The gardener's eye

The Gardener's Eye

Sunday, July 15, 2012

The Ruin Garden Evolves: Letting Nature Take its Course



The Ruin Garden at Teixeira Park


Textures in the Garden: Calamagrostis brachytricha in the foreground


Volunteer Goldenrod allowed to enter the garden


Echinacea, Butterflyweed and the fine foliage of Vernonia lettermannii 'Iron Butterfly' in foreground


Close up of the original Asclepias tuberosa 'Gay Butterflies'  and Heliopsis helianthoides 'Summer Nights'

Asclepias tuberosa 'Gay Butterflies' and Heliopsis helianthoides 'Summer Nights' are the stars of the Ruin Garden in early July. They are good companions. Asclepias tuberosa 'Gay Butterflies'  is a short and squat plant of about 24" with bright orange flowers.  Heliopsis helianthoides 'Summer Nights' is slim, airy and stands about 3-4 feet tall on elegant red-tinged stems.  The golden flowers tower above the low granite walls at the Ruin Garden and can be seen from the sidewalk on Union Street inviting the passerby to explore the garden.

Both plants are cultivars of Native American plants that attract butterflies. The seeds of Heliopsis helianthoides 'Summer Nights' also provide food for goldfinches. Interestingly, both of these plants are self-seeding in the garden. I want the Ruin Garden to have a wild feeling and I am letting some of the volunteers grow where they please but I am editing out other plants that may overwhelm neighboring plants. 

This garden is a bit of an experiment for me. I usually like to control what happens in the garden. I am working on removing any unhappy species and letting the happy plants be fruitful and multiply. I want the Ruin Garden to attract birds and butterflies and be full of a diverse combination of plants that look good throughout the year. It is more difficult task to do well than one might think.

14 comments:

  1. Well done, Michael B. Gordon! Excellent work. Great, great, great. The lightness/brightness of the planting contrasts beautifully with the weight of the lovely stone work. And the Asclepias is one of my personal favourites...although I've only planted it for the first time this season here in our wet climate. Thanks much for sharing...

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    1. Thanks, Peter. I think the dry conditions in the Ruin Garden are just right for Asclepias tuberosa. I kept loosing it in my own garden. Good luck, it is a great plant.

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  2. Very difficult to do that, but I can't wait to see how you pull it off for year-round interest with wild habitat, winter snow on it - melt - thaw - snow - thaw. Really stunning now!

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    1. Dave,
      I'm slowly gaining some confidence in this garden. I'll be interested to see how it works out myself!

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  3. such pretty photos...a real bright spot!

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  4. Michael, it's a very smooth ruin. The best ruins, the most romantic, have plants flowing over them, plants that are happiest to be there, as you say.
    I feel you've done a wonderful job. It's all so easy on the eye, and, I'm sure, easy on the natural world it embodies.

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    1. Faisal, I have stated some honeysuckle and trumpet vines to ramble over the granite. It has been a slow process but I am learning a lot.

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  5. A noble experiment, Michael. It looks great! You are so lucky to have all of these different looking gardens to play in. Play may not be the right word; it's lots of work, I know. But, all of us in the surrounding area who get to enjoy the results thank you and your volunteers for it.

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    1. Thanks, Joe. Play is a good word. I will be planting the 2 gardens by the sidewalk on Union Street this fall. I am hoping the the park as a whole feels coherent in a couple of years. Thanks, as always, for your support of the public gardens.

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  6. Beautiful planting. It reminds me of a planting at Chanticleer a couple of years ago, in the Mediterranean garden, just outside the Chanticleer ruin (how ironic!).

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    1. Thanks, James. I thought you might appreciate this planting. This kind of planting is new for me. I was just at the High Line last weekend and spent some time examining the way Oudolf put the plants together. Lots to learn at the High Line and at Chanticleer.

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  7. Hi Michael,
    I am catching up this week on some blogs and I love this recent post. It is a very difficult thing to make a garden actually look wild and uncultivated, but I think it is a wonderful aesthetic and great for the wildlife. In a garden I worked in, there was a ruin garden full of native plants and we gardeners spent many more hours there than anyone would have ever guessed. Takes work to make it look un-worked! I also happen to love those two plants- the asclepias and heliopsis- great plant combination, nice work!

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  8. Thanks, Helen. I think these naturalistic gardens, done well, are not necessarily low maintenance.

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