a garden maker's notes

Is it the oxygen in a fern woodland that makes it feel so special? Do the fronds soften and reflect sound to  offer a ’soothing silence’? It may be a combination of silence, oxygenated air, or the relief one gets from leaving an open hot sunlit field to enter a shady woodland. Whatever ever it is, as [...]

Part of what makes this garden space and path wonderful is the lavender spikes of  mint that have been flowering abundantly all summer long.  See them at the bottom of the photo. The white flowering  oregano spills onto to fieldstone step (out of view) so that I brush past them and release their fragrance with each descent.  The [...]

The yellow’s the long flowering Gaillardia ‘Lemons and Oranges’ and the Allium is a August blooming ornamental onion.  The variety’s a mystery to me.  I tried to identify it on the web, but the photos chiefly display the round flower head without reference to scale. Reading text descriptions on other websites, I’m at a loss for this plant’s [...]

Best looking rock , stump, and plant combination ever!  While wandering the charming grounds of the amazingly good Jacob’s Pillow Dance in Becket, MA, I found this shady corner.  The perennial geranium (probably a geranium macrorrhizum) meanders and cascades throughout the bed to showcase the stump as a special and sculptural object d’art.   A couple of  hosta and good sized rocks [...]

While Willie was singin’ ’bout ‘being on the road again’, was he having wine in the late afternoon in Boothbay Harbor? Probably not, I’m glad I could watch the early August sky and the water slow dancing over the hours. The deck’s railing felt like being on the bow of a ship and just as [...]

Continuing the theme of treasures found while traveling, on the lower path at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden I found this Viburnum in full fruit. It’s one of my favorites–Viburnum p. ‘Mariesii”–lovely in spring flower as well as summer fruit.  Certainly a treasure found on the beckoning trail meandering on in the distance.

Perhaps this photo expresses the genius locii of the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden’scultivated landscape. It features interwoven masses of perennials embracing the immense ‘erratic boulder’. The outcropping  reminds me of Uluru  or Ayer’s Rock in Australia–not anywhere as large, of course, but with the same slumbering sentience that some large stone masses exude.  It also features [...]

Exploring the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden in Boothbay, ME found me on a narrow path deep in the woods.  Perhaps this photo reveals the essence of the wild part of CMBG?

Last post, I was wondering how the Ligularia d. ‘Othello” would open to full flower.  Away for a few days, camera in hand, I went to check it out. Lo and behold! An unexpected visitor!  Unexpected because it’s a new plant in my garden planted for its leaf shape, dark stems, leaf color, and shocking orange brilliance in [...]

I planted the ligularia (L. dentata ‘Othello’) because of its wonderful  heart leaf shape and purplish greenish coloration (more purple in spring–more green in summer).  It gives contrast and texture midst the hostas.  I’d seen it in flower in other gardens, but never watched the flower unfolding. 
 See the pod-like shape in the lower part of [...]