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.

Spirit: Morning has broken

Last evening, I trekked with two gardening friends to the Trinity Church in Boston to hear Dan Pearson, the influential English landscape designer, talk about spirit. The traffic was dense and sleet was slick on the highway. It seemed like a stupid idea but what a wonderful way to spend a winter evening! Bill and Eileen, two extraordinary gardeners who live off the land like a Nearing and garden like a Lloyd, were delightful companions. We talked garden for four hours nonstop.

Dan's talk was beautiful. It was in support of his new book, Spirit: Garden Inspiration. It is not your usual gardening book. Stephen Orr's NY Times review says that Pearson focuses "his creative eye into something that lies between the introverted style of a diary and and the best, most idiosyncratic aspects of a blog given the permanence between hard covers." Dan invited us to take more time to look. He implored us to create gardens that connected to the power of the landscape in our own unique area; to that spirit of place that gives each place its identity. So this morning I attempted to look more closely around my own environment.

Four mornings a week, I climb Pack Monadnock, a 1.3 mile hike near our town with my hiking buddies. We meet at 6:30 with a mailman's disregard for the weather. Each day has been getting longer and we have been witnessing some stunning sunrises. I took these two pictures this morning. I wanted to capture the scene that is special to New Hampshire: the weather beaten oak trees at the peak of Pack and the view toward Boston we see each morning.

I am starting a wild garden in the lowest terrace in my garden. It has a view of the big brother to Pack, grand Mount Monadnock. I have chosen two evergreens to mimic the black spruce and white pine of the New Hampshire mountains I love so much. I have chosen Picea orientalis 'Gowdy' for its diminutive and elegant habit and small, nearly black needles. Unlike the commonly used Norway spruce, 'Gowdy' will never be too large for my small garden. My other choice, Pinus koraiensis 'Morris Blue', will grow no more than twenty five feet in my lifetime and has handsome bluish silver needles and a tight and sturdy habit. My next mission is to add native and exotic perennials that will create a lush tapestry that will feel like some special wood in New Hampshire that has hidden in it newly discovered treasures that feel entirely at home.