The Garden in Late July

The Upper Garden

 The Hall with Balls

The Blue Bench Terrace

Putnam Park Path Project II

Putnam Park as seen from Boccelli Garden

The new entrance garden at Putanm Park will be much more open now that most of the hedge of fothergilla has been removed and relocated to other parts of the park.

 A view of the entrance from the park.

The gravel base of the path has been installed.

The location of the circle garden in the path.

The path winds past an existing border.

A view from the main entrance which will have a garden similar to the garden at the far end of the park.

 A closer view of the existing garden.

Imagine this planting at the main entrance in two or three years.

Putnam Park Path Project I

This summer we will be renovating the path at Putnam Park and creating a new entrance garden.

The original entrance to the park had a hedge of invasive burning bush that we replaced with native Forthergilla x intermedia 'Mount Airy'. The hedge felt too rigid and will be replanted in another location in the park making room for a more open entrance garden.

The new garden is being excavated

The new edge of the garden is painted....

....and filled with loam.

A granite planter in a round garden in the middle of the path....

.
....was removed because it required too much maintenance. It will be used at our recycling center where the staff has created a marvelous garden using recycled plants from gardeners in town.

The hoop fencing will be returned to its original location when the path is completed but the boxwoods will be donated to the recycling center.

The main reason the path is being replaced with a pervious pavement sidewalk is because it is experiencing erosion during heavy rainstorms.

The new path is marked with spray paint.

A scrubby woodland edge was removed and several large pine trees were taken down

The area was excavated and refilled with loam. Some of the fothergillas from the entrance garden will be moved to create a woodland garden.

A granite table, which has Adirondack chairs for seating, was moved...

.....to under the shade of a beech tree where visitors prefer to sit.

The entrance garden will include many of the same plants as this existing garden, which was planted in 2010. The edges of the new path can be seen in this photograph.  

Gardeners Get Dirty

Our house has a single bathroom with a shower and after years bringing my muddy post-gardening body through the house to clean up, we decided to add an outdoor shower. It will be located behind the garage and will allow me to take a shower while peeking over the top of the wall and see the woodland garden.

The far wall is six and half feet tall and creates privacy from the neighbor. I was actually more interested in giving them privacy from me. The other three walls are five and half feet tall; high enough for me, the six-foot-three gardener, to enjoy views of the garden.

The floor of the shower repeats the bluestone in the two terraces in the Lower Garden.

The woodland garden below will be planted so the shower feels immersed in the garden.