Tuesday, October 15, 2013

View of a Different Garden

View of a garden taken through the glass
This is my new garden view. It is a garden I drew up a plan for over five years ago.  It is a very formal parterre, 30' wide by 90' deep.  It has a diamond in the center with a fountain and pea gravel walks leading from each point and around the center diamond.  On the longitudinal sides are privet, which if maintained as I do in my yard could be a nice privatizing element, but is overgrown even with my impromptu hedging efforts taking it back a foot or so about once a year.  The differences with this privet hedge and my own show the need for constant pruning of privet used in this way.

There were several poor plant choices made in the lay out of this garden, however there are also a couple plant choices which have been excellent.  Lining the pea gravel paths is Autumn Joy sedum backed with shades of blue iris.  I would say the first 3-4 years this was an incredibly good choice.  It always showed to advantage.  At this point being perennial, desperately needs to be re-divided widening the path.

Pointing up each of the centers of the corner rhomboid shapes are Alberta spruce.  The original thought was to clip them into a formal spiral.  Clipping is, however, a time-consuming activity, and has not been done.  Running parallel to the center diamond are bands of yew clipped flat in a wide curled double "S".  There are some good bones here.

Plants were massed in the planted areas.  Still, there are a large number of interesting plants here:  the large large-leaved rhododendron which bloom in large balls of bloom in the spring, the Annabelle hydrangea, sundrops, allium glaucum, pink and white bleeding heart, masses of Asiatic and Orienpet lilies, various other species alliums.  There are also pedestrian things like rudbeckia which, however, is a good choice interplanted with the sundrops providing a continuously blooming triangle.

As the long view of this garden positions the sunrise behind the fountain from my window and the fall fog will hang like a mist above this garden at sunrise it provide a view of a garden in transitional light with the dew hanging heavy on the fall-colored foliage.  The fall colors backlit in the morning sunlight is something not present in my home garden.  It is an aspect of the light I have been admiring here, however over-run "my" new garden is.

It brings me joy.

8 comments:

  1. From your description of the garden - sounds pretty nice. Post more photos. Jack

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    1. If only I could! I am limited as to mobility and seeing the gardens closely, but there will be other pictures of my new reality. I realize I like very much presenting how I see a place through digital imagery, so will continue on with that as much as possible. And it is nice, it is a National Register Historic home and includes outbuildings on the Register as well. The house actually has its own historian at a local college. He has put out the theory it was actually a part of the Underground Railroad.

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  2. Time will always reveal surprises as to what is a good choice and what is not. This is especially true if the gardener is unable to do necessary maintenance. When you say this is your new view, are you staying at your own house?

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    1. This is the view of a formal parterre garden at my brother's house. He has offered up his guest room as he and his wife, beautiful SIL, feel I really should have someone do for me and keep me as immobile as possible given my choice to be AMA as I recuperate. Hopefully, at least by spring, I will be back looking at my own garden even if vigorous digging and moving of plants is precluded.

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  3. I am so glad that you are able to see a garden as you recover. I thought about you a lot this weekend as I started putting all the things on my deck away into the new garden shed. I hope that you are feeling ok and that you heal quickly.....

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    1. I hope I do, too, although I think it will probably be a protracted recuperation. I am able to do more each day. I realize it is tiny steps. Yesterday, I was able to actually contract my leg enough to reach my foot and put on my LEFT sock! Silly, but a big triumph. Today, I have been trying to sit and lift my left foot from the floor at once, rather than elevating from the heel or toe (both of which I have been able to do for about 5 days now)-- to no avail. This is going to take time. I just need to realize that.

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  4. That's nice that you're staying with your brother.

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    1. I'm not sure how long he thought I would be pretty much bed-ridden recovering, but I am truly blessed with his and his wife's love for me that they would offer their home in my recovery, enabling me to stay in bed and recover and my son to stay in college. I'm totally at a lost how to ever repay them for their altruism.

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