Plant Combinations

Oh dear Melissa, I just joined the Yahoo co-op. And what do you know? She's offering brunneras! And pulmonaria!

I like doing design because I can do a shopping spree for someone else's new garden.

I like this simple design because it has nice lines, is simple and is inviting. I would have put something other than grass behind the retaining wall though. I've seen this done with logs and it can be quite effective.

The back planting is so simple here with Salal, variegated grass, short English Laurel. Remember, this is across the street from skyscrapers with an ocean view. Simple, effective combo.

Stunning. Absolutely sublime. This will go in my notes for sure.

Behind the retaining wall I would have planted groupings of Liriope/Ophiopogon around the bases of the trees like this one under a Styrax obassia.

You lot are the greatest. I'm welling up a bit - and smiling one of those warm smiles.

Growin - what a stunner of a pavement planting - a park in a minimum space. Excellent. Just brillant.

Love that grassy border!! Keep it coming, Growin!

Gosh, sorry to be such an 'enabler'!! (NOT!!) Only problem with that forum is that I'm losing track of the money I'm spending, and that's not a good thing.

So, Brier, where is the thread you started? Can you link us up?

Pixy, it is the other thread looking for plant combinations http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/687818/. And absolutely no sympathy about spending plant-money - you found the site. (Gawd I'm envious (but at least not spent out until.....) - wonderful site).

Had an absolutely fab day in the garden yesterday - decided to tidy up the edges of one of the large beds (edges had really lost their way - ) and in the tidying I kept hitting rock (not too unusual in this area) dug out the first, rather nice sized squared off piece, put it aside in the usefulness pile - dug up the next, larger, nice shape, and than another and another and a huge one - realized I must have the footings for a stone wall (archeologists look away now) - carried on and came up with a dozen beautifully dressed wall stones - exactly what I need to repair the little retaining wall that came down this winter. I think this must have been an old boundary wall - it ends right where we have a very old thorn tree, which lines up with the trees which were once the field hedge. Looking the other way it also lines up with another thorn which is the remain of another hedge. This may be the wall of the vegetable bed, but when it was built is anybodies guess. there is lime mortar between and on top of the stones - which is what the base of the barn (18thC) and the fireplace are made with. The fact that the owners were doing so much improvement to the property (building the barn and moving the animals out of the house) I am guessing it links in with that. Also came up with an old glass candle stick - either very old, or 1950's. How's that for narrowing it down?

It was a good gardening weekend. Now for work-work.

This message was edited Feb 4, 2007 10:47 PM

Laurie, how wonderful to find the stones - I do find rocks as I'm digging, but usually just the kind that are a nuisance, rarely anything of use. Of course, this part of the world is downright new compared to yours!!! Our house was built in 1989-90 and it was the first house on this particular site so we're not going to find much, that's for sure!

Murmur - start burying things!

It is one of the nice things about living here. A few miles down the road is a stretch which is referred to as the straight mile - it is part of an old roman road which runs along the ridge. Our lane is dropped down between two very high embankments - largely because as the carts and animals came down it, the centre of the road gets worn away and deeper and deeper. At the bottom of the hill, where the river (a very small river by American standards!) you can still find the remains of the old mill, last in use early 18th century - and there is a pre-roman foundary on the farm just across the river. On the funnier side, It also became know for the area that rogues, prostitutes, and muggers lived - coming down the lane at the bottom was the place that they would jump the transporters, and as like kill their victims as leave them - so far, I don't think we have found any trace of their activities. It is a marvellous spot though, and often times when I am working, or just sitting I have the distinct feeling of holding hands across generations - I sowing carrots, just as so many before me have done. I'm sitting, watching the mist lift out of the valley and it feels as if dozens of us are watching the same scene, just in different century. I do love it, and this week I am finding it ever so hard being in London.

Having said that - I have to say I have always wanted to build a brand new house - on just my own piece of, enormous land. How cool would that be. But I bet even then planning permission would be right there, clip board in hand, and sucking air through pursed lips 'you can't do that, regulations state......'.

Laurie, what lovely thoughts of doing the same things so many people before you have done! your descriptions of the area are delightful and you write beautifully.

And I have the exact mental picture of the official with his brow knotted, telling you "no on that . . . no on this . . . maybe on this, but it will cost a fortune in permits . . ." etc.

Rogues, prostitutes, and muggers .... oh my!

:)

Sorry, couldn't resist ....

Laurie, I find your posts to be so delightful! Imagine finding the footing for a garden wall just as you are out digging away!! I feel oh so boring as I read your descriptive terms - "an absolutely fab day", edges that "had really lost their way", the "usefulness pile". I'm not an archaeologist, but I did 'look the other way' as you cleared out those stones! I do wonder whose hands shaped them just so??
Our house was built way, way back in the early 1960's and the landscaping had really been let go. During the clearing and digging we found many rusted iron items of little or no value at all. And we found gazillions of pieces of glass. Not the decorative kind. The broken bottle kind. I found broken pottery, and little plastic toys, lawn darts, and all kinds of debris hidden underneath the ivy. My kids would pretend that it was an archaelogical expedition and we were getting clues about the people who lived there before. Unfortunately what we discovered was that they left garbage around the yard. LOL!

The 'feeling of holding hands across the generations' - that's simply poetic! What a thought!

Thank you - that nice to hear.

Hi, all! I'm appending a link to another gardening thread which contains some of the most astounding plant combinations i've ever seen. To think that this is a private garden, not some grand public space which is a collaboration of many skilled minds, hearts and hands ... it leaves me speechless ...

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/msg0218060829768.html?51

I hope the link works!

Oh, my - I could spend the entire day drooling over those gardens!!! Thanks, Estreya, there are certainly some excellent combinations there to perhaps "copy?"

My thoughts exactly, Murmur. :) Foliage aside, one of the many things i'm particularly struck by is how effective the blooming color combinations are. As you've probably guessed from my various comments to date, i'm a bit color shy. But those gardens, and the other photographs posted here (yours among them) and in BrierGardener's thread are really swaying me.

This message was edited Feb 14, 2007 9:33 AM

That is a spectacular garden - I am really speechless. And he is only in there for less than 2 years? Extraordinary. Just beautiful.

I just signed up for that other gardening website - but just unregistered! How do you stop all of the pop up ads! Too much for me. Yikes - need a cuppa tea to calm down again. Sheesh.

This message was edited Feb 14, 2007 8:37 PM

Hi lucky gardeners in the PNW!!! I have often yearned to live in your part of the country, ever since I first visited Heronswood over 15 years ago. I have been out there 3-4 times over the years since. How much better a climate to garden in than the one I live in (SE MI, we are currently in the middle of a horrible cold snap after a very mild January, temps have been in the single digits or below for weeks, 10 inches of snow on the ground).

The garden you are talking about above is my garden, and thanks for all the kudos. I moved from a garden I had been in and made for 20 years before, in 2005. Quite an episode in my life, and the new place will certainly take a while to build to the level of the old one.

There are some other pictures of the new garden which show more of the beds which are farther along here (along with other gardeners pics)

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/msg0112462010663.html?52

If you want to see some much more mature pictures of my old garden and some of its combinations, there are some here:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/gal0722401012150.html?36
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/gal0921371413336.html?35
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/gal0619284725149.html?36

It has been fun for me to look at this thread and dream of gardening in the mild PNW. Thanks estreya...

David

Oh my, David, move on out this way and bring those splendid gardening skills with you . . . I'll be the first to sign up for your class!!!! I'm off to work, but plan to spend most of the evening in your gardens!

No no David, thank YOU! My heart literally thumps in my chest when i look at your photographs. The visuals alone really penetrate to my viscera, the very marrow of my perceptions of tranquility, passion, and divinity.

Without hesitation, I'd sign up for that class ... :)

And, Estreya, I want to take a writing class from you - you speak eloquently!

Okay, NOW I am out the door . . .

David, you have the Northwest flair! This is your gardening home!! Come on back and bring all those lovelies with you!

Hi, David,
It's amazing, i'll join Murmur in your class. I like your pairing of plants. Great job!

David, when I saw you were on the thread I had the feeling of being in the presence of celebrity!! How exciting. I had those pictures up on screen the entire time I was on a conference call - they are really breathtaking. Goodness knows what I agreed to during that meeting, but I was a happy happy bunny.

Since you are here, may I make a suggestion for finding some deadheading help without paying $30 an hour (my goodness some of my patients don't pay me that much!) - on this side of the pond, some of the big important gardens - Beth Chatto, Christopher Lloyd's garden, many of the National Trust gardens - have volunteer trainees that come to work a full year in the garden and be trained, guided, inspired by a particular gardener. I would suggest that you get in touch with Fergus Garrett (Great Dixter), introduce your garden to him, and talk to him about how they began generating their volunteers. He is an incredibly nice man, and I can't imagine he would not be as impressed as the rest of us. Your style, sense of balance, and structure is just brillant. You really seem to cross and blend the best of the East/West. I can't imagine that you would not be absolutely inundated with requests - particularly from Japan.

Many many thanks for such inspiring work.

This message was edited Feb 16, 2007 6:30 AM

Well, I am glad I stumbled on this forum -- you folks are all so complementary and appreciative! Thanks for the support. I would really like to find some volunteer help. Interesting, Laurie, that you should happen to mention Fergus Garrett. He is coming to the Detroit area in a month to give a lecture at a local nursery (which always brings in outstanding lecturers from around the world) on mixed border construction. I am going to that lecture, so perhaps I shall see if I can forward him some images and try to talk with him. You have also made me wonder if I should post something on the Michigan/midwest forums. It is interesting to me that I have often had more complements and interest in the various places I have posted on line from gardeners in the PNW, New England, England, and other places overseas than I have had from other midwestern gardeners. I think that is partly because -- and I may make a few enemies by saying this -- the tradition of good gardening is older and stronger and more widespread in those former regions than it is in the midwest. Anyway, I would love to find some people like this who would trade some work for experience/teaching from me (and no doubt, some good plants, since I have often 'shared the wealth' -- in terms of plants -- with people who have worked for me.

Anyway, thanks again to all for the suggestions and comments. Anyway, how about a couple more pictures of my old, more mature garden (though now largely dismantled:


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v475/david5311/DSC05855.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v475/david5311/Geraniumpratensemidjune100.jpg

Stunning, simply stunning!!!

Beautiful, David. : )

~Lucy

Sigh.

Excellent! So glad I could plant an idea in exchange for all of the ideas that your pictures are implanting!

Just incase you don't have it, here is the webaddress for Great Dixter http://www.greatdixter.co.uk/ Christopher Lloyd's fabulous gardens where Fergus Garrett is carrying on his legacy.

I just spent the better part of a dreary early Saturday morn in Christopher Lloyd's gardens . . . thank you, Laurie, for the link!

David's gardens-- absolutely amazing, gorgeous leaf and flower combinations!
Dixter House-- Wow! fields of wild flowers, drifts of daffodils.... Maybe I could do something like that with my rough pasture that surrounds the house, but it says you might get taken over by nettles and other weeds if you don't manage it right (which seems to happen around here with distressing frequency).

Sadly, Maury, I can vouch for that fact. Nettles, thistle, blackberries, weedy grass, etc.

The combinations are tantalizing aren't they? I've been looking at the photographs daily and have felt both intimidated and inspired as far as translating them to my own space is concerned. Clearly, come Spring, i'll just have to travel with my computer and inform the various nursery personnel that i want whatever i need to "make that," upon which i'll point to the screen like a slack-jawed clodpate. Or, ala Murmur, i can say, give me three of everything! :)

LOL - you probably thought I was kidding!

Well, quite coincidentally, after i read your "three of everything" comment, i realized i DO tend to buy things in triplicate. Great minds, hm? ;)

As far as design is concerned, i remember reading somewhere about a "triangle" theory of plant positioning; i.e., connecting three height points should create a perfect triangle. I haven't really gotten the feel for that yet, because i simply don't have the plant material at this point to test the philosophy. It might be more "thinking and planning" than i really want to do ... we'll see ... :)

I'm afraid I kind of shoot from the hip when it comes to "planning" my gardens! They usually turn out okay, but I end up changing things often as well. (Of course, the way my house is, I can't change the furniture around at all so I have to satisfy that need in my gardens!!!)

Why can't you change the furniture?

I spent the day yesterday taking cuttings and dividing some new plants that I just bought (three large Cornus Canadensis are now 6 medium largish, and 20 cuttings). The cuttings are all on the hot bed, and the divisions are in the cold frame - just giving them some 'plumping up' before planting out later in the season.

Made me wonder who else is using a greenhouse. I know Brier is just building one - but are they less common in the US than over here - few gardeners here, that I know, could live (oops, I mean garden) without one. May be just plants are so much more available, and affordable in the US. David, if you are still around, are you doing much of your own propagation?

Mauryhill - don't let weed problems put you off taking in your rough area. You have to start somewhere, and in time it will also become manageable. Remember, Christo Lloyd worked for years and years to get his up and running - just start with an area and then keep going. I'm just reclaiming an old paddock which has been so overgrown it is now going to be a woodland area - and we are trying to eradicate the anthriscus that has absolutely taken over. I'm working on the peg-it-out method: I mark out a 4 metre sq area with bamboo poles, peg them down so when I step on them they don't move, and then weed like mad never looking at the rest of the area (about 3/4 acre). I just found that I couldn't even comtemplate taking this on by looking at the entire site. I've now covered about 25 sq mtrs. Works. So how many more does that leave? Well, it sort of works.

Now, work-work calls so that I can afford some more plants!

Glad all of you enjoyed Great Dixter, it is a knock out.

This message was edited Feb 18, 2007 9:56 PM

Laurie, I had a greenhouse when I lived in Seattle, but don't have a place for one here. And I can't change the furniture around because the living room is long and narrow with all windows on one side. The other side has a tall bookcase and the china hutch which wouldn't work in front of the windows!!! The "end" wall has our large TV which DH can watch from the kitchen when he is cooking (I am sooooo lucky - he does 95% of the cooking, including meals for my parents). The house is pretty much an open concept with not a lot of division between the rooms. The kitchen and dining area also has a corner with a wood burning stove, so there can't be much changing there either!

Your advice about not looking at the entire "bad" area is perfect - I need to remember that.

Wow, what a house! And you are on an island! Sounds wonderful. As does husband. Does he do take-away orders?

But I still think I need a green house too - although with all those windows........