Design – Page 6 – Ellis Hollow

Serendipitous plant combos

I’m not known for purposely putting together plant combos that could grace the back cover of Fine Gardening. (I don’t know how their editors stole that prime real estate from the ad department.)

But if you plant enough stuff and get it mixing around, you can’t help but come up with a few mixtures that don’t look too bad.

Verbascums, albutilon and more off the patio.

Clematis, goatsbeard (Aruncus) and grape vines.

Heucheras, violets, lysimachia, alchemilla.

Hosta, astilbe.

Monarda, lysimachia, volunteer grass and sumac. (Actually, I hate the color of this monarda. But it’s the one that thrives around our place.)

Napaea dioica, geranium, daylily, iris. Flowers aren’t great now. But I like the foliage combo.

Phlomis, Scotch thistle, Bottlis cobaltis, lots of other stuff.

A verbascum species I don’t remember, necteroscordum, coneflowers and more. I like ripe seedheads among other blooms at all stages. Or maybe I’m just too lazy to deadhead.

Stachy, chives, trough sedums and more.

Sorbaria and Asimina (pawpaw).

Bog garden is still a few weeks from peak. Filipendulas, malvas, veronicastrum, monarda, tradescantia, lysimachia, Verbena hastata, buttonbush, willows. Will shoot again.

Telekia — 2007 and 2008.

Banana and Jade.

Back where we started.

One of my first posts (Aug. 2005) was about the garden of my friend and coworker Marcia. She needed some environmental portraits shot for a feature about her on another website, so I stopped by for a quick visit a week ago. I couldn’t help but wander around and shoot some more pix after the portraits were done.

While some trees have been removed to let in some light and many small details have changed, the bones are mostly the same. From this angle (above, from a second-story window), it’s a well-designed flower garden with a vegetable garden in back separated by a fence. The new bed on the right was inspired by an article in a recent issue of Garden Design about a Charleston, S.C., garden (see “Southern Classic,” May 2008, image on page 39) that features a lawn area ‘pinched’ by beds at the far end to create some separation between different areas.

From the opposite angle (above), you can see the second face of Marcia’s layout: A functional veggie garden with some funky ornamentation.

This small water garden also provides some separation between the flowers and the food. You need to walk around it to get to the entrance arch.

This column provides a focus in the round bed in the center of the veggie garden, as well as being the anchoring lighthouse at the far end the garden’s axis.

One thing Marcia and I share it the love of the blue bottles …

…and funky ornamentation. (I’m thinking Les Quatres Vents only smaller.)

A closer view of the left border from above.

This nearly black iris came from a small iris farm nearby that went out of business last year. The rhizomes were free for the digging, but not labeled. (I got several buckets too.) Adds to the surprises in the garden this spring, waiting to see what the new irises are going to look like when they bloom.

I don’t know the name of this iris. But it seems like it’s everywhere. I’ve got some that are identical or very similar that came with the last house that I lived in.

Rhodie flowers starting to pop.

Minns Garden gate by Durand Van Doren

To get to my car after work, there are four ways out of the building where I work that are six of one, half dozen of the other. I usually take the conservatory route for the glimpse of the plants there. But I think I’ll be taking the west exit more often now so I can see the new gate installed today at the west entrance to Minn’s garden:

To appreciate this gate, you’ve got to move in close (more detail shots below):

The gate was designed by Landscape Architecture student Hannah Carlson, and created by artist/blacksmith Durand Van Doren. (See also his Ithaca Art Trail site.) Here’s Durand all spiffed up for today’s dedication.

I barely recognized him from the day I spent with him with my buddies Scott and Marc two years ago, where I learned quickly just how easy an artist like Durand makes it look. (I did manage to make some S-hooks to hang pots.) I borrowed this image from Marc’s website. Go check out his bowls. They make great gifts.

Me, Scott and Durand from Marc's blog

The gate features a dozen garden plants rendered in iron. (Click on images for larger views.) They are actually much blacker than they appear here. I adjusted the images to provide more detail.

What really makes these great is the inclusion of the roots below ground level.

And a few more close-ups:

100k daffodils

Every year when their daffodils peak, Nina Bassuk (faculty member in our Department of Horticulture) and Peter Trowbridge (chair of Landscape Architecture) kindly hold a Sunday brunch for their students, co-workers and friends to come see their gardens.

Why time it to the daffodils? Because they’ve planted about 100,000 of them over the years.

But there’s always much more to see at Peter and Nina’s (and interesting folks to meet and greet) than just the daffodils. Here are just a few highlights.

I’ve got my blue bottle tree and decorations. Nina and Peter have a new feature with blue pots.

Also new this year is a rebuilt wall. The old wall that was here and blown out in places had a certain charm. But this new one and the new bed in front of it are spectacular.

I tried to get Mimi and Mango to pose on these steps to further accentuate the symmetry…

But they were too busy having fun to take my ham bribes.

Garden Bloggersâ€™ Design Workshop – Front-Yard Gardens

Here’s my post for this month’s Garden Bloggersâ€™ Design Workshop – Front-Yard Gardens

Front-yard garden in June.

I’ve got big problems with my front-yard garden. Oh, it’s actually not all that bad. The path leads to the front door. There are lots of interesting plants along the way — some small that cause you to pause and bend over, others that release fragrances as you brush by them. And it’s not as wild as some of my plantings.

The big problem is no one uses the path to the front door except for the occasional deliveryman who’s new on the route. We’ve had packages sit for days between the front doors, unnoticed.

Those doors open directly into the living room. No mud room. No entryway. You come in that door and you are standing next to the sofa. That just doesn’t work in this climate. During winter, you can’t even get to the unshoveled walk because the Christmas lights block the gap in the fence you’d have to walk through to follow the path.

Despite the fact that no one uses the front walk, I maintain the illusion that this is the way into the house. The proverbial Bible salesmen knock out front, giving away their lack of familiarity with the daily patterns of life in Ellis Hollow. But anyone who knows us goes right to the back door to be greated by Jade and Fred.

Clematis and hosta flowers on the way to the front door in August.

Another June shot out front.

Category: Design

Serendipitous plant combos

Marcia’s garden revisited

Minns Garden gate by Durand Van Doren

100k daffodils

Garden Bloggersâ€™ Design Workshop – Front-Yard Gardens