a garden maker's notes

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The back garden path all-but-disappears by mid-summer. This is not a mistake, but intended. By the sixth month it  becomes a  path of  lush abundance. Not unlike the journey in many Japanese gardens where you are forced because of the unevenness of the stone path to look at down your feet and thus encounter something not seen when looking [...]

The “Daylily Garden”,  so named because of the predominant genus, contains other plants, too. The “others” serve as compliments in form, texture, or color and carry the garden’s succession of bloom, texture, and form combinations into other months. Even though there are daylilies (hemerocallis) planted in this garden that bloom in August or September–most color this part of the [...]

With a bit of water the garden flourishes in this high heat and humidity, even while I wilt. This happy combination joyously greets me as I return and sends me off with a smile.

The back garden’s on a lower level–great to see from my office and the shady refuge of the lower patio–but not visible directly from the first floor.  However, I’ve learned deck rail viewing. Nice mornings I enjoy coffee on the deck and view the gardens from above. I love the tapestry created by the plantings.  [...]

Driving north yesterday, listening to NPR interview a magician, my attention stopped at his words “a day without wonder is a terrible day”. Yes!  I often refer to the ‘magic’ of the garden and being open to its’ wonder’.  Each day as the garden lives its’ life of photosynthesizing and reproduction, we have the opportunity to [...]

A warm summer twilight lured me to the lower gardens to witness astonishing shadows, highlights,and  color nuances. Watching the shifting patterns of light and dark reveling in leaves, flowers, textures, forms, and colors became a joyous Solstice eve celebration. No photos but a memory of enjoyed garden moments. Today is the summer solstice and the longest day of the [...]