The Luxuriance of September

My favorite month in the garden has to be September. I incorporate plenty of autumn interest in the garden with a generous smattering of annuals that have a peak right now. I especially appreciate how fresh the annuals make the garden feel as the summer season winds down and the first hard frost approaches. Autumn is the season New England is known for, so it is fitting to start that season off with a bang even before the fall foliage begins to change color.

 The Upper Garden

 The Lower Garden

The Woodland Garden

The lowest path in the Woodland Garden

The Blue Bench Terrace

The Garden in Late July

The Upper Garden

 The Hall with Balls

The Blue Bench Terrace

Playing Ball: Where they Landed

Earlier in the season, I was thinking of different boxwood combinations I might like to try. I ended up doing something rather subtle, but it feels "right" to me. I often suggest to gardening friends that they make upgrades to their garden that feel "inevitable" that is to say not forced but was feels as if it was always there. So I took my own advice and moved two boxwoods to the Blue Bench Terrace rather than the central lawn in the Lower Garden as depicted a few posts back. A safer choice for sure.

Originally, I had a pair of boxwoods flanking the top of the stairs leading to the Woodland Garden. They always felt isolated and lonesome. Last year, I added the larger boxwood behind the left bench and it felt much better. This year, I added two more boxwoods, one on each side. I am playing with the tension of the perfect symmetry (of the terrace, central stone base of a planter, the pair of benches, and the focal point of the Cercidiphyllum japonicum in the Woodland Garden) and the asymmetrical cluster of boxwoods on the outer edges of the picture. Grouping the boxwoods like this has also acted as a low wall at the top of the steep slope to the Woodland Garden and anchors that space so it doesn't feel like the visitor will slip off the terrace and down the hill. The contrast of the flowering Prunus x 'Hally Jolivette' adds to the picture in mid-May.

The Garden in Late Summer

 Welcome to the Upper Garden

The Lower Garden

The Blue Bench Terrace from the Main Terrace and Woodland Garden Below.

 The Planter on Blue Bench Terrace From the Woodland Garden

A Peek into the Woodland Garden through the multi-stemmed Heptacodium miconioides.

Google Earth Walking Tour of the Garden

Fellow blogger, James Golden, author of  View from Federal Twist was asking me to explain the layout of the garden and I thought the bird's eye view from Google Earth might help explain the garden's design.

I describe my garden for the Garden Conservancy as follows: A small village garden was designed to be an extension of the house. The house and garden are situated on a hill and the garden is terraced on three levels. The two upper levels are laid out formally with yew and boxwood hedges. The lowest level is an informal woodland garden and is a work in progress. The garden is planted with a mixture of unusual trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and bulbs. Plants were selected primarily for interesting foliage and textures.

We will begin the tour looking in from the sidewalk right about where "Google" is written in the bottom right corner of the photograph:

Walk through the gate to the front door, take several steps and turn to the left to see the Upper Garden...

Walk past the parallel rows of boxwood to the Upper Garden which usually has hot colored palette ...

Continue through the Upper Garden....

To a pair of boxwoods and granite posts leading to the Cornus officinalis focal point...

of The Hall with Balls....

Down the granite steps turn right, go down some more steps, to the arch leading to the Lower Garden...

to another focal point, this time a granite post....

As you walk toward the post, turn right to see the house and the Main Terrace at the other end of the Lower Garden...

Continue on to the other arch; a threshold to the woodland garden aka the Pangea Woodland...

Just beyond the arch, there is a glimpse of Mt Monadnock in the distance obscured by a tree I hope to get permission from the neighbor to remove....

A view from the same spot the woodland garden itself, a trio of Picea orientalis 'Gowdy' to the left ...

Down the path...

The Adirondack Seating Area in the Pangea Woodland...

To a path that leads...

Down the steep hill...

To the lowest part of the Pangea Woodland....

There is a low retaining wall on the left side that my son Teddy helped me build last fall...

Back around the lower part of the garden the aforementioned P. orientalis 'Gowdy' to the far left...

Up the hill...

Retuning to that same view of the Adirondack Seating Area in the Pangea Woodland...

Beyond the chairs are new steps up to the level of the Lower Garden and the Blue Bench Patio...

As you go up the stairs, you see the French Doors to the Garden Room...

The Blue Bench Patio and up more granite steps...

Make a 180 degree turn looking backwards to the axis from the French Doors to see the  Cercidiphyllum japonicum focal point down in the Pangea Woodland...

As you look down to the Blue Bench Terrace turn left to see the Lower Garden beyond the Main Terrace...

The Parallel mixed borders in the Lower Garden are enclosed by a granite wall to the left and a yew hedge to the right which defines the garden room. There is an old granite bench at the opposite end of the garden...

More Adirondack Chairs, the Peterborough Chairs,  designed for Putnam Park in the Main Terrace...

The other end of the Main Terrace is shaded by a beautiful Acer griseum x 'Gingerbread'....

Leaving the Main Terrace and backtracking, the French Doors of the Garden Room on the right and steps to the Blue Bench Terrace on the left...

Up the steps to the garage...

Alook backward to the Lower Garden from the top of the stairs...

Slip between the garage and the house to the driveway...

to the end of the driveway looking back to the garage....

A view of the front door to the right and the Upper Garden from the driveway...

and finally to the street to where we began our tour...

I hope I did not overestimate your interest in seeing this modest garden in the dead of winter. Maybe I'll try the same tour next summer when things are a bit more interesting.