a garden maker's notes

The large mass of pink dianthus greeted me recently.  The first photo shows it as part of the garden as a whole–notice the way the green Japanese maple foliage and silvery green nepeta foliage masses balance the spread of the dianthus.  Also, the bit of purple foliage of the heuchera echos the red side of the color wheel [...]

We’re waiting for the lighting and railing contractors.  When the lighting’s installed, the mulch can be applied. But in the meantime, this brand new landscape works its magic.  The wall, walkway, large ornamental stones, landing and steps refurbish, and the plantings all just installed.

Driving around and thru local towns, I notice the brown and grey theme of the local woodlands–nothing wrong with it, but I’m winter weary. It’s always this way in early spring here in New England–uninspiring native landscape and my own cultivated land a mess. But I find if I look to the places with water [...]

    An unlikely combination, but the welcoming cheer of early blooming Witch Hazel ‘Arnold’s Promise’ greets me outside, while the white orchids inside provide a note of grace. Note that the green leaves of the broad-leaf evergreen Rhododendron provides contrast so I can “see” the wonderful yellow flowers of the Hamamelis. In earlier winters, [...]

Visiting family in San Francisco over the weekend I took this image of the gorgeous park planting at the Golden Gate Bridge Park (not the official name–too jet lagged to look it up). Here in New England I return to making winter arrangements in containers, decorating for the holidays and trying to ignore the garden clean-up chores [...]

I had fun Thanksgiving morning creating the table arrangement. Dashing outside (brrrrr) to clip leucothoe (a native New England broadleaf evergreen) from the garden to expand the grocery store bouquet, down to the storage room to find the gourd/leaf synthetic garland I used in the window box last year, and adding green candles found in my candle [...]

As landscape designers, we create spaces to experience “outside” and a large part of that experience is creating planting combinations that work four seasons.  This ornamental grass glows with the light of late afternoon and contrasts the deep maroon fall leaves and green conifer beyond. We imagine them, you get to take a moment and look [...]

The sun highlighted this ‘Johnson’s Blue’ perennial geranium foliage when I went to fetch the Sunday paper. The spotlight shifted when I photographed it minutes later, but you get the idea of these brilliant lovely orange leaves complimented by the blue/gray dianthus, the brown astilbe, and the green chamaecyparis conifer foliage. Even though it’s mid November  look for combinations [...]

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 [...]