Blogsy and Blogspot didn't let me (completely) edit my last post, but I was finally able to change a few things. I hope you get the idea! Who knows where the formatting came from... It was a spectacular garden.
Saturday 22 September 2012
First thoughts about Piet and Anja Oudolf's garden
| I knew I'd like this garden, but I was overwhelmed. It was extraordinary. I couldn't believe how creative the juxtaposition of textures, shapes, and colors were, and the way senescing plants were part of it- amazing. |
| The Joe-Pye and Vernonia were in full flower and all of the grasses were in their glory, either golden or on their way. |
| I visited on a perfect morning, cool and fresh, with a bright clear light, and I'm glad that I hadn't made it late yesterday, so I was able to experience the garden with fresh eyes. |
| Anja was there to greet visitors, and when I said I was American, replied that Piet was currently at the High Line (it's on my list to visit). |
| The gardens encompass an old farm site with a modern house, with the former nursery area converted to a spectacular created/artistic meadow planting. The older garden in the front of their property had amazing complexity with texture and colors, confined by the formality of beech hedge and clipped yews, and the structure of the garden paths. |
| Needless to say, looking at my photos on an iPad just confirm what a wonderful garden that this is, but don't give me much scope to really look at the images I managed to capture. Sorting will need to wait until I'm at home again. |
| I'm so glad that I was able to experience a visit in person. The way that Oudolf designs with plants (a great many of them eastern and central North American natives, but not exclusively at all) definitely honors their qualities as plants going through their life cycle. I'm going to read his book on that subject again, written with Noel Kingsbury, when I get back home. |
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| 2-yr old planting on old nursery site |
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| Grasses and Forbes with house in background |
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| Joe-pye and other in front garden |
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| Textural contrasts |
Posted with BlogsyFriday 21 September 2012
Mien Ruys garden
The collection of small gardens created by the influential Dutch garden designer at her family's nursery now make up the public garden open to visitors. Some of the gardens are truly remarkable, all are interesting.
It was well worth the trek (long drive, really) through countryside that seemed an odd mix of agriculture and industry, at least to my eyes, and wasn't as "pretty" as the countryside around Munster and Osnabruck.
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| 'Corner garden' |
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| Another angle of the same garden |
These photos aren't even close to evoking what it really felt like. Magical.
Her gardens were filled with our North American natives - I'm sure this will become a pattern.
Thursday 20 September 2012
botanical gardens and natural plant communities, Munster botanical garden, naturalistic gardens, Osnabruck botanical garden, plant communities, visiting German gardens
Botanical gardens and natural plant communities
A primary incentive to visit gardens in Germany and the Netherlands was to see the gardens inspired by nature, created in public spaces.
But an unexpected pleasure (on my first garden visiting day) has been the wonderful collections of native plants in naturalistic plant community plantings in two University botanical gardens. The first I visited was in Osnabruck, where I was a post doc almost thirty years ago.
The Professor in my lab group had come from Munster (~ 45 minutes away), where a venerable botanical garden is also part of the university. Part of his job was to establish a botanical garden in the old quarry adjoining the relatively new University in Osnabruck. I didn't ever see the site, so it was a revelation to visit today and enjoy the 25+ years of plantings. I guess I should have expected the careful curation and attention to detail, but the wonderful "recreation" of habitats was amazing.
It's late now, and having experiences is the point of traveling (not sitting in your hotel room writing and trying to upload photos), so there will be more later. (I'm traveling light with an iPad, a camera connector, and a wireless keyboard!) So the photo interface is clunky (uh, I took 140 photos today, including quite a few of signs and cool created pollinator habitats and bat refuges).
I've been mulling over how remarkable these natural habitat-based plant collections are. Similar collections were in Munster, the second garden I visited. A much older garden, the moor habitat was my favorite, although their alpine collections, and meadow plantings were amazing, too. It was so interesting how the garden editing (think weeding and maintenance) differed even in their herb garden plantings. The plant community gardens were a joy to visit -- I just wish I had time to find and visit some of the real-life examples (probably not that common now).
My lab director was a plant ecologist, so it's not surprising in retrospect that these gardens have such a strong plant ecological bent, and German botanical studies have had a focus on plants in their communities for a long time.
Tomorrow, I'm off to Piet and Anya Oudolf's private garden. I'm really looking forward to seeing what's in their personal landscape, especially post-closing their nursery.
Also, I haven't yet gone into one, but some of the "garden centers" here in Northern Germany are the size of a Home Depot. They're usually in the neighborhood of IKEA stores and car dealerships (eg. outskirts of town). I don't know what's in them yet, but I'm planning to check one out. Pots? Decorations? Fields of plants for your garden? Potting mix? Stayed tuned.
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| Osnabruck botanical garden: |
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| alpine garden in Osnabruck |
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| Moor garden (Munster botanical garden) |
Sunday 16 September 2012
Views out the front door
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| Female goldfinch gleaning seed |
I won't be back for several weeks, although my gardening companion will be as well as the folks who keep an eye on things, etc., so I wanted to tidy up the garden.
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| Echinacea fruits |
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| view through the front door |
The joy of the morning, aside from satisfaction in getting the beds cleaned up, was how fun the pocket meadow was! Talk about lively.
First, a female goldfinch was gleaning seeds from Echinacea fruits that are already looking scruffy.
Then, a monarch dropped by to visit Aster flowers.
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| monarch on Aster 'October Skies' |
Changes...
We've been reducing the lawn since my husband and I moved into this house in 2004. In the top photo, the lawn sodded with St. Augustine grass extended almost to the fence. The previous owners had left some mature trees around the edges of this part of the lawn, which we now call the front meadow. We stopped mowing it because the ground was uneven and often had a large puddle in the center after a hard rain. We maintained it as a meadow for a number of years, but now we've stopped cutting it entirely and a nice assortment of oaks, sweet gums, and pines are becoming a forest. Read my post from a few years ago Reducing the Lawn in Your Landscape for a better perspective on the process and to find out why what we have is a freedom lawn.
We'd left a tongue of lawn next to the front pond and leading out to the front meadow, but recently decided to reduce it even more. My husband stopped mowing the tip of the tongue a couple of weeks ago, as you can see in the top photo.
Also, the turf used to go right to the edge of the pond, but now ferns, rushes, goldenrods edge the pond. This has meant that some adjustments to the irrigation system, which draws its water from the lake out back, were necessary. Sprinkler heads that used to be recessed in the midst of the turf, now need extenders so the spray can reach beyond the taller vegetation. In the second photo, my husband adjusts the sprinkler head's arc--this one is located to the right of the cart in the top photo.
I started the project by removing the sod along new edge of the lawn creating a gentle curve so that it is easy to mow with one sweep of the mower. I planted three bunches of Elliot's love grass (Eragrostis elliottii) evenly spaced about thee feet apart to give it plenty of room to expand. What was surprising to me is how clayey the soil is here. Other parts of our landscape are quite sandy. I also left room on the pond side for a cart path that leads out to the woodchip pile. (Read my post Follow the Yellow Mulch Road.)
We have not used any general pesticides on our lawn and other areas of our property since 2004, so the populations of insects and their predators have been increasing. There seems to be a jump in populations each time we remove more lawn and plant more native plants. We have especially noticed many more butterflies, bees, wasps and other pollinators. And we've also seen more bug predators including bluebirds, mockingbirds, wrens, and the dragonflies & damselflies.
This is a good thing!
Finally, a new hardiness chart.
USDA has finally updated the hardiness zone map. The line between zones 8b and 9a used to run through the center of Clay County, where we live, but now that line, if you follow it northward, is at the Georgia state line.
I wonder how long it will take the seed companies to start using this map instead of the old 1990 version.
Here's a link to the USDA site:
http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/#
I hope you have plenty of pollinators in your yard, too.
Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt
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| The newest section of lawn to bite the dust will be the unmowed portion next to the front meadow. |
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| The sprinkler head that used to be in the turf needs an extender to spray over the vegetation. |
Also, the turf used to go right to the edge of the pond, but now ferns, rushes, goldenrods edge the pond. This has meant that some adjustments to the irrigation system, which draws its water from the lake out back, were necessary. Sprinkler heads that used to be recessed in the midst of the turf, now need extenders so the spray can reach beyond the taller vegetation. In the second photo, my husband adjusts the sprinkler head's arc--this one is located to the right of the cart in the top photo.
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| To define the new edge of the front meadow I planted three bunches of Elliot's love grass (Eragrostis elliottii). |
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| After the wood chips have been added to define the border of the lawn and to cover the cart path. The newly-laid chips have a darker color than the ones laid the day before. |
I started the project by removing the sod along new edge of the lawn creating a gentle curve so that it is easy to mow with one sweep of the mower. I planted three bunches of Elliot's love grass (Eragrostis elliottii) evenly spaced about thee feet apart to give it plenty of room to expand. What was surprising to me is how clayey the soil is here. Other parts of our landscape are quite sandy. I also left room on the pond side for a cart path that leads out to the woodchip pile. (Read my post Follow the Yellow Mulch Road.)
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| Another 12 feet of lawn removed, but I'm not done with this particular project. I'll remove most of the grass and weeds between the love grass and the meadow's old edge and plant some native meadow wildflowers. |
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| A variable dancer damselfly on the native blue curls in the morning. |
We have not used any general pesticides on our lawn and other areas of our property since 2004, so the populations of insects and their predators have been increasing. There seems to be a jump in populations each time we remove more lawn and plant more native plants. We have especially noticed many more butterflies, bees, wasps and other pollinators. And we've also seen more bug predators including bluebirds, mockingbirds, wrens, and the dragonflies & damselflies.
This is a good thing!
 |
| A new USDA hardiness chart has been issued. |
Finally, a new hardiness chart.
USDA has finally updated the hardiness zone map. The line between zones 8b and 9a used to run through the center of Clay County, where we live, but now that line, if you follow it northward, is at the Georgia state line.
I wonder how long it will take the seed companies to start using this map instead of the old 1990 version.
Here's a link to the USDA site:
http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/#
I hope you have plenty of pollinators in your yard, too.
Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt
Saturday 15 September 2012
Long-horned beetles (mating) on goldenrod
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| Long-horned beetles |
A meadow visit found a couple of long-horned beetles mating - on a goldenrod inflorescence, pointed out by a biologist friend who was along on the field trip. Way cool!