Book report

Geoffrey B. Charlesworth came recommended in another gardening book, I forget which one. Although he is (or was?) a rock gardener living in the Berkshires, and therefore much of his advice has to be tempered for drought-ridden Zone 7, his book of essays is a delight. I particularly enjoyed the last three pieces, describing a perfect (gardening) day, a less than ideal day and a third kind of day. His advice to be patient, and his description of the excitement of planning a new bed apply to all gardeners. And his ditty about why your plants have died is a classic:
You walked too close. You trod on it.
You dropped a piece of sod on it.
You hoed it down. You weeded it.
You planted it the wrong way up.
You grew it in a yoghurt cup
But you forgot to make a hole;
The soggy compost took its toll...

Book Report

Margaret Roach is one of my favorite garden bloggers, so I had to track down her ten-year-old book, from which her blog gets its name. The photos are beautiful, and the text is both informative and inspiring. One of my favorite pieces is her lament that she is already 35 (at the time) and worries that she doesn't have enough years left to create the garden she wants. I think every gardener feels that way.

A few ideas I picked up from her book: golden hostas under aucuba to echo the color; try some of the following groundcovers - aruncus aethusifolius, variegated ribbon grass Phalaris arundinacea 'Picta' that can take shade, petasites japonicus with its big leaves, comfrey symphytum officinale that takes shade, and bigroot geranium G. macrorrhizum that she mentions frequently in her blog; consider planting rhubarb in the corner garden because it can take some shade; divide asters every three years; consider aster divaricatus (white wood aster) and A. macrophyllus because they are natives and can take shade.

It's a beautiful book to leaf through. Her gardens, which at the time she was cultivating only part-time, have simply gotten more beautiful over the years. Too bad it's out of print...

Book report

The American Meadow Garden: Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn by John Greenlee, photos by Saxon Holt.

Less lawn appeals to lots of gardeners, including me, so why not turn your lawn into a meadow?

Positive comments:
Appealing idea and beautiful photos, and I came away with a list of about a dozen grasses that might work in various parts of my garden.

Concerns:
The topic is really grasses, as opposed to a mix of plants you might find in a meadow. There is an alphabetical listing of recommended grasses, but no consistency, except for zone listing, in the information provided. Will this do well in sun or shade? How tall will it get? How much moisture does it need? You'll find most of this information in most of the entries, but for many entries you'll have to look elsewhere for the details. The photos are gorgeous but not every entry merits one, meaning that many of the grasses are not pictured. Also, this has a definite west coast bias, making it less helpful for easterners. More of a coffee-table book than a reference book.

"Our Life in Gardens"

This is a haunting garden book, because so much of it is about the passage of time, in a garden and in a life. Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd have been gardening in Vermont for more than thirty years, and these short essays - from Agapanthus to Xantorrhoea quandrangulata - chronicle their experiences. A few quotes:

No real garden should ever show bare earth, much less a sea of bark mulch, which always represents both an opportunity lost and a failure of horticultural seriousness.

We can...offer some comforts to young gardeners - or to gardeners of any age who are just starting a garden...a major part of the pleasure of gardening is in the act of gardening itself...For simply to plant that tree or shrub or vine and see it gradually take hold, getting larger each year, finally surprising you by its size, even though you knew it first as a tiny thing in a black plastic nursery pot, this is where the real pleasure of gardening lies.

If the management of any garden does not fall into a rhythm of comfortable routines, there will not be a garden at all but only an embarrassment and a reproach.

Gardens by their very nature are fragile beings that live in the two dimensions of time and care.

I am certain that my garden would not measure up to their high standards - a sense of humor is not a major part of their style - but I found their book inspiring and thought-provoking, giving me a long list of plants to try. More important, their wisdom and experience offer another way to look at gardens. I will even forgive them a glancing, disdainful reference to White Flower Farm, for which I have a family feeling.

Book report

I've always thought that growing native plants is vaguely good - they're better adapted to the local climate and more apt to do well - but I never realized how important they are until I read this book.

Douglas Tallamy is an entomologist at the University of Delaware. In this book he explains that native plants support native bugs, who then support native birds. Simple, right? He provides numerous examples of plants - often touted as pest-free, and now I understand why - that may thrive in your garden, but that bugs avoid because they're not adapted to recognize them as food and couldn't digest them even if they did. The fewer the bugs, the less there is for the birds to eat.

Does this mean that a garden of native plants will be chewed up by the happy, hungry bugs? He claims not, citing a study that shows gardeners don't notice bug damage until it's reached more than 10% of the plant. Plus, if you plant a diverse group of natives instead of a monoculture, bugs can eat a little bit of many plants instead of all of just a few.

He also encourages everyone to reduce the space devoted to lawns - not a new idea, but he makes a compelling case when he points out that lawns provide the perfect habitat for Japanese beetles. Stop killing the grubs, just reduce your lawn!

Finally, he provides a rundown of the lepidoptera you can expect to support by growing native trees and shrubs. The white oak in the back yard turns out to be the perfect choice, supporting as many as 517 lepidoptera species! I had to rush over to the oak tree and turn over leaves in hopes of finding some of the caterpillars he mentions.

Which brings me to a caveat - though the text is inspiring and the photos gorgeous, why is there no scale (how big is that Luna moth, anyway?) and why is there no time frame (just when am I likely to find the yellow-shouldered slug caterpillar?).

The good news is that I've recently planted several natives, according to his helpful lists in the back of the book, fothergilla, clethra, oakleaf hydrangea, and sweetspire among them. And as I grub out more and more of the English ivy, I can make room for the Virginia creeper that "will enable the majestic Pandora sphinx to reproduce (by contrast, English ivy, the vine of choice in suburbia, hosts nothing)."

Notes to self: consider planting a native cherry, which supports giant silk moths and the tiger swallowtail butterfly, and put in several kinds of milkweed (asclepia tuberosa, syriaca, and incarnata) for color from June into September and the chance to attract 11 different butterflies. Also, forget butterfly bush! Yes, it provides nectar for adult butterflies, "but not one species of butterfly in North America can use buddleias as larval host plants. To have butterflies, we need to make butterflies." So there. Well, maybe I can tuck in just one to feed the grownups, as long as I provide the milkweed for the babies?

Book report

I've heard of Beth Chatto for years but had never actually read anything by her. This is a year-long account of just part of her forty-year-old garden in flat, windy Essex, focusing on "Shade-Loving Plants for Year-Round Interest" as the subtitle has it.

Engaging, discursive, informative, and with spectacular photographs. My notes, either to find out more or to consider adding:

Magnolia x loebneri 'Leonard Messel' - I would like a magnolia, but I need a sweet little woodland tree, not a towering species. Maybe this one? Martha Stewart says it's a shrubby tree 15-25' high and 10-20' wide.

In early spring, precocious 'Leonard Messel' produces dark-purple buds that open into star-shaped, dark-pink to purple blossoms with white interiors before its leaves unfurl. The long, wavy, frost-resistant petals open wide to expose stamens. This compact, shapely, small tree has leaves that mature from coppery to dark green.

Narcissus 'Cedric Morris' - drooping flowers with green shading

Galanthus plicatum 'Beth Chatto'

Cut back old epimedium leaves in early February to display the new flowers - though I have never done this and the flowers seem to lift up above the leaves just fine.

Sarcocca - sweet box - scented -- this keeps coming up, I really need to investigate

Plant dark-flowered hellebores among leucojum and lamium maculatum 'White Nancy' to show off the blooms.

Wild peony - paeonia mlokosewitchii, "familiarly known as Molly the Witch" with pinkish bronze stems, grey-green foliage, and cool, lemon-yellow flowers filled with gold stamens.
Wikipedia says it is "native to the Caucasus Mountains in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Dagestan, where it grows on rocky slopes in oak, hornbeam, or beech forests." Here's their picture of it.

Anemone nemerosa 'Vestal' - double white

Transplant euphorbia to the back shrub border, where it will enliven shady ground.

Smilacena racemosa - cf. to Solomon's Seal, fragrant

Astrantia major involucrata 'Shaggy White' and 'Claret Red' "with upturned heads, each made of many narrow segments filled with quivering creamy centres." The late lamented Paghat's Garden describes it as needing moist, humusy soil so it may not do well in my dry clay.

Pileostegia viburnoides - self-clinging climber with frothy cream flowers in summer; this seems to be my old friend the climbing hydrangea, said to grow up to 15-30 feet so too much for me

Geranium phaeum or nodosum - thrives in dark shade. The Missouri Botanical Garden says

Easily grown in average, medium to wet, well-drained soil in part shade. Unlike most other species of geranium, this species performs best in shade including close to full shade conditions. Prefers moist, humusy, well-drained soils. Intolerant of the heat and humidity of the deep South. Foliage may decline in hot summer climates after flowering, at which point flowering stems can be removed and foliage trimmed both to shape and revitalize plants. If not deadheaded, some self-seeding may occur in ideal growing conditions.

Cimicifuga - now called actea - plant against the fence where the ivy sprawls now?

Hellebores 'Kochii group'

Bowles' Garden grass with epimedium under the maple tree? But I think it needs moisture, so Hakonechloa comes to the rescue again.

Heuchera - she says to replant in fresh soil every few years, which I had been thinking mine need, though she doesn't say when to do it. Will try this fall.

What I did on my gardening vacation - Part I

A long overdue account of what I accomplished the week before last...

Questing after shrub borders against the fence, I've been reading "Continuous Color" by Pam Duthie.

She recommends shrubs with more than one season's interest. For each one she lists all the relevant details, including some gushing comments that undercut her authority just a bit. Nevertheless, based on her recommendations, I headed first to Merrifield and then to Colesville Nursery.

At Merrifield (in the pouring rain), I ended up with a Kerria japonica 'Golden Guinea,' which has single yellow roselike blooms and offers "bright green stems showy in winter." It's not an exciting shrub, but its yellow flowers are sweet. I was heartened to read Henry Mitchell calling it "common and unexciting" but going on to say,

And yet I well recall decades ago when I first saw this bright canary-yellow creature - golden quarters spangled the length of bright lime-green stems - in a Mississippi garden...I could not think of many good plants that would survive in dry shade, and besides, I wanted the green stems to be there in winter. Indeed, they are just as cheerful on a January day as I expected they would be.

Also at Merrifield, after surveying the yews


 






and the English laurels
 

with an interested eye, I came away with a Kirengeshoma, something I'd been interested in since planning the refurbished front garden. I've planted it under the oak tree in back and look forward to its leaves and blooms. It doesn't hurt to see Henry Mitchell saying

What could be grown in such a space, dampish and half shady, between brick pavement and the concrete wall of the pool? Well, if I moved the wild irises (Iris versicolor from a local swamp) out and dug in a barrowful of leaf mold and some peat moss and let it all settle down nicely, I could grow Kirengeshoma palmata. This is a perennial posing as a small shrub, growing three feet or so, with leaves like a Norway maple's and hanging yellow bells or trumpet flowers in October. I have never seen a photograph of it that would make anybody desire it. And yet I have never heard of any gardener who, seeing it in the flesh, did not want it. It's not the leaves and it's not the flowers -- it's the way the plant is put together with such refinement and freshness.

Here it is:
 

Also five Mahogany bugleweed to go under the oak leaf hydrangea, three white caladiums for pots, a Rex begonia, and a 'White Lady' hellebore to go somewhere...
Here's the wagon full:
 

A book that should be a database

Right Plant, Right Place lists almost every garden condition you could think of and recommends plants that work there. Each entry includes a color photo, list of Latin and common names, height, zone, flowering times, etc., plus a paragraph of information about habits. Because some categories overlap - e.g., Plants Suitable for Dense Shade with Plants with Yellow or Yellow-Green Leaves - you have to consult the See also list at the end of each section to get complete information. This is a 2005 revision and it's almost a book to own, but in reality I will scour it for ideas and then return it to the library until the next time I need it. I'm finding it very useful as I plan the shrub border at the north side of the house. I've also used it to update my plant lists (see right).

Victory Garden redux

Some of us remember when Roger Swain, with his scratchy beard and generous middle, led the original Victory Garden team, along with Marian Morash, wife of the producer and a wonderful cook, and Tovah Martin, who as I remember concentrated on herbs and container gardens. But since 2001 the show has been led by Michael Weishan, whom I'm beginning to like.

His book is actually quite good; he starts out with the obvious question, why another basic gardening book? This one, he says, is a basic sampler of good gardening practice that helps you to ask why as well as how. He concentrates mainly on design, with entreaties to amend your soil and pay attention to light requirements, all good advice (that I sometimes follow). He encourages gardeners to start with the house when designing gardens. Pay attention to which parts of the garden you see from the house and integrate your house's style into the style of your gardens and hardscape. Those ubiquitous and boring foundation plantings should be designed in layers to make it look as though the house is emerging from the garden rather than being tightly outlined by shrubs in formation. Finally, he makes the very good point that outdoor scale is big - you need more space for tables and chairs than you might think.

The photos are inspiring without being so amazing that the ordinary gardener feels humiliated. Nicely done.

Good Taste

Anne Raver, well, raved about this book in the New York Times, and I agree that the photographs are awe-inspiring. Several of the photos were taken at Heronswood, with their combination of cool good taste and sly surprises. I was particularly struck by the use of negative space, as in empty pots or pots filled to the rim with water that looks black or mirror-like.

Rogers concentrates on color, form, texture, and other qualities that make up good design, so it's more of a design book than a practical guide (not that these things aren't important). He's a huge fan of cordylines like the ones pictured here, tropical Australian palms with striking colors and architectural foliage, as well as other tropicals like Agave.



His favorite container plants will not easily be found locally but would be worth seeking out.

This is fun to look at but not a book to own.

Mystery of the invasive knotweed

Ketzel* Levine's book was recommended by Martha (I think), so I ILL'd it. For each season, she recommends a list of plants, especially those that thrive in her zone 8 Portland (Oregon) garden, giving each a double page spread complete with watercolor illustrations.

Some of her comments are too hokey for me, but I appreciated listings of plants I'd forgotten about or didn't know. Made notes of Primula sieboldii (good in dry summers, I have been longing for those high-stalked primroses you see in England), Ekianthus (spring-blooming shrub for shade), Clethra (though it prefers moisture), Kadsura japonica 'Chirifu'
(an evergreen vine for shade), and sweet box (Sarcococca).

Then she noted controversy about Fallopia, which she lauds as "big, leafy perennials that are ornamental from day one...but because of the grossly invasive nature of this genus, no discussion of the two variegated forms is possible without raising hackles high."

Could this be related to the dread Houttuynia? This is the incredibly invasive plant that Dianne B. rails about in her book. Judy offered me something in her garden that reminded me ominously of this plant, though she swears it's not invasive at all.

Here's Judy's plant in a shady spot with some impatiens:
 


and here's a picture of Fallopia, aka Japanese knotweed:


and then here's a picture of Houttynia:




Are they all the same thing? The mystery deepens...but as someone who has bishop's weed, loosestrife, mint and lemon balm already, I'm not going to jump into this, whatever it's calling itself.


*So, I always thought her name was Ketza - comes of listening to her on NPR instead of reading...

Good gardening primer

Subtitled "41 Pick-and-Choose Projects for Planting Your Paradise Large or Small," this offers good tips for beginners and those of us who are not quite beginners but in need of advice. Some of her projects will be harder than she suggests, but the you-can-do-it-and-it-will-be-great attitude makes this fun to read.
I guess I should know who author Katherine Whiteside is - I can tell I've been out of the gardening loop for the past five years - since she apparently has written widely. At any rate, I picked up a couple good tips here, one being a simple plan for a compost pile (I need to get a better grip than this, I'm embarrassed to post the photo!), and a recipe for sorrel soup that I will pull out next spring. As a bonus, this is illustrated with charming watercolors by Peter Gergely.

There's pruning and then there's pruning

"The Well-Tended Perennial Garden, Planting and Pruning Techniques" by Tracy DiSabato-Aust is well-regarded and I can see why. She's obviously a knowledgeable gardener with a lot of experience. Her notes on each plant offer good suggestions for when to prune and what to expect when you do (often a second blush of bloom). I made notes on a couple ideas: remember to cut down biennials immediately after blooming to get another year out of them; cut back old flowering stems of Pulmonaria for a fresher-looking plant; cut back perovskia in early spring, down to live buds, which can be 6" or more above ground; feed astilbe in early October with 20-10-10, it's a heavy feeder.

But she's a great believer in pruning so that you get smaller flowers later in the season. Makes some sense if you can avoid staking, but otherwise it seems fussy and artificial to me. Also, she seems to prefer huge sweeps of the same plant, which looks institutional in my opinion. Interesting, but not an addition to my garden library.

How it's going

The front garden has undergone a big transformation. When I took out the beloved but way overgrown rosemary 'Arp' and, sadly, the Fairy rose that Dad had given me years ago (not enough sun any more), to say nothing of grubbing out tons of vinca, I had an almost clean slate. I am trying to keep in mind that this is the garden I see most frequently so it should be the best and most well-tended of all. It is mostly shaded now, with just a few slivers of early morning and mid-afternoon sun.

The astilbes have struggled a bit, I think because we've had such dry summers. Playtcodon is very happy, coming up in random spots as the fancy strikes it, ditto garlic chives. The edging of coral bells that Mom gave me when I started the garden continues to thrive, though I have a few bare spots that I need to fill in. The only problem there is the timing: the fuschia azalea that came with the house is in full bloom at the same time, and the soft coral clashes with the intense azalea color.

At any rate, I checked out and quickly bought "The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer" by Stephanie Cohen and Nancy J. Ondra. I love this for its practical approach and its specificity. Based on their design for "an elegant entrance garden" (not that I'm making any claims), I designed the front garden to include dark foliage (Heuchera 'Plum Pudding,' Cimicifuga 'Hillside Black Beauty,' et al.) and brighter colors (Hakonechloa macra 'Albo-striata,' my new favorite, and three Brunnera 'Jack Frost'). Last fall I put in three geranium 'Hocus Pocus' but there's no trace of them now - either they're very late to appear, or I planted something right on top of them (another reason to order that marking pen that Dianne B. recommends).

The next order of business is to choose spring bulbs - all that's there now are a few grape hyacinths, plus the Thalia daffodils I planted around the new August Moon hosta. In line with the idea that this garden is the most visible, why not choose something spectacular like double bloodroot? McClure & Zimmerman carry the single one, at only $8.95 for three. Carroll Gardens lists the double at $17.85! but it's not available this year. I may have to sneak into Judy's woods and grab one of Mom's while they're not looking.

All the dirt

Dianne Benson used to be in the fashion world, but when her business failed, she turned to gardening instead, and "Dirt" is the marvelous result. No matter that she had been gardening in her Zone 7 Long Island plot for only six years when she penned this comprehensive guide to gardens - she is opinionated and fearless. And of course, as a former fashionista, she does it all with style, wearing riding breeches, a big white shirt, and a fishing vest from Cabela's (and tells you exactly where to buy all the above). She's wrong about some things - loves ivy for some reason, hates the color yellow, can't abide phlox or alchemilla - but she has more good ideas than bad ones. She's wildly enthusiastic about fritillarias and lilies, and plants more trees than you would think possible on only one acre. This is out of print but well worth seeking out. Thanks to Michele Owens at Sign of the Shovel for this recommendation