Highgrove Gardens

Did you know that Prince Charles is a devoted and spectacularly gifted gardener and designer?

After an evening of ice skating last weekend, we came home and collapsed on to the couch to discover a PBS show on his gardens. He has an entire garden room called The Stumpery {first photo} - that features old branches, moss and ferns that grow among the rotting wood and around a small temple. HRH was also a huge proponent of organic gardening - decades before it was a thing. Enough of my yammering - take a look at these photos. {Here is a link to the show we watched, too.}

Source: thespec.com via Tracey on Pinterest

Source: portersgarden.hampshire.org.uk via Tracey on Pinterest

Source: highgrovegardens.com via Tracey on Pinterest

Trees and Shrubs and Cooperation

Looking up from under a flowering tree is an important part of life.
(Photo taken last weekend in Staunton's Gypsy Hill Park.)

Last autumn, I planted my first tree. A red bud. The power of planting a tree and keeping it alive kind of intimidated me. So every day for the last month, I have checked in with it. Staring at it. Willing the buds to happen. And they are starting to show. I am thrilled and relieved and now want to plant more.

Corey and I got a little stuck in planning for the larger components in our landscape. But I think we have figured it out and will be heading to the nursery this weekend. I will focus on the understory trees and shrubs and he will pick out the bigger trees. That is how our house works/worked, too. He focuses on the bones and structure and then I swoop in with the details. It seems to sort itself out - although I know it made him crazy when I wouldn't have much of an opinion on house construction. I just didn't get into that part of it all and this confused the hell out of his genetic make-up. I would be happy moving into any already completed structure and adjusting to its ways through playing around with furniture and color and light.

My wish list for this weekend includes - a pink dogwood, a weigela, a scented viburnum, a caryopteris 'Blue Mist' (or two) and a fruit-producing quince. I bought a fig yesterday - a 'Chicago Hardy'. I might get all crazy and purchase a 'Brown Turkey' or a 'Celeste', too.

In other garden news:

We bought a few more strawberry plants yesterday and put them in containers on our porch. Willa was so excited about being a part of the planting, she wanted to check on them first thing this morning. I know the feeling, sweet thing.

Also, we picked up some broccoli starts in the same trip. I hadn't grown it before last year and it was a surprising winner. We had enough to freeze from just a few plants. Huh.

I am thinking that some more asparagus is in order. We only have three plants in the ground right now and it is a spring-time favorite at our house.

I got on the Kubota tractor two weeks ago and used the front loader. I now understand the beauty of big machinery.

A friend and I took the little ones the other day for a hike up at Sugar Hollow. She has eagle eyes for and a knowledge of wildflowers. It was like having a curtain lifted - I saw things I hadn't noticed before like - cutleaf toothwort, bloodroot and hepatica.

That same friend gave me a generous bundle of rhubarb. That means rhubarb syrup. This weekend. Hopefully with something cold and dirty.

Design Elements :: Stone and Brick

As things slowly start to heat up here in the South, I am reminded of shade and the respite one can find from the heat in finding cool rocks and flat stones to walk upon. Maybe with some trickling water, bubbling over more and ever more stones. I have been swooning over photos of spiral rock gardens, too (more on that soon).

I have also found myself taking lots of photos this year of bricks and herbs. I mean, they were meant to be together, yes? My day job involves organizing numbers and data - so something about the grid work and star designs get right to me.

I am going to summon the image of the Egyptians building the pyramids and start collecting rocks from around our land. Building small structures and accent points one at a time. I may consider this my resistance training component of my exercise routine, as well. The rustic-ness of the stones will work with our present landscape - bricks may be a-ways away.

Also ::

Speaking of summer fun and water and rocks - I must get back to Goshen Pass this year with Willa and Corey.

I am a late-comer to The Black Keys party, but am glad I arrived. Attack and Release is where I am starting and I already bought a ticket to their September Charlottesville show.

This is the veranda I want for our house. Corey and I have been talking about a screened-in porch and this is what I envision, complete with a pale blue ceiling. I'm pretty sure this is no-where close to what Corey envisions.

I made rhubarb turnovers this weekend with the rhubarb left over from making syrup. I got the idea here and they are, I mean were, super yummy. Even Willa was all, like, "Gimme!"

Resolutions In The Garden

Cosmos will be part of Willa's Butterfly Garden and our honeybee sanctuary.

Happy New Year to all! What time is it? It's make big plans and promises time. Talking the talk without yet needing to lift a finger. Some I'll keep, some I'll drop. But for now, mid-January, the big plan making is all I got. Without further ado - The Garden Resolutions for 2010.

1. Getting back to vegetable gardening. There will be help in that garden this year. Since our house and other huge projects are finishing up, Corey is setting his sights on helping out - recognizing the importance of Willa witnessing and being a part of growing our own food. I can't begin to tell you how this will affect our vegetable garden. Perhaps some fencing? More weeding? Tilling so we can have that pumpkin patch I have dreamed about (and the harvest time-pumpkin picking party I envision for our friends)? If for nothing else, I know I am a social gardener and having both Willa and Corey down in the veggie garden will provide momentum and good gardening energy.

2. More and more edibles, please. Raspberries, figs, mulberries. Things that will establish themselves and be less maintenance than the aforementioned vegetable garden.

3. Garden sharing. We are thinking that we have a lot of land and would like to share one of our huge raised beds with someone not as fortunate. In return for access to the bed, we will just ask that the garden plot renter help out with weeding.

4. A portable salad box and testing out shade-grown lettuce varieties to extend the season.

5. A cold frame. I've wished for one of these for years. Maybe 2010 will be the year. I'm already gathering materials for my own version of a cold frame and will write about that over the following months.

6. A butterfly garden for Willa and a a honeybee sanctuary for the little buzzers. My inspiration for the sanctuary can be found here.

7. Embracing Ruth Stout. My pregnancy with a big baby and a little me left my body with torn stomach muscles, a hernia and back problems. While I try to work on these in physical therapy, I am going to save my back with Ruth's mulch methods. Eight inches of fluffy hay to cut back on hauling heavier mulches and weeding. Her thoughts on do-able, attainable asparagus beds without all that trenching really has me in a dither. More on this soon.

8. And while not directly related to our garden, a small attempt at eating more and more local food. 2009 included small harvests from our own garden and also belonging to a CSA for our vegetables and our eggs. This year I hope to incorporate grains from Wade's Mill, fish from Virginia Aqua-Farmers and meat from our neighbor, Gryffon's Aerie. My new favorite thing on the planet, Retail Relay, makes a lot of this local eating ridiculously easy.

I just re-read these and I sound like a nut-job. A full-ish time job and all of these projects? Laugh-laugh-laugh with me mid-July, dear readers. When my January garden thoughts summoned in front of a wood stove, curled up on the couch with my feet up, in the dark of the winter are challenged with the reality of bugs, brutal heat, humidity and droughts. At least this summer, I'll have more company for kvetching (in the the garden).

The Blue Garden :: Going For It

Forever inspired by our mountains, I am planning on having something blue blooming in our garden at all times. Totally kooky? Probably. But I am obsessed with the color. To prevent me from going over the edge - the garden *will* be peppered with pale pinks, the occasional yellows, as well as oranges and reds from our daylily patch. I promise. But something about having the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background and bits of blue around our land makes for garden symmetry and continuity in my mind. And a sense of serenity.

Have ::

Blue Plumbago (summer through fall)
Blue Hydrangea 'Endless Wonder' (summer through fall)
Irises (spring)
Siberian Irises (spring)
Butterfly Bush (summer through fall)
False Blue Indigo (spring)
Russian Sage (summer through fall)
Speedwell (summer)
Salvia 'May Night' (summer)
Virginia Bluebells (spring)
Love-in-a-Mist (spring and early summer)
Bulbs - ephemerals in blue, dwarf irises (late winter and early spring)

Must Haves ::

Monarda 'Blue Stocking' (summer)
Nepeta 'Walker's Low' (summer)
Caryopteris 'Grand Bleu' (summer and early fall)
Asters (fall)
Phlox (late summer or early spring)
More blue bulbs! (late winter and early spring)
Resowing Bachelor Buttons (spring and early summer) and Morning Glory 'Heavenly Blue' (summer and early autumn)
Forget-Me-Nots (spring and early summer)

Feeling Satisfied In The Garden

Hmmmmm. A whole-lotta doing and not much blogging these days.

Finally, here's a sneak peek at our new play area - for Willa and myself (note the baby camp on the blanket - Click on the photo for a larger peek). Earlier photos that I had promised just looked brown and gray.

But now-a-days, the pale greens make for a satisfyingly-verdant show. It has been a nice change from this, remember? Tho' there is still a lot to do, I am relishing the challenge.

I've been busy planting daylilies and putting seed down for bachelor's buttons, cleome and love-in-a-mist. An Easter trip to Edible Landscaping included a juneberry purchase, which was also planted. *Sale alert* - All of the plants at Edible Landscaping are 20% off right now.

The bulbs that I planted in the fall dot our landscape in such a cheerful way. Tulips and daffodils here and there. Some of my native plantings are coming back, too - Virginia Bluebells, spring beauties and mayapples. Scattered around The Blue Bench.

In the veggie beds, the greens, radishes and rhubarb are flourishing. The kale, however, seems to be somebody's evening snack and has been munched down to pathetic nubbins. Thank goodness for the upcoming CSA deliveries!!

I am hurrying along spring these days. As I do every year. That last frost date can't seem to come soon enough. And then, of course, we'll shoot straight to bug-swatting madness accompanied by 80 degrees and humidity.

Historic Garden Week Virginia :: 2009

Photos from the 2008 Albemarle tours around Greenwood.

Top two are from Bellevue and the bottom photo of a grotto was taken at Casa Maria.

This year, I am saving my vacation time for two things: a weeklong get-away to a cabin in the Finger Lakes and . . . a day or two for Historic Garden Week in Virginia.

Looks like Morven, several Free Union estates and UVa are the 2009 tour menu for Albemarle. Hopping over the mountain to Staunton wouldn't suck, either. (Although they seem to just be offering new-er home and garden tours. Post-1980. Why on earth? With all those gorgeous historic city homes?)

For me, the mix of seeing the architecture of the homes and their estate gardens is the one-two punch. It sends me into a garden-induced trance of the best kind. Willa was curled up in her Moby Wrap for last year's tours (photos here and here). She digs her Snuggli these days - a backpack - where she can sit up high and see everything. And point and point and point - whispering her discoveries. I mean, our discoveries.

In Which (Shameless) Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

A seat is tucked among the greenery.

An old property down the road from us is for sale. Which has given our evening walks with Willa a new dimension, as we have finally helped ourselves to a good skulking around their beautiful grounds.

And, now, we are talking garden smack, in the best sort of way.

We want their big 'ole sweet gums, maples, oaks, boxwoods, lilac bushes. We covet their mossy brick walkways. We must have those patches of cool grass under those aforementioned trees.

My not being much of a designer, I am realizing I don't need to reinvent the wheel. But am allowed to lift design ideas (and the feelings they evoke) from others. Let's call it garden sampling. A bit from this property, a smidgen from another. Maybe a corner from Mrs. Whaley's Garden, a planting pattern from Margaret, an inspiration from Old Westbury Gardens.

Then, maybe when all of those elements are mixed together, it will be something I can call my own.

Margaret As Mentor

Margaret Roach: rock star gardener, writer, alum of Martha Stewart Magazine (she was their first gardening editor). She has started a blog - A Way To Garden: Horticultural How-To (and Woo Woo). It couldn't come at a better time, as I am foisting myself up by my bootstraps and thinking about taming parts of the landscape in Sugar Hollow to become garden rooms with moods and texture and shade and, and, and (!).

These are photos of Margaret's garden in upstate New York. Ponds, stonework, grassy pathways, outbuildings. It is good to be reminded of what I love in a garden and what I might want in my own.

Another favorite section of her blog: The exhaustive, yet light-hearted, (Month-By-Month) Garden Chores. On the main page - center gray column. On-line garden coaching at its best!

Wandering Mind and Wander . . . Lust

Thoughts on area garden spots that can serve as fun day trips . . .

Do Tell variety of peony from Peony Meadows. Some peonies are still in bloom at their nursery in Stony Point (nine miles northeast of Charlottesville). As their site mentions, the best time to plant peonies is in the fall. So this trip could start some daydreaming on your end for next spring's peony bounty.

The knot garden from Agecroft Hall in Richmond, VA. These gardens are part of an actual English Tudor estate in which the manor house was dismantled and shipped from England to the present spot - overlooking the James River. The famous Charles Gillette had a hand in Agecroft's landscape - which also includes a sunken garden and a fragrance garden that "blooms with Elizabethan aromatics." Um, I am so there.


Staunton, Virginia. Gorgeous homes, old gardens, wrought iron fences, winding brick pathways. Visit this super-quaint city and walk it. Residents take pride in their plots and maintaining a sense of Staunton's history. Which is a boon for us garden-stalkers. I meander, big time, through this town and take many a mental note . . .

Poe's Enchanted Garden - Then

Poe's Enchanted Garden - Now

The Enchanted Garden at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum. Who knew that dark, morose dude liked a cheery spot to warm the cockles of his Tell-Tale Heart? This spot in Richmond has been on my radar for a while. A courtyard design that is beguiling in its simplicity. These images are from the Richmond Then and Now website.

A Blank Slate - The Sugar Hollow Homestead

The big machines and work boots are through with their tromping and their bravado. The piles of seedling-smashing construction materials have disappeared - as each piece was gradually incorporated into the building of our home. And the drone of the mitre saws, compressors and sawzalls have fallen silent.

Now, it's my turn. A blank slate. A chance to take a crack at a small garden in this much-abused (and ignored) space. And an opportunity to inject a little femininity and estrogen into the landscape.

Favorite front-yard garden spaces have always been those with designs based in shrubs and small trees - to compliment the larger, more established trees and a smattering of perennials and bulbs.

My wish list is comprised of mostly native plants - trees, shrubs and woody vines that will offer color and interest throughout all of the seasons. And a few old-fashioned favorites because, well, gardens (for me) are also about nostalgia. Click on each highlighted plant for photos and details.

Shrubs and Trees
Fringe Tree (incredible fragrance in the spring)

Sweet Pepperbush (incredible fragrance in the summer)

Witchhazel (winter interest)

Sweetbay Magnolia

Piedmont Azalea (a much more delicate version of the typical azaleas)

Pinxterbloom Azalea (honeysuckle fragrance and an azalea in one!)
Hydrangeas
Lilacs

Roses (but not the fussy varieties)
Quince
Glossy Abelia

Peonies

Vines

Trumpet Honeysuckle

Passionflower
Carolina Jessamine

If we get three of these plants in the ground this fall, I'll be thrilled. Okay, two. One?! Meh. I know better - it may not happen until next spring. Or the following fall.

But I'll always have the delicious anticipation associated with blank slates. New beginnings. And big plans.

Whiskey Barrel Container Ponds

A little oasis that doesn't cost a pretty penny and doesn't need a ton of water. Forgo the heavy equipment and major commitments. With just enough space for a few water plants and some small koi. The Whiskey Barrel Container Pond.

A local source of water garden plants is Springdale Water Gardens - over in the Valley in Greenville. I just ordered their catalog for some hermetically-sealed August air conditioning reading.
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These photos were reprinted with the approval of Murphy's Fish in a Barrel. Visit their site to learn everything you would want to know about container ponds.

Shade and Stone

100-degrees here today. So, I'm thinking about the inviting and comforting garden elements I would love to have in the Hollow for summertime survival. Shaded pathways, cool places to sit, ferns, a natural grotto. At home with the moss. With the damp rocks and stones. And, as my friend Kris says, "With the salamanders."

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These photos were taken around Charlottesville and at St. Mary's Wilderness in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Click on any of the photos for a larger view.

Italian Balconies

A few years back, I took a week-long trip to Italy with two girlfriends. I ate pizza (sold by the pound or served as individual large-ish pies) and gelato every day. I walked off my gastronomic vices through visits to gardens and by making my way through each city by foot.

One image that still sticks with me is the approach Italians took with regards to their small balcony gardens. In essence, they treated their balconies like a larger version of a window box. Stuffed to the gills with geraniums, petunias and the like. Old Italian, cobblestone streets had tons of these 'window boxes' overlooking the gelato-eating crowds sauntering below.

Once house construction is through, we are going to have two small balconies outside of the second story bedrooms - one will be South-facing. I've got big plans, BIG plans for that particular balcony. I guess you could say, my own Little Italy, of sorts.

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This photo was taken in Taormino, Sicily.

Mugworts in May: A Folklore of Herbs

I stumbled across this book in Philippi, West Virginia during our recent visit to the state. Their historical society was having a fair - filled with Civil War re-enactments, viewings of the Philippi mummies, a covered bridge and a war-time amputation demonstration. A feast for the senses!

Anyway - I am entranced by this book - Mugworts in May. Written by herbalist Linda Ours Rago out of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. I bought it through the nice ladies at the Philippi Historical Society.

Linda harks back to the days of the Wise Women - pre-the witch hunts of the 1400's, when herbalists and their bounty were revered for their healing powers. The book is filled with herb garden ideas, descriptions and old-school uses of herbs, charms and folklore. An armchair field trip to another time and place.

My favorite part, so far, is the description of a Wise Woman's garden. Here's a quick sample of what would have been traditionally grown in this herbal apothecary.

Angelica (Angelica archangelica)
Borage (Borago officinalis)
Basil (Ocimum basilicum)
Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis)
Birch Tree (Betula)
Garlic (Allium lilaceae)

Flax (Linum)

Elder Tree (Alnus glutinosa)

Meadowsweet (Spirea ulmaria)

Sage (Salvia)

Rosemary (Rosmarinus)

Thyme (Thymus)

Pansies (Viola)

Rowan Tree (Sorbus)

And I'll leave you with this traditional charm for aid and protection, also from the book.

"Rosemary wreath to encircle our home,

Give us fragrance, protection and light

From the mucklemark steppers

Who lurk and roam

Over hills in the dark of night."

Mucklemark steppers?! Eeeek. Rough times.

Beguiled By Grottoes

I have a new fascination. Set off by this book I am reading about Beatrix Potter. The author is describing Beatrix's family estate gardens in Scotland. She goes into great detail and then adds - 'and the best part was a grotto.' A landscape design professor of mine (from England, mind you) had the same take when he mentioned 'grotto.' As if it could be the best part of any garden. Yes, but what exactly IS a grotto?

At first glance, they can look like an rock altar/porch, a simple enclave or an artificial mountain. Sometimes underground or half-underground. Lots of stone, mosaics, running water, shade.

Sometimes they are religious in nature. Some were created to attract fairies and water nymphs. Others were built as a haven to go to during hot summers. Some of them had baths and fountains. With roots in Italian gardens and seaside villages of the 1500's, they were incorporated into the landscapes of France and England in the 1600's and beyond.

One of my landscape design text books described them as "sanctuaries for poets" and "places to contemplate the universe." It adds, "The subterranean location creates a cool place to sit or find shelter from the wind."

And then, the book continues, "Natural materials such as stone suggest the permanence and continuance of the greater universe." Holy Toledo. The gardening-is-larger-than-life philosophy. Dig it.


Why am I so intrigued by the grotto? Is it the cave-thing? The dark, mossy-thing? The mysterious spot that you happen upon while wandering around some estate-thing? The water and rock elements?

Grottoes are just a little spooky with a dash of enchanting. Right up my alley.

Naturally (and irrationally - of course), I now want one.

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*These photos are from a wonderful site - The Pulham Garden Legacy - dedicated to the landscape design work of the 19th and 20th century English gardener James Pulham. The book I quoted is Planting the Landscape by Nancy A. Leszczynski.

The Container Garden - Made in the (Part) Shade

Part of our container garden gets blazing-ly strong sun most of the day. The other half - life-saving, reprieve-offering part shade. By July, I fully embrace and appreciate my shade deck garden - along with a tumbler of icy limeade and a knitting project. Finally taking a cue from the seasoned Southerners.

What Has Worked In My Container Shade Garden (So Far)

Sprinklings of Impatiens in unusual containers
Japanese Painted Fern
Autumn Fern
Boston Fern (pictured at top)
Ivy

What I'm Testing Out This Year

Hostas (pictured above)
Black-Eyed Susan Vine
Asiatic Lilies
Vinca Minor (very invasive - I only recommend it for container plantings)
Sweet Woodruff
Daylilies

Other Part Shade Standards

Coleus
Hellebores (spring bloomer)
Bleeding Hearts (spring)
Different varieties of Heuchera
Astilbe
Pulmonarias (spring)
Primrose (spring)
Bellflowers
Foxglove
Lily-of-the-Valley (spring)
Virginia Bluebells (spring)

Also, this book looks beautiful . . . I don't own it (yet). But I DO have an anniversary coming up (a-hem).

Tangled Up In Blue

In must be in my DNA-makeup. My mom goes berserk-er over blue flowers just as much as I do. My wedding bouquet was blue larkspur and bachelor's buttons. So I'm thinking that I MUST have a large section of this year's container garden dedicated to the color.

If I end up growing any five of any of these, I will be on cloud nine. Don't be scared of the Latin names - Lord knows I was for years and years. It'll just make it easier for you to find exactly what I am listing.

Mix with silvers such as helichrysum or dusty miller for a striking contrast. Sheesh - is it spring yet?!

Aster "Monarch" (Aster x frikartii)
Baby blue-eyes (Nemophila menziesii)
Bachelor's Button (Centaurea cyanus)
Balloon flower (Plactycodon grandiflorus)
Bellflower (Campanula rotundifolia)
Chinese forget-me-not (Cynoglossum amabile)
Clematis - various blue varieties
Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica)
Glory of the Snow (a bulb) (Chionodoxa luciliae)
Heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens)
Larkspur (Consolida ambigua)
Laurentia "Blue Stars" (Laurentia axillaris)
Lavendar sp.
Lobelia (Lobelia erinus)
Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena)
Morning glory "Heavenly Blue" (Ipomoea tricolor)
Pansies (Viola X Wittrockiana)
Plumbago (a real invasive creeper - make sure to contain it) (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides)
Salvia "Victoria" (Salvia farinacea)
Scaevola "Whirlwind Blue Velvet" (Scaevola sp.)
Speedwell "Goodness Grows" (Veronica alpina)
Swan River daily (Brachycome iberidifolia)
Sweet Peas "Electric Blue"/"Blue Celeste" - varieties from Renee's Garden Seeds - http://tinyurl.com/ypyhbh
Virginia Bluebells (a bulb) (Mertensia pulmonariodes)