Thinking . . part two: The Front

Still cold, in the high teens and low twenties in the daytime. A blizzard is coming tomorrow. Yikes, a bad one, they say.

I went over to Kit's today and took some pictures. Even in winter with all the leaves down, her space gives a sense of enclosure, and it is tied to the house so the patio and creekbed and woods are all one.

Then when I look at our place it seems so wide open.

I got a good shot of our house from her back yard.

Jim and I have long discussed putting another tree in the front yard. The open slope is south facing and gets so hot. It needs shade. A nice shade tree just behind the mailbox?

Here is what it looks like in summer. The dogwood is a beautiful shape and nice anchor for the corner, but the open slope of lawn is too much. The black gum is just off to the right of this picture.

I'm loving the idea of a parrotia for the Drive By Garden (see last post) -- a narrow one called Vanessa. I could put a regular species one behind the mailbox, which would be wider, but still very structured to go with the stiff look of the black gum on the right.  Or simply put another black gum in, to have two in the front yard?

Fall color of the parrotia is golden orange, as this shot from Dave's Garden shows. It holds leaves in the winter, though, and that might not be a good look smack in the front yard.

Could I extend the patch of Frohnleiten epimedium from under the dogwood all the way down the driveway and around under a parrotia (or black gum) planted midway down the slope?

I can get a parrotia from Broken Arrow. But . . .  I am leaning toward having Bartlett put in another black gum. I like the symmetry in front. I like the tree. Trouble free, clean look.

Here's the one already on the right side, last October.

Thinking . . .

Thinking . . part one: Driveway

It's been cold again, in the twenties F each day. No snow cover since it all melted when the one-day warm front came through at the very end of January. I've been staying inside thinking.

I'm ready to plan the garden for spring. I'm ready to order plants and seeds and maybe some containers. Ready to move things around that I already have.

But I've been thinking . . .

I don't just want to add plants. I really want to solve some problems and make designs work.

So here's part one: the driveway and edge of the gravel area.

1. The gravel garden needs shade. The umbrella shades a single chair, but I'd like a tree in the spot to the left of the inkberries, shading the whole area. The star magnolia to the far left (off camera) will get big and spreading, and the sourwood to the right anchors that spot next to the right-side inkberries.

But the gap next to the left-side inkberries, looking out to the stand of pines in the neighbor's yard needs something. And I need to bring out the outer edge of that narrow border for a rounder shape anyway.  Put a tree there.

I had all kinds of ideas in mind, new trees I could plant.

But how about I use a tree I have? How about I move the new sweetgum to that empty spot?

I wanted a shade tree at the north end of the Drive By Garden to shade the driveway apron a little, and make a terminus at that end of the garden. But now I actually think the Cornus mas is going to do that.  I didn't think it would ever be big enough, but it will be the anchor and shade I need.  I don't need the big sweetgum there.

The little Cornus mas looks like this now but it is growing fast, and I am pruning up the lower limbs.

But it will soon look like this and deserves its own spot at the end of this garden, not crowded under another large tree.

from Name That Plant blog

I had thought it would do well as an understory tree below the sweetgum, but that seems like too much.

The sweet gum is small enough to move.  It struggled with leaf scorch in last summer's heat, but I hope that was transplant difficulty, and that it comes back ok this spring. I think the bright white edged leaves will look good against the far backdrop of somber green pines in the neighbor's yard.

And it is a narrower tree, at least while young. A drama point without being another flowery tree (I had considered fringe tree, or Okame cherry for that spot but with six flowering cherries and pears in sight in the neighbor's yard I don't want more.)

So, no new trees to solve the problem of shade in the gravel garden, use the sweetgum I have.


2. The Drive By garden needs height and screening at the back edge. I want something to distract from the unattractive side of the neighbor's house. I can't screen out the whole thing, but some height is needed here.

The Tardiva hydrangeas will get taller but I need something narrow and tall right behind them. There's a Mariesii doublefile viburnum to the left and behind the hydrangeas, but that will add horizontal mass, not much vertical.

In this instance, I am thinking of a new tree, an upright Parrotia persica 'Vanessa'.

Very narrow although not really fastigate. Trouble free, beautiful tree, I can get a 5 gallon at Broken Arrow. It fits the kinda woodsy look of this strip, and is related to witch hazels. It is reputed to hold its leaves into winter, which drives me crazy, but would be okay along the back of this garden (not out in front in the front yard, though.)

from Learn2Grow - Plant profile

And in fall (from Dave's Garden forum):

Originally I was thinking of an evergreen southern magnolia -- a "Bracken's Brown Beauty'.  They are hardy here, Lee May and others are growing this beautiful tree successfully, although it is at the far end of its hardiness tolerance. In the first years it will defoliate in winter until roots establish.

It is narrow and evergreen and dramatic, but I suspect it will be more open, like the sweetbay magnolia.

from http://www.supersodtrees.com

I can get one from Broken Arrow, or Kevin at Silver Spring will order one.  With the hydrangeas in front, the doublefile viburnum to the side, and the big Norway maple at the far end, there will be multiple layers as everything matures.

But which tall, narrow tree for that spot? The Persian ironwood or the southern magnolia? I think the Parrotia would be more trouble free, more in keeping with the look of the plantings there, letting the Elizabeth magnolia be the one "exotic" point.  The magnolia would offer winter screening, though.

Thinking . . .

Finished

✔ Check. Done.

I finally finished updating the Inventory blog.

I had wanted to get it all done in January, and did not want to start any catalog shopping or planning for spring until it was finished.

Now, today, all the plant profiles are updated for 2012. Some had to be updated for 2011 too, since the task of keeping the whole thing current gets ahead of me if I don't focus time on it.

At last I can get to making lists and doing research and thinking about what I want to plant for next year.

I've been itching to get at that!  I'm ready.

Let's start shopping.

And Now Back to Cold

After the warm windy front moved past, we are back down to cold frigid temperatures to start February. Only 30 degrees here today.

The rosemary had looked so rich and green all winter, even through the single digit cold, but after a week of that, it has suddenly turned brownish. By March of every year it looks drab and discolored, then brightens back up in spring, so it might just be winter fading and not a die off.

I'm hoping that's all it is . . .

When I opened the bedroom door today the sunrise was drenching the newly cut branches on the half wall in dazzling sunshine. The glass vases sparkled and the woody twigs were lit up!

The witch hazel vase was glowing.  I am not detecting any fragrance, despite the fact that flowers are open and they've been indoors now for a day.

I went out in the cold and cut some more branches for forcing today, and brought in corneliancherry (Cornus mas) and aronia.  As with the other shrubs, there just aren't many branches to sacrifice.  And I think with most of what I cut I brought in leafed stems without any flower buds!

Warm Winter Wind

After a week of bitter cold, a front moved through and we have had temperatures in the high 50s, up to 60 at one point. There was a lot of wind here (and a lot of storm devastation in the south and midwest).

There was thick fog yesterday, then the wind and warm downpours last night. All of the snow is completely gone. (Gail and I went skiing at Sundown on Tuesday, thank goodness we got a couple hours in on the slopes before the fog and rain and snowmelt.)

I twist-tied the tops of the twig pyramids to the bases. Now the whole thing will probably blow over, not just the tops.

The ground is beyond soupy, and I should not be out there tromping on it.  But I went out in the warm wind to cut branches to force inside.

I cut witch hazel, fragrant honeysuckle, fothergilla, forsythia, and a magnolia blossom. And a few branches of the Dawn viburnum.

I did not follow the instructions in the page at the top of my blog (under pruning). There they advise to put the branches in a bucket of cool water for a while, then bring them in and re-cut the stems while under very hot water. They also advise using florist preservative or making your own.

But.

I just cut them and put them in vases of water. There were so few available to cut on some of the newer or storm damaged shrubs.

I have never ever smelled any fragrance in the teensy red blooms of the 'Diane' hybrid witch hazel. I see them, but barely, as they hide behind the withered brown foliage in winter, but never detected any smell.  Oh well.

I cut a few branches, although my pruning last fall and the storm damage that eliminated so many branches last year meant there weren't many twigs to choose from.

I brought a few in, and as I was putting them in lukewarm water in the warmth of the house, I DID catch a spicy whiff.  Just a little, and I had to have my nose right in the branches.

I wish the plant was big enough, with long enough branches to cut so I could bring in a whole lot of them.

Who could resist bringing a fat magnolia bloom in to force? I had the same issue with the 'Elizabeth' magnolia as with the witch hazel -- it had lost branches in storms, and there were so few branches to sacrifice, but I picked one.

The Lonicera fragrantissima is still such a small shrub with just a few long whippy branches, that I had a hard time finding enough to cut from that plant too. I brought in just a few, and I'm anxious to see if they bloom and what the fragrance is like. I've never smelled it or seen the blooms.

My little shrubbery of branches won't look like this shot from Pottery Barn (I think that's were the original pin was from), but this is my inspiration:

Being Busy in Winter

Very, very cold for the past several days. When I wake up each morning the temps are in the low single digits. Yesterday was bitter and windy and in the teens all day. Today the winds have died, but it is still cold, barely above 20 degrees.

Sunrises have been beautiful. When I open the bedroom door just after 7 a.m., the sun is a round egg yolk just above the trees, and moments later the four windows on the east side of the house fill with sunlight.

I'm keeping busy in January.

First, I'm chipping away at the hundreds of entries on my Inventory blog, updating each and every plant profile with new photos from 2012. Tedious and time consuming, it is taking all month. I do a few entries each day, but there are so many! But progress is being made. I am almost through all the woody plants, and will start shortly on the perennials. Phew.

I want to finish all of them before starting on the catalogs and orders and design plans and plant choices for spring. I'm getting itchy to get going with that!

Next, I signed up for the March 2 symposium that the Hardy Plant Society sponsors. There are two speakers, Katherine Tracey from Avant Gardens, and Joann Vieira from Tower Hill. Should be a good day.

I need to join the Hardy Plant Society, membership for the next season starts in September. They have some good programs and speakers.

Single Digits

Very cold today, 6 degrees when I got up. But it is sunny and not as breezy as yesterday. A fine winter morning.

Snow cover has disappeared, so the plants are exposed in this cold weather.

I am surprised at how brown the bayberry (Myrica) gets in winter -- evergreen in that it holds all its leaves, yes, but not at all green.

I am glad it recovered from being lopped in two in the October snow storm in 2011. It has regained all of its top growth again and is the same height as before, although I can see that the lower half is denser and the regrown upper half is more open and upright.

In summer it is once again a big green wall separating the garden from the weeds in the meadow. I'm not really crazy about its dark brown look in winter, though.

The inkberry hollies truly are evergreen, staying a rich green color all winter. But I noticed when the temps get into the single digits like today, they darken up quite a bit, turning a black-green.

I can't believe how the rosemary is soldiering on through these temperatures. Single digits, and it doesn't look bad at all. And of course the hollies on the berm, and their big spruce companions, are evergreen and looking good even in this cold.

Birds in the House

The new sofa and wing chair came today. The deliverymen arrived exactly at the moment that Barack Obama was taking his inaugural oath, so I missed a momentous national event. But they were gone before his inaugural speech, and so I got to hear all of that.

There are birds! Birds all over the new sofa. Birds are in my house now. I like it.

Here is how it all looks, with the new blue wing chair too.

The sofa doesn't go with the deep red rug or its pattern, but it doesn't fight it either. The combination is okay with me.

The wing chair is actually barrel shaped and it is nicely enclosing when you sit in it. The sofa is stiff, but in a plump and comfy kind of way.

Pretty traditional stuff, but it does freshen things up a bit. (I like the sofa birds and the way the glass Murano birds on the mantel above echo the pattern).

Tucked In

The sun is out after the snowstorm, and it is in the 30s. It was a heavy wet snow, tucking everything in under a blanket, but sitting heavy on the softer evergreens like inkberry hollies and the hemlock.

The stiffer spruces look good with their weight of snow.

And my winter decoration looks great.

I have to figure out a way to get a good shot of the four Tide Hill boxwoods marching diagonally into the gravel garden. This isn't it. I want to show the contrast with the linear sweep of the pea gravel and the defining border, with the boxwoods transecting it.  I'll need to keep working on how to photograph that.

I always love this wintery composition right by the patio wall.

Tool Storage

Cold, snow coming tonight.  We had January thaw recently and the temps were up in the high 50s, but now a return to winter.

I finally ordered a tool storage shed to put on the patio.

It will go along the wall of the raised part of the deck. It's actually a storage bin for garbage cans, but I can use it to store all the smaller items that I now have to keep schlepping to the garage to get.

Shown in pine, but I ordered cedar that can weather naturally.
Attractive, for what it is. Made here in New England.

Things that need to stay dry and can't be left out on the potting bench --- gloves, garden ties, pruners, loppers, the pruning saw, maybe the small garden shovels, all the awkward stakes, bottles of spray, small bags of fertilizer, etc.

I'm not sure about the watertight qualities, but the sloping roof should keep rain off. I can always caulk around any opening with weatherstripping if rain gets in.

It's 4 feet wide, and only 2 feet deep. The back height, at 50 inches, is well below the top of the deck railing. Perfect as a small closet under the upper deck.

It will work better than trying to build something to fit in the two foot area next to the potting bench under the window. Jim tried to assemble a storage closet but that wasn't working out. This is a better solution, and it's pre-made. Assembly requited, I'm sure, as it ships in nine panel pieces.