Other gardens, other places – Page 4

Gardens in peril

I couldn’t help noticing the juxtaposition this morning:

First, the Washington Post editorial A Downtrodden Mall – America’s front yard desperately needs sprucing up. A lack of funding and deferred maintenance have left Pierre L’Enfant’s “vast esplanade” looking pretty shabby. “[T]rampled grass, decaying sidewalks, crumbling foundations and scum-filled ponds … mar this special place.”

But good luck getting funding to fix that special place, if the federal budget is anything like we face here in New York.

This morning’s New York Times warns: Proposed Budget Shuts Out Zoos, Aquariums and Gardens.

[N]ext fiscal year, which starts in April, state financing for all 76 zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums would be eliminated under Gov. David A. Patersonâ€™s proposed budget. This after a 55 percent reduction this fiscal year â€” a move that was made only last month, surprising many organizations so late in the fiscal year.

Endowments and other funding sources for public gardens and the like aren’t looking real good either. Perhaps a surge in volunteerism will pick up some of the ‘resource shortage’ that looms. But that can only go so far.

Note to self (gardening resolutions) …

Hat tip to Nan at Gardening Gone Wild for passing along the link to Le Jardin Plume, in particular this gallery.

I have no delusions that I’ll ever have the design sense or level of control they have. But it’s one of the first great gardens I’ve looked at and said to myself, I can grow most of those (or reasonably close facsimiles) on a large scale.

So my 2009 gardening resolutions (a little early) …

Focus plant purchases on new and interesting ornamental grasses.
Start dividing and spreading around the grasses that I already have that I like.
Plant the Sanguisorba tenufolia seed I collected this year instead of leaving it in an envelope for three years like I do with most seed I save.
See if I can start getting the Verbena hastata (it’s a freakin’ weed around here) to grow kind of where I want it to.
Start figuring out how I can slam all these into one big planting along with some eupatoriums, various vebascums and some other biennials in one big mass.

Have to PhotoShop some images together to see what it might look like. Can’t wait to get started.

Verbena hastata

The healing powers of water

As an addendum to my GBBD water garden workshop post, I wanted to add a short post about one of my favorite water features on the Cornell campus. I try to find an excuse to walk through the Bailey Plaza almost daily. (Outside Bailey Hall, which, yes, is named for that Bailey.)

larger view | supersized

The plaza used to be a crumbling old parking lot until about a year ago. Already, the plantings give a feel for much of the wildland in the area, and the massive water feature at the south end resembles the blocky, right-angle rock features you can see in gorges throughout the area, where streams cut through the land as the descend into the various Finger Lakes.

Thousands of stressed out students pass through this plaza daily, most unaware that they are getting a quick dose of serenity.

ACNARGS picnic

Had the pleasure of attending the annual picnic and members-only plant sale of the Adirondack Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society. (I serve on the chapter’s board, edit the newsletter and handle other communications chores.)

Judy and Jim Fogel hosted the event at their home in Lansing, N.Y., a few miles north of Ithaca overlooking Cayuga Lake. (In the background below, as members engage in the feeding frenzy that is the plant sale.)

The Fogels have some beautiful borders, in addition to a great vegetable garden, water garden, containers, shrub border and just generally great landscaping that they’ve put in since the house was built circa 1997.

That’s Jim on the right, Judy with the cup. Small world department: Elly (my wife) delivered babies with Jim 25 years ago when she was a labor and delivery nurse.

The Fogel’s recently installed rock garden is still mostly rock. But it’s got a great view.

This flower in a container off their patio caught my eye. No clue what it is.

Sunday music: Sweden’s finest

absolut spring This week, Ellis Hollow celebrates and salutes Ken and Carina at TrÃ¤dgÃ¥rdsdrÃ¶mmar, who this week were chosen most beautiful garden in Sweden 2008, by the magazine DrÃ¶mhem & TrÃ¤dgÃ¥rd. How to celebrate? With some of the other fine things Sweden has bestowed on those who appreciate the finer things, Absolut, Nils von Dardel and The Hives — perhaps the finest garage-punk band in recent years.