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....

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....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.

No Need to Pardon Ogunquit's Appearance

I came across this new planting along the Marginal Way in Ogunquit, ME. The town has removed invasive species and replanted the area with Maine natives that attract monarch butterflies. The planting includes echinacea,  asclepias, blueberry, sweet fern and several species of native grasses.

The Boccelli Garden in Mid-June

When the Peony 'Peter Brand' comes into bloom, the Boccelli Garden pops with excitment. I especially like the contrast of the chartreuse leaves of Catalpa bignonioides 'Aurea' and the orange flowers of Euphorbia griffithii ‘Dixter’, a selection made by the late Christopher Lloyd of Great Dixter.

Another Great Dixter plant in the Boccelli Garden brought to the United States by Dan Hinkley of Heronswood fame is Ribes alpinum 'Aurea', which can be seen in the center of this photo. Hinkley brought back a suckering stem of the plant at Great Dixter and propagated it for sale in 2004. I got great pleasure out of seeing the original plant at Great Dixter when I was there last month.

Nigel Dunnett's Roof Garden in the City of London

While I was in England last month, a gardening friend showed me Nigel Dunnett's newly installed garden in The City of London. My friend, Giacomo Guzzon, is a recent graduate from landscape architect school works for a firm that has its offices near the garden called Beech Gardens. Beech gardens is a roof garden that uses a modern and ecologically sensitive design approach that takes into consideration biodiversity and aesthetics in equal measure. Dunnett is perhaps best known for designing the  meadows at the London Olympic Park in 2012.

In this project, he planted over 22,000 herbaceous plants that were chosen for color interest throughout the year. Fourteen multi-stemmed trees, including silver birch, Betula pendula, and Prunus serrula.

A partial list of the plants included: Sedum ‘Jose Augergine’, Achillia ‘Terracotta’, Euphorbia characias 'Humpty Dumpty', Thymus ‘Silver Posie’, Salvia 'Caradonna', Limonium platyphyllum. The plants are combined in a way that appears to distribute the plants equally. As someone who is experienced in designing and working on public spaces, this approach will be challenging to maintain without knowledgeable gardeners. I was pleased that Giacomo showed me this garden because I have never seen Nigel Dunnett's work in person. I hope to visit the garden next year to see how it develops and matures over time.

Luciano Giubbilei's Border at Great Dixter

While we were at Great Dixter, our tour guide, Rachael Dodd, mentioned that she has been collaborating with last year's Best in Show winner, Luciano Giubbilei, on a trial border in the vegetable garden at Great Dixter. Giubbilei, an Italian, had designed gardens for clients that reflected his heritage and were comprised primarily of hardscape and clipped hornbeam, yew, boxwood and beech. After he created his 2011 Chelsea garden, he wanted to get a greater understanding of the herbaceous elements of garden design. Fergus Garrett invited him to have 'residency' at Great Dixter and gave him a small plot where Giubbilei can get his hands dirty and experiment with planting techniques and combinations. James Horner, also a former Christopher Lloyd scholar worked with him on his Chelsea Flower Show winning garden.

Euphorbias were a main feature of the garden in May

Cow's parsley was another feature

The garden will also have another peak in autumn when the tall Eupatorium are in bloom.

Rachael Dodd gave a tour that was delightful and informative. Rachael was a former Christopher Lloyd scholar and has continued on at Great Dixter. Fergus Garrett must be doing something right to attract such enthusiastic and knowledgeable students and staff.

Luciano Giubbilei's Gold Medal winning garden at the 2014 Chelsea Flower Show. This planting was a result of his collaboration with Dixter-trained James Horner who worked with Giubbilei, overseen by Fergus Garrett, on in his border at Great Dixter.

Chesea Then and New

Marcus Barnett's design for The Telegraph used a successful formula for design that it reminiscent of many recent Chelsea gardens: a modern patio with a clean stone/hedge backdrop, clipped blocks of yew and beech, elegantly limbed up trees and the ubiquitous low wildish herbaceous planting mixing flowers and grasses. In another year, it could have easily won Best in Show but this year, Dan Pearson offered something completely different.

Dan Pearson's design sponsored by Laurent-Perrier was very wild and intricately planted. It was inspired by the Trout Stream at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. In fact, soapstone boulders from the estate were transported to Chelsea to form the hardscape of the garden. The complexity and details of the planting boggled the mind.  My main criticism of the garden was that it was a three-sided island garden which made photography difficult without having spectators and/or buldings in the backround. It also made the fantasy that transports one to another place and time impossible. That said, the triangular shape allowed veiwing the complexity of the plantings easier. The edges of the garden which were inches away looked as if they had been there for hundreds of years.