These gardening books might be for you!

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve received some gardening books in the mail to review.  Despite the fact that I no longer write for the city paper, the kind folks at Thomas Allen & Son and Firefly Books still send me titles that might be of interest to gardeners in my neck of the woods.

I said, “Sure, I’d be happy to receive them.  But I’ll be honest about what I think.”  As if they would then say, “Oh, no, I’m sorry then.  We’ll take you off our list.”  So damn the torpedoes — let’s take a look.

The first, called “the less is more garden: BIG IDEAS FOR DESIGNING YOUR SMALL YARD” (adept use of typography there) by susan morrison, is published by Timber Press (2018) and available in Canada through Thomas Allen & Son ($29.95 US).

This book follows on the heels of my own recent thoughts about minimalism, both stylistically and practically.  The days of planting gardens with perennials beds nine feet deep and fifty feet long are long gone.  In fact, they were never “on”, other than in the dreams presented by big glossy coffee table books making us feel inadequate and not up to the task.  I blame Martha Stewart for much of this and all of those National Trust properties across the pond that were pulled back from the brink and planted up with Gertrude Jekyll-type borders, not only full of colour but also stakes and wires and other supports, requiring spraying and clipping and wiping down by teams of professional gardeners.

Anyway, small gardens that look great with less seems on the face of it to be sad and defeatist, but in reality, elegance is often achieved in the garden with fewer plants.  The author Susan Morrison is a landscape designer working out of California and as such this book spends much of its time talking about creating outdoor spaces to be lived in for much of the year.

One of her introductory chapters presents templates for smallish backyards with specific challenges: a long and narrow space, an awkward, wedge-shaped space and a relatively larger space that was required to be multi-functional.  The last template is clearly for homeowners who want a calm retreat but are not active gardeners.

It is perhaps not surprising that lawn does not figure predominantly in Morrison’s designs or discussion.  Her gardens centre around the use of patios, pathways, decks and other surfaces that don’t require constant mowing and fertilizing.  She favours well-placed planters, raised vegetable and herb plots, as well as mixed plantings of trees, shrubs and perennials.

Because her book’s challenge is small spaces, she identifies plants that can satisfy different important functions given this mandate: for example, plants that can be enjoyed in the moonlight (after a hard day’s work), herbs for all the senses, diaphanous plants that don’t block the sun or view, plants that cover ground or that grow upwards (i.e. against and over walls), plants that mimic water, and of course plants that don’t require much from us but that still have much to offer (colourful foliage, a more diminutive size, and plants that perform especially well in each season).

Unfortunately for us, the plants she lists are often too tender for us to grow in our zone 4-5 climate.  And in a place (California) where perennials often act as shrubs and vice versa, her lists often don’t make clear which is which, something that can be problematic for the novice gardener or designer.

Her designs have a distinctly Californian feel to them, with brick patios, adobe buildings with brightly coloured trim and giant rosemary plants alongside succulents.  Still, there are enough ideas and direction here, both in text and photos, to point someone with a small space in the right direction.  With the pragmatism of a professional who has learned that less is almost always best, Morrison tells you to ask yourself these three questions before you plan:

• what will you be doing in the garden?
• when will you be outside?
• who will be with you?

By doing this, you won’t waste even a square inch and end up with a garden you can truly use and feel at home in.

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By contrast and boy, do I mean contrast, there is Andy Vernon’s colourful manifesto called “THE flower-powered GARDEN: Super-Charge Your Borders and Containers with Bold, Colourful Plant Combinations“, published as well by Timber Press (2018) and available in Canada through Thomas Allen & Son ($29.95 US).

Let me tell you right away that this is a book not everyone will embrace and is diametrically opposed in style and temperament to the previous book.  Whereas Morrison’s book is understated and refined, Vernon’s approach is unbridled and passionate.  But if you love colour and are not in the least intimidated by it, this is the book for you!

Vernon’s interest is the Victorian art of “bedding out” and container planting.  His approach is highly personal in that, at first glance, his arrangement of plants seems haphazard.  But if you look more closely, it is really quite quirky and humorous.  He is unapologetic about his love for colour, and more than this, about his passion for combinations that are either electric, romantic, nostalgic or trendy.

The book starts as he recounts his Cheshire, England, gardening upbringing alongside his granddad, where he admits that his plant fetish began.  He visited the numerous allotments that his granddad lovingly tended and then they took regular walks through the public park “bedding” displays to “ooh” and “aahh” at the colours.  He was hooked.

There are two chapters at the beginning that deal with colour theory (contrasting vs complementary, harmonious, etc.), choosing where, how and what to display, as well as where to view plantings that can inspire your own.  He then talks about care and cultivation of your plantings.

But it is really the following chapters, variously titled “Sherbet spring into summer”, “Royal velvet”, and “Liquorice allsorts” that allow him to go crazy with combinations of annuals, bulbs, vines, shrubs and tropical plants that together make an impressive and unforgettable display.

If you’re queasy, you’ll find many of them a bit too, let’s say, exuberant.  But don’t worry – he’s thought of you too with his less electric and more “refined” combinations, for example, of bronze, apricot, mahogany and marmalade plant collection.  Or if you’re a classicist, try the pastels in the combination called “Apple Blossom”. Or if you consider yourself more on trend, the sophisticated collection called “Chocolate limes”.

What’s missing here is a completed display and corresponding photo for each featured combination — that’s too bad.  Of course, the options presented for each theme is far more than is needed, and I do like the fact that he has identified every plant with its full botanical name, including the most relevant part, its cultivar name.

The way to use this book is not to jot down every plant in each featured combination and then go out and find them.  That will drive you mad because you won’t find them all in one place.  But rather look through each combination to find what appeals to you, make note of the colours and perhaps some of the names – especially of the plants that will end up being the centre of attention – and then visit the nursery or garden centre to see what they have.  You’ll find that the plant you saw in this book is in reality not the size you expected it to be, or that it’s flower is much smaller than you envisioned.  As a result, you’ll have to make changes on the fly as you plan and then buy.

This book provides a great opportunity to teach your eye — to understand what colours work well together and which combinations appeal to you.  It may teach you to be more adventurous in your juxtapositions and introduce you to plants you hadn’t met before.

But most of all, this book will give you the eye candy you crave after months and months of white and gray.

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Next review post will talk about Niki Jabbour’s Veggie Garden Remix: 224 New Plants to Shake Up Your Garden and Add Variety, Flavor, and Fun (Storey Publishing, 2018 – distributed by Firefly Books in Canada; $19.95 US) and Emily Murphy’s Grow What You Love: 12 Food Plant Families to Change Your Life (Firefly Books, 2018; $ 29.95 CAN).

 

 

 

 

 

Jeff’s countryside idyll

It is hard to believe that there is life outside on a day when your cheeks will freeze in five minutes!  The birds are huddled in evergreens, the squirrels curled up in their leafy beds and the mice and voles are buried deep under their blankets of snow and soil.  Only the pushy crows and hungry hawks can be seen cutting through the skies….

I lie on the couch in front of a gentle fire with my dog Scout curled on my legs.  I’m half watching an impossibly young, blonde couple looking for a house in Goa, India, and in other moments, the unending and maddening political analysis on CNN.

What would be better than going back in time, back to the summer and to one of my favourite places, my friend Jeff’s house in the Quebec countryside.  Come with me as I show you his place, with gardens that are now relatively mature.  Jeff invites me annually so I can swish around the gardens, point here and there, saying this needs to go here and something else needs to go here instead.  He is a very patient man.

If you’re interested in earlier visits to this garden, go here, here and here.

The house’s blue mirrors the colour of the lake below.  Jeff is working on the forest that descends to the water, culling the diseased and dead ones, thinning some to maximize the view but still give privacy and encouraging the “keepers”.

The monumental thyme steps have grown in and beckon the visitor to follow….a path that leads to a grassy landing at the backside of the house, held up by another beautifully constructed stone wall that holds the hillside.

The multi-stemmed Amur maple (Acer ginnala), which turns a rich shade of red in the fall and is bullet-proof in terms of disease and insect damage, is surrounded by the species form of Japanese forest grass, Hakonechloa macra.  A few shaped golden cedars join the party but will likely be moved elsewhere as this form of forest grass grows quite tall and dwarfs them.

The dry-laid flagstone patio at the front of the house is a step down from the gravel road but is the perfect place to sit for tea or simply to enjoy the garden.  Pots with bright annuals are perched about, lending the space intense colour.  Indeed, primary colours abound in this new design — Jeff’s younger love of pastel colours has matured into a passion for depth and richness.

This raised bed, the first to be seen from the road, combines creeping sedums, Siberian cypress, Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and purple moor grass (Molinia caerulea), among others.  The idea is for the plants here to be low or diaphanous, so they do not present a visual barrier to the other plantings.

The bristlecone pine (at right; Pinus aristata) provides structure and interest.  A slow growing, beautiful, unique and ancient evergreen, it will over time reach great heights — but long after Jeff has kicked the bucket (sorry Jeff!)

The solidity and gorgeous texture of these stones are in glorious contrast to the plants above and adjacent.  The mounded shrubs that bracket this step are lace shrub or cut-leaf Stephanandra (Stephanandra incisa ‘Crispa’), which will over time tumble down over the edges.  They produce delicate white flowers in the early summer which attract the hum of bees and wasps; in autumn, the foliage turns a brilliant gold.  Jeff’s bold colour choices in this circular bed include lilies, beebalm, yarrow, geranium, garden phlox (yet to bloom), persicaria (the garden-worthy type!) and Calamagrostis.  The staked tree at the corner of the house is a young fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus), which will produce white filigree blossoms before it matures in late spring, early summer.  Hardy to Zone 3, it will provide an interesting feature and a tree for visitors to talk about long after they leave.

Thank you Jeff for letting me be a part of your beautiful countryside idyll!  I can’t wait for next year……….

 

A winter reverie…

….with colourful summer planters!  But first, here I am with my big sister in the Gatineau hills.  She’s holding the leaf; I’m eating an apple.  My two loves: the outdoors and food.

Successful summer planters are full and lush.  They are also fearless and creative….

This is the planter that undergoes seasonal changes at True Loaf bakery on Gladstone in Ottawa’s centretown.  If you crave chewy, flavourful, delicious and inventive bread, both savoury and sweet, this is your destination!

This planter combines white cosmos, buttery yellow petunia, golden Carex, white Gaura, ‘Diamond Frost’ euphorbia, a hit of fire-y zinnia, ‘Tiger Eye’ sumac and the blades of Acidanthera.  It probably didn’t need the orange-red zinnia, or else would have benefited from more plants of that colour.  Oh well – live and learn.

As you can clearly see, I can’t get enough of yellow, chartreuse, green and white, so this is my garden in the early summer.  Incorporating a large pot into a garden planting can be very rewarding and can afford a big statement, that can be changed according to the season.

This is a family garden, where kidlets enjoy the raised pond and lawn play area while the adults appreciate the colourful planters.   Grouping smaller planters like this into a vignette makes a bigger statement than just one.  As you can see, the blue-silvery planter is raised on a simple metal stand, giving it extra height and presence.

Planters can be anything — this one uses an antique bucket to great effect and is very much a part of the garden display in a plant nursery in Hudson, NY.

The same nursery, this time with a large copper tub acting as planter, along with a vintage red truck.  Such whimsy!  When you’re building your arrangements, think about coloured foliage as much as you think about flower colour….

This mirrored planting shows the value of both scale and foliage.  Palms provide bulk and height, massive ‘Gryphon’ begonias (large, palm shaped leaves) provide texture and a metallic quality, ‘Bonfire’ begonias shout red and English ivy trail.  This is the perfect combination for a sheltered, shady porch.

Another entrance planter enthralls in the sunshine with luscious chartreuse, yellow and black….

I can’t wait to create some new combinations in 2017…..

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Colourful and natural planters for the holidays

Christmas is coming and so is our opportunity to do something festive and special.  A tree, yes, but also a planter outdoors that allows us to be as flamboyant or as natural as we like.

The folks at Mill Street Florist in Manotick always mix the unexpected: in this outdoor display, cut red roses are paired with winterberry (Ilex verticillata) to produce an undeniable punch of red.  Of course, red roses will not survive sub-zero temperatures for long, so this combination is best for indoors, perhaps a cool vestibule, or outdoors during mild weather.

My planter a few years ago was simple: imported cedar from British Columbia (much softer and greener than ours here), snipped wild rosehips and large pinecones.  Simple but effective, at least before it was covered with snow!

A small yet jewel-like basket from Mill Street Florist.  Bark, cones, grapevine and greens combine with colourful berries, a rich rose and demure, artificial apples.

Simple, natural displays can be all you need or want.

Consider that if you want red, winterberry and rosehips are entirely different in their effect…

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While winterberry (left) is bold and lush and can be seen from a distance, rosehips (right) are much smaller and present a looser, more natural and spare effect.

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Whatever you do, keep scale in mind.  A small arrangement is best reserved for the mantle or table-scape, while a large (weatherproof) urn works best next to your entry.

Stuff, stuff, stuff; think about texture, movement and colour; and ensure it has impact.

You don’t need to spend a lot of money.

Search the woods for different conifers and snip branches selectively.

Use dried flowers like hydrangea and seedheads like those from sumac and wildflowers.

And don’t forget to add height with dogwood, curly willow, birch branches or whatever you fancy.

Make something special and enjoy your creation through the holidays and beyond.

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Perfection in a pocket

Earlier this summer I had the pleasure of visiting Kristin Kendall’s garden in an old central neighbourhood of our city.  Tucked next to the Rideau River, and surrounded by other charming homes of similar vintage, the Kendall home is full of character and style.  And so is the garden.

Barely large enough to swing a cat, the natural paving stone patio nonetheless is furnished with a small teak table and two wicker viewing chairs.  The secateurs and trowel on the table are not props; Kristin and her husband Bill (my old high school teacher no less!) are active workers in this jewel of a garden and keenly choreograph the plants and keep them happy and healthy.  There is not a weed to be seen!

Of course, there is no swinging of cats here.  Sorry, didn’t mean to offend.

The colours in this half and half sunny/shady garden are hot and luminous.  The brights include Ligularia dentata ‘Desdemona’, as well as a scarlet coleus, a lupin, Japanese blood grass, a dark border sedum and monarda in the rear.  A weeping hemlock on the right, Virginia creeper on the fence and a Serbian spruce on the left all provide a green backdrop for this brilliant canvas.

A stone water bowl with rhythmic striations provides a feature in the garden as well as a drink for wildlife.  These grooves are mimicked by the shadows of the iris growing alongside.

Kristin would have me tell you that the garden is impeccable at this moment because it is post-tour.  But I’m not so sure — I think the stylish gardener and homeowner is detail oriented every day.

On this day the hyssop was absolutely covered in buzzing bees; a sound that complemented that of the gently bubbling fountain…

 

The weeping larch cascades to the ground alongside the giant boulder, bubbling constantly.  Everything is compact in this garden, but every inch has been thoughtfully filled.

Non-living details in this garden are chosen with style and taste.  Kendall’s brother is the owner of Balleycanoe & Co., a business that sells 19th century architectural salvage pieces in Mallorytown.

This garden is truly a labour of love and the owners appreciate what they have helped to create.  You may even find one of them sitting, every once in a while, appreciating the view…

The Landscapes of Canada gardens at the Museum of Nature in Ottawa

Many of us already know the dioramas at Canada’s Museum of Nature in Ottawa: the grizzlies, the caribou, the pronghorns and even the dinosaurs.  As a child, I would gaze at these immobilized animals behind glass and imagine living among them, either in the distant past or in the wilds of today.

Pronghorns diorama, Canadian Museum of Nature, 2007; photo Denis Larouche

But I was also always mesmerized by the scenes that surrounded these beasts: the painted flora, the cliffs, the expansive plains….all landscapes that seemed to have disappeared along with the animals that populated them.  Not only the scenes but the dried plants and paintings of plants that dressed the landscapes…

Artist Denis Larouche working on the vegetative display in the Pronghorns diorama at the Canadian Museum of Nature, 2007; photo Jenni Walker

As I grew up, I longed to see these distant landscapes as they lived and breathed, rather than preserved …. and this is probably why I became a gardener.  And if I couldn’t always go to these far away landscapes, I could try to grow the plants that inhabited them.

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The western edge of the Canadian Museum of Nature in downtown Ottawa has been park-like for as long as I can remember.  And by park-like, I mean predominantly lawn and shade trees….a perfect complement to the early 20th century “Scottish Baronial” structure, designed to reflect the centre block of the Parliament Buildings.  To understand the history of the lawn, read this.  To be entertained by the concept of the lawn, read Michael Pollan’s wonderful book Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education, particularly Chapter 3, where he talks about our cultural imperative of mowing (courtesy the 1830 invention of the lawnmower).

Aerial view of the Canadian Museum of Nature, pre-2004; image courtesy of Canadian Museum of Nature website (www.nature.ca).  The west side park is on the extreme right.

This western side of the Museum was also home most recently to a family group of woolly mammoths.  It was a striking sight to pedestrians, dog-walkers and lunch-time loiterers and a portend of what visitors would find inside the historic building:  giant animals from our past.

In late 2011 and early 2012, plans began to take shape for the new appearance of this piece of green space.  It would represent the last stage of renovations to the building and its surroundings that began in 2004.  According to the Museum’s Advisory to the neighbourhood:

“This plan is one that will ultimately result in restoring more than half of the existing west side property into parkland for the enjoyment and benefit of the community.”

Happily, the result of this design is not simply a “parkland” but a carefully designed microcosm of Canada’s main four eco-zones, each with their own distinctive plant species: namely, the boreal forest, prairie, tundra (Arctic) and steppe grassland (this last area was included primarily to embrace our old friends, the woolly mammoths).

So in June 2015, the Museum made public their concept for fully Canadian-izing this public space and issued a press release that included this announcement:

“A living outdoor botanical exhibit will soon enliven the grounds of the Canadian Museum of Nature. Starting the third week of June, the museum will begin landscaping the west side of its property to develop the Landscapes of Canada Gardens.”

A full year later in June 2016 the new landscape of Canada will be unveiled to the public.  There will be the usual benches, pathways, signage and light standards, but there will also be some things that are very unusual….

Starting with the iceberg.

William Lishman with iceberg sculpture at Canadian Museum of Nature, 2015.  Photo: Alan Neal, CBC

Glistening stainless steel.  Monumental.  Interactive.  Stunning.  And designed by Father Goose, William Lishman.  Of course it represents Canada’s North in a very modern way, but also hearkens back to the paintings of Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris who travelled to the Arctic in the 1930s aboard the government supply ship “Beothic.”

The vegetation around the sculptural highlight of this garden mimics the tundra, with plants that are indigenous to the Arctic.  They have also been chosen according to what will potentially thrive in Ottawa’s sweltering summers and unpredictable winters.  This was largely Paul Sokoloff’s job: he is the Museum’s Senior Research Assistant with the Botany Department and he wrote about the gardens here.  In preparation for the installation, Paul worked with the team at CSW Landscape Architects, namely Martha Lush, and came up with a list of plants that would suit this planting.  And here they are:

TUNDRA PLANT LIST

Shrubs

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (Bearberry)

Betula nana (Dwarf birch)

Rhododendron groenlandicum (Labrador tea)

Salix arctica (Arctic willow)

Vaccinum caespitosum (Dwarf blueberry)

Perennials/Grasses

Allium schoenoprasum (Chive)

Anemone patens subsp. multifida (Pasque flower/crocus)

Calliergon giganteum (Arctic moss)

Carex saxatilis (Rock sedge)

Empetrum nigrum (Black crowberry)

Puccinellias (Alkali grass)

Saxifraga cespitosa (Tufted saxifrage)

Saxifraga oppositifolia (Purple saxifrage)

Silene acaulis (Moss campion)

 

The Arctic planting will essentially be low-growing, because that’s the way things grow up there, and include novel plants (to you and I, anyway) like Betula nana ….

Betula glandulosa; July 2009, NWT, taken by Jeff Saarela, Canadian Museum of Nature

This is Betula glandulosa, which the experts will tell you differs from B. nana in that it exhibits glandular warts on the shoots and longer leaf petioles — alrighty then.  Betula nana, which will be planted in this garden, is a monoecious shrub (that is, having both male and female parts – making reproduction a snap in its challenging native habitat) growing upwards to 1 or 1.2 metres high.  Its growing habit is low and spreading, with leaves that are shiny and diminutive and it produces catkins that stand upright, awaiting the wind to help with pollination.

Carex saxatilis; Roger Bull, 2012, Canadian Museum of Nature

Russet sedge, botanically called Carex saxatilis, grows up to 80-90 centimeters high in a dense, well-behaved tuft.  This sedge grows in northern regions around the earth, preferring wetlands but also grows  on ridges or ledges, shores of rivers or lakes and wetland margins.

This brings me to moisture.  The water loving plants in the Arctic garden at the Museum are being given a helping hand through the installation of a drip irrigation system, and the area is being mulched with granite rubble.

Artist’s rendering of the Arctic eco-zone in the Landscapes of Canada Gardens; courtesy CSW Landscape Architects, via Canadian Museum of Nature

This new “park land” replaces turf grasses with native grasses.  Grasses like these:

The rusty brown narrow inflorescence are rendered conspicuous by the often large numbers of flowering stalks within a single stand.  Photo by Matt Lavin — originally posted to Flickr as Calamagrostis stricta

And these:

Deschampsia caespitosa; photo by: Christian Fischer

The prairie eco-zone in this garden will showcase plants that are familiar to many of us: Echinacea, Achillea, Aster, Rudbeckia and Liatris, and they will mingle with prairie grasses.  However, these are not the showy cultivars you’ll see at the nursery, but rather the native species that you may see at Fletcher Wildlife Garden at the Central Experimental Farm.

Indeed, the folks at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden have provided many of the plants that have already been put in place or seeded in the sunny prairie garden, which will over time look quite like this:

Butterfly meadow, June 2009, Fletcher Wildlife Garden, Ottawa: photo by Christine Hanrahan — showing fireweed, brown-eyed Susan, yarrow & feverfew, etc.

A circular area will be mown in the centre of the prairie garden to allow a space for contemplation and for educational opportunities where students can learn about native Canadian wildflowers and meadow ecology.

PRAIRIE AND BOREAL PLANT LIST

Large deciduous trees

Acer saccharum (Sugar maple)

Quercus rubra (Red oak)

Populus tremuloides (Trembling aspen)

 

Small deciduous trees

Amelanchier alnifolia (Saskatoon berry)

 

Coniferous trees

Abies balsamea (Balsam fir)

Larix laricina (Black larch)

Picea glauca (White spruce)

Pinus banksiana (Jack pine)

Tsuga canadensis (Hemlock)

 

Shrubs

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (Bearberry)

Empetrum nigrum (Crowberry)

Juniperus communis (Common juniper)

Juniperus horizontalis (Creeping juniper)

Matteuccia struthiopteris (Ostrich fern)

Potentilla tridentata (Cinquefoil)

Rosa acicularis (Prickly wild rose)

Rhododendron groenlandicum (Labrador tea)

Vaccinium caespitosum (Dwarf blueberry)

Vaccinium vitas-idea (Bog cranberry)

 

Perennials

Achillea millefolium (Common yarrow)

Allium stellatum (Pink flowering onion)

Anemone patens subsp. multifida (Pasque flower/Prairie crocus)

Anemone quinquefolia (Wood anemone)

Armeria splendens (Common thrift)

Asclepias incarnata (Swamp milkweed)

Aster alpinus (Alpine aster)

Aster novae-angliae (New England aster)

Cornus canadensis (Bunchberry)

Echinacea angustifolia (Purple coneflower)

Eupatorium maculatum (Joe Pye weed)

Liatris ligulistylis (Meadow blazing star)

Papaver nudicaule (Iceland poppy)

Ranunculus acris (Tall buttercup)

Rudbeckia hirta (Black eyed Susan)

Trillium grandiflorum (Large flowered trillium)

 

Grasses

Calamagrostis stricta (Slim stem small reed grass)

Deschampsia caespitosa (Tufted hair grass)

Much of the seed mix in the prairie garden has come from the Living Prairie Museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  This city-run nature preserve comprises 12 hectares (30 acres) in the middle of the city of Winnipeg and protects 160 species of prairie plants and wildlife.  The Living Prairie Museum is a virtually untouched tall grass prairie, an eco-system that once covered one million square kilometres from Manitoba to Texas.  Seeds that are native to the tall grass prairie were sent to the folks here in Ottawa and planted in the prairie garden in the spring of 2015.  I’m sure the spring and summer of 2016 will see a glorious display!

PRAIRIE SEED MIX

Perennials

Agastache foeniculum (Giant hyssop)

Allium stellatum (Pink flowering onion)

Anemone patens subsp. multifida (Pasque flower/Prairie crocus)

Aquilegia canadensis (Wild red columbine)

Asclepias incarnata (Swamp milkweed)

Aster novae-angliae (New England aster)

Echinacea angustifolia (Purple coneflower)

Epilobium angustifolium (Fireweed)

Eupatorium maculatum (Joe Pye weed)

Dalea purpurea (Purple prairie clover)

Liatris ligulistylis (Meadow blazing star)

Ratibida columnifera (Yellow coneflower)

Rudbeckia hirta (Black eyed Susan)

 

Grasses

Agrostis scabra (Hair grass)

Bouteloua gracilis (Blue grama grass)

Koeleria cristata (Junegrass)

Schizachyrium scoparium (Little bluestem)

 

Tall grass mix

Andropogon gerardi (Big bluestem)

Bouteloua curtipendula (Side oats grama)

Elymus canadensis (Canada wild rye)

Panicum virgatum (Switch grass)

Sorghastum nutans (Indian grass)

Artist’s rendering of the Boreal eco-zone in the Landscapes of Canada Gardens; courtesy CSW Landscape Architects, via Canadian Museum of Nature

The boreal forest will be a shady retreat for visitors to the Landscapes of Canada gardens.  Healthy existing trees have been supplemented with sympathetic native species like Sugar maple, red oak and trembling aspen, alongside some iconic evergreen species like Jack pine, hemlock, white spruce, black larch and balsam fir.

Picea glauca (white spruce) 2014; Paul Sokoloff, Canadian Museum of Nature

And finally, the mammoths have been moved but they have not been forgotten…

No longer next to the rushing traffic on O’Connor Street, they have been shifted to their new north-facing home next to McLeod Street.  And rather than a bed of gravel, they will graze in a planting of shrubs, grasses and perennials that would have been around when they traveled across the Bering Strait into our northern landscape.

MAMMOTH STEPPE PLANTING

Shrubs and Grasses

Juniperus communis

Potentilla tridentata

Rosa acicularis

Calamagrostis stricta

Deschampsia caespitosa

 

Perennials

Anemone patens

Achillea millefolium

Armeria splendens

Aster alpinus

Papaver nudicaule

Ranunculus acris

The final plantings of this series of gardens will be in the Arctic Garden this spring.  By Saturday June 18th, the gardens will be open to the public and are invited to come and enjoy this spectacular botanical display.  Go to http://www.nature.ca for updates on this launch.

I really look forward to being one of those visitors who sit, saunter, eat, read, listen to the birds and watch the butterflies in this new space.  The garden will be such a joy in the middle of town, just one mile south of the Parliament Buildings.

Artist’s rendering of the Prairie garden, Landscapes of Canada Gardens, Canada Museum of Nature; courtesy CSW Landscape Architects and Canada Museum of Nature

Planting plan for Landscapes of Canada Gardens, Canadian Museum of Nature; by CSW Landscape Architects, Ottawa.  Courtesy Canadian Museum of Nature

LES QUATRES VENTS: PART II

I was reminded by a reader the other day that I had promised an additional entry on this iconic garden.  I had visited it way, way back in 2013 but somehow my second installment never made it onto the page….

Let’s try again.

Time and space made me realize I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was left unsettled by this garden.

It is perched high above the surrounding valley, with views reaching down to the St. Lawrence in what was, and remains for many, the playground of the well-heeled.

When the gardens at Les Quatres Vents were created in the last quarter of the 20th century, Francis Cabot’s horticultural, historical and architectural aspirations were reflected through these landscape expressions.  This level of excellence was made possible through wealth and high-society connections and Cabot’s creations mimicked the famous gardens in England, France and Japan, drawing upon (literally, physically and ideologically) the most influential gardeners, artisans and horticulturists of the day.

All this was taking place during the gardening boom in North America, when the work of contemporary British gardeners like Rosemary Verey, Penelope Hobhouse, Christopher Lloyd and Graham Stuart-Thomas were being heralded for the first time to us colonials.  More than this, the historical gardens of British icons like Gertrude Jekyll, Vita Sackville-West and Russell Page were being documented in lush picture books that beginner gardeners began to devour (much to the delight of the big publishing houses in New York and London).  Cabot’s hedges channeled those in almost every English estate garden, while his languorous half-circle stone staircases reflected those designed by the famed British architect and “taste-maker” Edwin Lutyens.

He sought their advice and held to it strictly …..

…witness the rose garden under-planted with pinks (Dianthus), a la Russell Page’s instruction.

There are allees, precisely clipped hedges and regimented sight-lines galore, which in my mind are a stereotypical fetish of the male gardener.  Think Lawrence Johnston of Hidcote Manor fame.

But I ask you, when is rigidity visually pleasurable and when is it claustrophobic?

When is repetition satisfying and when is it predictable and formulaic?

And when is monumentalism awe-inspiring and when is it simply exhibitionism?

There were moments in this garden when I couldn’t help wondering, “Where is the authentic spirit of the place? Where is the place I can sit and feel at peace near the mouth of the St-Lawrence, without feeling the uncomfortable imposition of prestige and power?”

There were moments when I thought I had found that place …. but the question remained:  were these choreographed moments where the garden designer had anticipated the blurring effects of time or simply nature triumphing over artifice …?  And did it matter?

In this new 21st century world where we are loosening our grip around nature, letting plants be what they intrinsically are without shaping, coddling, orchestrating and overseeing, it was the moments where wildness seemed to win where I found the most pleasure…

But there were also dream-like “garden” moments that were clearly the result of intensive construction projects.  The relative instant gratification they must have provided Cabot is almost breath-taking.  Take his homage to the Japanese garden.

Cabot’s Japanese garden, like its inspiration on the other side of the world, combines stone, water, temple and plants.  There is no question that it creates a place of contemplation where the furthest thing from your mind is artifice or incongruity (if this Asian art is new to you) …… and yet, in this Quebec countryside, it is exactly that.  It tries but it is not an authentic Japanese garden experience.  But, isn’t imitation the sincerest form of flattery?

And then there were the plants….

As Cabot himself characterized it, his garden had to be a “greater perfection.”  A skilled stonemason constructed the terraces, walls and stairs; a craftsman borrowed from Japan built the tea house; visiting professionals were asked for input on the plants and gardens.  Cabot sought instruction from the very best and when he couldn’t do some of the practical stuff himself, he hired those who could.

Many of these plants are moisture lovers that require cool summers and humous-rich soil.  And so, in order to grow these spectacular Asian beauties (Rodgersia, Primula, Lilium, Iris, Meconopsis), soil was moved, trees were planted, water was directed and misters were rigged.  It is the perfect man-made environment.

So isn’t that what a garden is anyway?

Perhaps it’s just sour grapes.

Still, I choose imperfection.  Because I am.

I will visit what is presented as perfection, with my eyes gazing up and down in awe and my mind overwhelmed with the logistics.  But I will feel at home with much less.

A house in the country: stone, water and plants

I have written about my friend Jeff’s garden before, first here and then, here.  It has been a work in progress for several years now and just this summer, the work will finally be completed.

And the front of Jeff’s country ‘estate’ will have gone from this:

To this:

This garden has been a labour of love by three people: the homeowner, Jeff, of course who had high standards of excellence and a very clear vision of how he wanted his garden to look and feel; Jo Hodgson, who excels at making stone do exactly what she wants, in a way that is durable, beautiful and totally sympathetic to the landscape around it; and me, who just wanted to play with plants and be a part of this garden creation in paradise from Day 1.

The house and garden in question are on a hill overlooking a lake in the Quebec hills.

The slope from back to front is substantial, necessitating not only a tall wall but also a considerable staircase from the front road to the back door of the house.

This curved stone wall is one of the masterpieces of the project, with monumental stone steps alongside it.

The stairs are now how Jeff envisioned them: wide, generous and planted with mother of thyme and taller scented thymes, so that the progression downward is a sensory experience.

There are chairs placed here and there so that Jeff can come out with his morning coffee and experience the garden from different angles….

The gravel driveway is bound by large stones that hold a series of garden beds.  This raised one holds a tapestry of ground hugging sedums, Siberian cypress, creeping phlox and then diaphanous grasses — these are Molinia caerulea (Moor grass) that will throw up wands of waving seed heads in the late summer….

This highest bed, closest to the road, includes a Bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata), which although slow-growing, will act as an evergreen anchor to this entry garden bed.

The lower bed closest to the entry patio sports classic perennials like catmint, Siberian iris and more…

…and the bed against the sunny side of the house sports beebalm, achillea and other hot plants, with morning glory climbing up the blue walls.

The bed next to the front door is Jeff’s Ode to Tom Stuart-Smith and his love of juxtaposition:  here we have used the species Hakonechloa macra alongside Thuja occidentalis ‘Golden Globe’ and a central pivot provided by an Acer ginnala (a multi-stemmed Amur maple) — as the Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ expired the year before from the harsh winter conditions.

A beautifully large and lusciously chartreuse pot holds a spectacular petunia cultivar called ‘Phantom’, along with an Angel’s trumpet (Datura cv.)  Despite being nipped by the frost in late spring, the display is lush and striking.

The last frontier is the retaining wall at the rear of the house — certainly not a highly visible location but nevertheless, the same attention to detail and precision is going into the construction of this wall.

It is a spectacular project that is coming to a close.  I hope to return in the fall to take some more shots of this beautiful house with its developing garden in the fiery autumn colours.  Stay tuned…

A young family’s garden: space for plants, kids *and* quiet contemplation

An established garden can be both a curse and an opportunity.  A curse because chances are you will be dealing with plants that have been loved and let loose by the previous owners for decades.  And an opportunity because once the jumble is untangled and the potential is uncovered, the new garden can be a gem.  This was the case in a garden that was developed over a period of several years, transitioning from a forgotten, tired space to an active and changing one… I am happy to have helped this transition along…

In the case of this particular garden, four large trees have provided both shade and root competition.  They straddle the west side of the garden — an ancient apple, two green ash and one butternut — and it was a surprise to all that the ash were the first to fail.  As everyone in Ottawa now knows, the last two years has seen the emerald ash borer decimate the green ash population in our city.  It seems few trees have been spared and the two in this garden have also unfortunately joined the list.  Apple trees are prone to every single type of insect and pathogen, but this beloved tree is still kicking.  The butternut is also defying the odds, as many have been succumbing to butternut canker, a fungus that has been killing trees quickly since the 1960s.

When I first came to this garden, the planting under the trees along this fence line included a very mature hedge of French hybrid lilacs with an under-planting of Annabelle hydrangea.  The lilac bushes had long since stopped blooming as they were in day-long shade, but the hydrangea (for which the homeowner had expressed her disdain) were thriving.  You may not know this but Annabelle hydrangea *always thrive*.  I can’t recall how long it took us to dig out both the lilac and hydrangea or how deep our excavations went, but our efforts spanned more than one visit and the biggest challenge may have been distinguishing between the roots of the plants that we were removing versus those of the trees we believed were staying!

Lilac and hydrangea gone: check.  New fence: check.  Shade-loving perennials placed in east-facing bed: check.  Raised stone herb garden converted to small pond: check.

This garden is now a lush oasis with not only a million shades of green but spaces for the homeowner’s small kids to play: the raised pond provides endless fascination, the small lawn a place for them to play and the plants an opportunity to learn their names….as I’m told is actually happening, even with their 5 year old boy!

A blue garden shed is not only a place to store tools and the like, but also a focal point.  More than this, it provides the kids with an opportunity to play hide and seek….and the flagstone patio surrounded by a sunny garden to it’s left provides a spot for the adults to sit and contemplate life — notice the bright red bistro set.

The basic “working man’s” terracotta pots provide an opportunity to make a summer-long colourful display.  This way, the annuals are the show and not their containers.  Stuffed full of plants, the homeowners won’t have to wait to enjoy the splendour…

Dreaming of containers….

Is it too early to be talking about container planting?  Is it ever?

I don’t think so.

These glorious containers are just about the first thing you see when you venture into the wonderland that is Chanticleer Garden near Philadelphia.  The tricks here include: large containers with drainage holes, clustering or grouping those containers, choosing similar or complementary colours and shapes with your containers, and using  bold plants.  Not simply annuals, but tropicals for scale and oomph, as well as interesting shapes, colours and textures.  If you have a spot where your planters will get morning sun and afternoon shade (or filtered light), your options are practically endless.

What is striking about this planting is the juxtaposition of context (i.e. modern galvanized trough planters, pea stone and monochrome background) and raucous display — a riot of bright colour (angel wing begonia), loose grasses (purple fountain grass) and dripping chartreuse edgers (golden creeping jenny).

In contrast, here is a simple but no less striking container planting using foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyersii’) in a classic glazed pot.  What I love is the movement in this fern, which aptly looks like sea anemones swaying in the ocean.   I found it in the courtyard of the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo.

…and here is a similar tropical container planting on steroids!  At Longwood Gardens, everything is big.  Asparagus fern plants billow out from a classic terracotta pot while the striking leaves of elephant ears (or giant alocasia/taro  known botanically as Macrorrhiza maki) erupt from the centre.  This kind of knock your socks off container planting needs lots of water and nutrients to keep it looking lush and green.

More BIG displays at Longwood, which is not surprising since it reflects the wealth and ceremony of the DuPont name.  This purple and silvery-blue display uses an antique urn to showcase the deadly century plant (Agave americana) underplanted with everblooming fan flower (Scaevola aemula).

This squat agave, with no less deadly spines, is called Palmer’s century plant (Agave palmeri) and is actually the largest agave found growing in the United States.

Big, bold displays using tropicals and annuals are what’s needed at a home’s entrance.  Although this home is facing south, the front door is located on a covered porch so the planters flanking it must be shade tolerant.  I used palms for height, decorative leafy begonias for oomph, angel wing begonia for bright colour and some simple english ivy for more trailing effect.  The display is so lush you don’t need an attractive container when all is said and done!

Another entrance also called for a pair of planters, but this time with a similar colour palette and different combinations of plants.

Planters that grace public areas on frequented sidewalks have to present a unique face to the world.  They have to be lush from the get-go, with plants that intermingle with each other and knit together so yanking any one out is next to impossible.  Take that, vandals!

So take a lesson from these planters for this coming spring: plant lush, plant full and plant with a sensitive eye to colour and texture.  You can’t lose!