a garden maker's notes

Many of us in New England have this ‘before’ view.  A shrub and a ill defined edge. Not much to make us want to look out at it from our windows. The homeowner wanted a Rhododendron border.  There were a several in her front landscape creating a hodge-podge look and crowded into beds doing nothing [...]

Wandering the Boston Flower and Garden Show last Saturday, random people asked me repeated about one particular plant.  Maybe it’s because I was wearing my Speaker’s Badge and looked official.  Which plant you ask?  the Hellebore.  Seems to be the year of the Hellebore for me. At least at the show and in my front [...]

Winter Solstice Day I noticed this hellebore in my front garden. But it felt more like a discovery as it’s  fully budded and this in not England where they bloom at this time of year. Because it was such an unusually warm day–50 degrees to start the day–I took the opportunity to cut back my [...]

Arriving at this home before this landscape renovation (see ‘before’ photo below), you may well wonder why this landscape needed renovation. After all, the lawn looks great and the plantings are okay. That’s it.  Just looked ok.  But the great lawn can’t make it a special place to live. Walking the path on a dry [...]

The Laceleaf Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum ‘Filicifolium’) looks great with or without snow in October.  The normally light green leaves become this rich “red” color in the fall. Often starting to “turn” at leaf’s edge in late August, this maple plays a starring role in this part of the garden. In early spring, its’ brilliant red [...]

The pink roses and burgundy foliage of the viburnum ‘Mariessi’  harmonize well together, don’t they!

Dew soaked pastures glow in the golden light of dawn. I savor these picturesque views as I drive back roads to my current landscape installation site. I see brown long horn cattle tucked down into the field and white horses standing up.  Makes me realize that horses must sleep standing up.  Every movie and tv [...]

but my garden offers me tranquility and hope.

Mint creates a lovely ground cover, flowers profusely mid-summer, and is great in my watermelon salad! (Mint is the lavender spiked plant growing in the foreground).

Photo: Maria von Brincken copyright 2011 Sometimes clouds add an awesome dimension. Here in this landscape created by beavers, herons rear their young, while birds sing, frogs croak, and humans, if they are lucky enough to encounter this world,  rediscover wonder.  Biologist E. O. Wilson coined the word “biophilia’ to express the idea that “we have [...]