his fall collection.

There are those gardeners who collect day lilies, or hostas. Or perhaps they focus on wild flowers, or native plants. Some love all manner of hardy ornamental grasses. Some nurture their collection of African violets, or Japanese maples. There are the rosarians, who keep the interest in great garden roses alive. When I had five acres of land, I lined out peonies in rows, like crops. The alpine plants, the lilies, the dahlias-every plant has a coterie of aficionados. The fans of gourds and the pumpkins are many. Illinois is the nation’s largest producer of pumpkins-over 12,000 acres of crop land are devoted to growing them. Though dwarfed by the Illinois production, Michigan is still the second largest producer of pumpkins and gourds. Though many carve the traditional orange pumpkin for Halloween, or use the pulp for pies, there are those who appreciate the sculptural shapes and colors.

About that color. My favorite part of the fall is how the low light saturates the color of everything it touches. In summer, the sun high in the sky interrogates everything it touches. Sunny summer days are bright, and shadowless. The slanted and softer fall light brings saturated color back into the landscape. I suspect that Rob’s enchantment with the pumpkins and gourds is as much about color as the forms, textures and shapes. Fall color is term every gardener is familiar with. The leaves turning means a landscape ablaze in yellow, orange, red and purple. An overcast summer day in a garden means any color will more intense. Never is any color in the garden more intensely representing than in the fall. The light from the sun highlights every plant from the side. The fall garden appears as though it were on fire.

Every pumpkin or gourd that Rob chooses for his collection at the store has a story about color, texture, and shape behind it. He will not buy any fall fruit that cannot stand up on its own. He treasures the stem every bit as much as the fruit. He is as great with subtle fall color as he is with those those colors that blaze away. He probably has other criteria I am not aware of. Rob curates his collection. Every pumpkin and gourd could stand alone, and look great. A grouping is a pleasure to be enjoyed throughout the fall.

The low fall light reveals texture in a spectacular way. This week was my first look at peanut pumpkins.

Equally astonishing is Rob’s collection of long stemmed pumpkins. He knows a grower who has been hybridizing pumpkins for 55 years. A long stem was a trait he sought. This was a friendship that has taken years to establish. Rob will visit him multiple times in late September.