Showing posts with label native woodland gardens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label native woodland gardens. Show all posts
Saturday, 18 April 2015
Thursday, 9 April 2015
A flourishing woodland garden
It's been wonderful to see how the front woodland garden along the path is flourishing this spring, along with the "foundation" plantings in front of the house.
Even the assessor (from the bank of our buyer) on Tuesday (admittedly a plant enthusiast) admired the nice combination of mountain laurel, rhododendron, fothergilla, and coral honeysuckle in front of the house, as well as the native crested iris, green and gold, Christmas fern, and pussytoes.
He also noticed the wild ginger (he told me his grandmother showed him the small flowers - the "little brown jugs." He thought they were insectivorous because he'd seen ants in them; I mildly suggested it was the odor, and they probably weren't insectivorous, but didn't want to totally pop that idea!
Just getting back from the mountains today, I didn't have time to take a photo. It is looking lovely.
Nice to feel like we've made a difference as good stewards of our space here in the Piedmont.
Even the assessor (from the bank of our buyer) on Tuesday (admittedly a plant enthusiast) admired the nice combination of mountain laurel, rhododendron, fothergilla, and coral honeysuckle in front of the house, as well as the native crested iris, green and gold, Christmas fern, and pussytoes.
He also noticed the wild ginger (he told me his grandmother showed him the small flowers - the "little brown jugs." He thought they were insectivorous because he'd seen ants in them; I mildly suggested it was the odor, and they probably weren't insectivorous, but didn't want to totally pop that idea!
Just getting back from the mountains today, I didn't have time to take a photo. It is looking lovely.
Nice to feel like we've made a difference as good stewards of our space here in the Piedmont.
Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Native woodland gardens
It was nice this morning to share thoughts about creating native woodland gardens with an OLLI class (check out OLLI programs if you're in the US -- a great lifelong learning initiative).
It's been a lovely journey to transform lawn to woodland habitat over the last two decades, and we now finally have Christmas ferns, bloodroot, wild ginger, crested iris, green-and-gold, and pussytoes flourishing along our front pathway.
It was all about creating a decent "forest" soil -- more full of humus, a bit deeper, etc. from the shallow, shade-stressed grass that grew there before.
And the water oak that anchors the driveway produces slow-to-break-down leaves -- not the best situation, but eventually they DO turn into humus-rich leaf mulch.
That's what supported the bloodroot expansion!
P.S. See the sidebar for a link to a pdf version of the creating a woodland garden presentation.
It's been a lovely journey to transform lawn to woodland habitat over the last two decades, and we now finally have Christmas ferns, bloodroot, wild ginger, crested iris, green-and-gold, and pussytoes flourishing along our front pathway.
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| a giant bloodroot |
And the water oak that anchors the driveway produces slow-to-break-down leaves -- not the best situation, but eventually they DO turn into humus-rich leaf mulch.
That's what supported the bloodroot expansion!
P.S. See the sidebar for a link to a pdf version of the creating a woodland garden presentation.