When we begin to grow perennials most of us are happy to have a little spring tableau, and maybe a summer tableau, and maybe we’ll bring in a couple of pots of mums in the fall. As we become more experienced, and more greedy for more plants we begin to lust after a garden that is in bloom, or at least really really interesting for most of the year. This goal can seems elusive.

To help us achieve this goal experienced gardener and writer Stephanie Cohen , along with Jennifer Benner, have put together The Nonstop Garden: A Step-by-Step Guide to Smart Plant Choices and Four-Season Designs (Timber Press $19.95). Cohen and Benner make the point that a non-stop garden can “require less maintenance . . . allow more creativity and encourage diversity.”

Some of us, like me, stumble into the concept of breaking our garden down into ‘rooms’ by accident. The idea of creating a whole coherent garden plan at once can be overwhelming, and for me it has been impossible. I was glad to see Cohen and Benner talk about breaking the garden and the plan into manageable pieces. I never thought of the Lawn Beds, or the Shed Bed or the Herb Bed as ‘rooms’ but they are discrete elements and it is easier to think about having some non-stop attractions in each one than thinking about the garden as a whole.

Some of their advice is useful in the most general and practical sense.  First, put the right plant in the right spot. Shade plants will not do well in bright sun – and vice versa.  Hardiness has to be considered, but who can blame us for pushing the limits. Gardeners like to gamble as much as anyone and while losses are disappointing, they are not ruinous.

Cohen and Benner make a point that has become more and more important to me recently. Think about layering, that is, planting trees, shrubs, and flowers or groundcovers together as they would appear in a natural setting.  I did suggest shrubs to a friend who was dissatisfied with the lack of definition in her garden, but she wailed that she was ‘too young for shrubs!”

I admit to getting older every day, but trees and shrubs are not for the elderly. They can provide, color, form and texture in a garden with less work for the young, too.

Rules and general information are easy to come by, but what makes this book especially useful are the lists of plants in every category that can be used over most of the county, and ten planting schemes for a variety of needs. Do you want a garden that attracts those beautiful denizens of the air, birds and butterflies?

Have your trees grown up so that you now have a shade garden, but no shade loving plants? Conversely, has a storm taken down your trees and now you need to plan for sunny plantings. The Nonstop Garden provides ten garden designs with lists of plants that will do well in different areas or to meet different desires of the gardener.

Gardens are more than plants. Cohen and Benner recognize that vines need supports, and our senses of beauty, humor or whimsy may demand a few ornaments in the garden. One trend I have noticed as I’ve walked around the urban gardens of Buffalo, is the placing of mirrors in the garden, hung on walls, but encircled with vines or half hidden by other foliage. They reflect the light and provide a moment of surprise when you realize what that bit of brightness is.

Buffalo gnome

Of course, there are more familiar ornaments, statuary (including gnomes), pots, and fountains.

I’ve been a non-stop garden visitor as I’ve spent three days previewing some of the Buffalo Garden Walk gardens, and botanical institutions. All I ever knew about Buffalo is that it gets a lot of snow in winter, but I have learned about its other charms. It has beautiful turn of the twentieth century architecture, some of which is very grand. Frederick Law Olmstead laid out parks and parkways here.  Because of the Erie Canal and the city’s location on Lake Erie Buffalo was one of the richest, most important cities in the U.S. at the end of the nineteenth century.

It must be admitted that the city did go into a period of decline, but because of the imagination of seven gardeners 15 years ago, it is gardens and gardeners who have been a big part of its resurgence as a beautiful place to live. Over 350 gardens are on this year’s free Buffalo Garden Walk tour the weekend of July 24-25. Whole neighborhoods have been revitalized, businesses have been inspired, and the city has joined the show.  Hooray for gardeners!

Once at home I had to become a non-stop gardener.  This is a busy time in the garden. Watering the vegetable garden and all the containers is important this dry month. Why is it that weeds never seem to mind drought times?  Doesn’t seem fair.

Correction: I gave incorrect address for the Plant a Row for the Hungry website last week. For information about donating some of your extra garden produce to a food pantry logon to www.parwmass.blogspot.com. And don’t forget, Community Harvest at Ev Hatch’s field on Plain Road.  Call Mark Maloni at Community Action 413-376-1181, to sign up to help harvest on Monday, Wednesday or Friday mornings.

Between the Rows  July 17, 2010

Here is part of the crowd of 70 garden bloggers  at the Buffalo Botanical Garden. I was familiar with the blogs of some of these gardeners like Frances (lower left) of Fairegarden, and Susan (center in blue with hat) of Sustainable Gardening Blog, and Helen (in white under the camera) of Toronto Gardens.  Susan is one of the Garden Ranters; she and I worked briefly for an Australian organic gardening website Organic Gardener which made us virtual colleagues! Frances has beautifully photographed gardens in Tennesee, and Helen knows what it is like to garden in a harsh climate.

So I knew some of the garden blogs written by those who showed up for the third annual garden bloggers meet-up in Buffalo at the beginning of the month, but it is a whole other thing to actually meet and get to know those gardeners – and then read their blogs. I may not have been to their gardens (yet) but I do have a richer sense of their personalities and their tastes and passions.

I met lots of bloggers whose blogs I did not know – but I do know now. I have added several of these to my own blogroll, the list of inks to blogs in the right column.  There was a professional discussion at one point about the purpose or desirability of having a blogroll. Most of us thought they were helpful and necessary. I use my own blogroll as an easy way to visit my favorite blogs when I am putting up my post, and I use other people’s blogs as a recommendation. If I like a blog, I figure I will like their favorite blogs as well. I’ve added several new blogs to my blogroll.

I spent a day on the bus with Mary of My Northern Garden. She is the editor of Northern Garden Magazine, and freelance writer. I was interested in how Minnessota gardens differ in challenges from New England gardens. She was generous with information about gardening, and about blogging. She gave out copies of the magazine (beautiful!) which is a publication of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society.

Jean gardens in Louisiana, but her blog, Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog has useful information for all of us. Also it turns out her brother lives in the same area near Houston, Sienna Plantation, as my daughter!  Jean is also a garden coach and she gave me advice about that skill.

Cindy, one energetic lady, is   also from Texas. Her Corner of Katy is also near my daughter. When we visited we went to the immense Katy Mall and shopped. My husband got ‘cowboy shirts’ and a hat to wear in our field. I’m very interested in Texas gardens these days, but no matter where a person gardens, there is some advice that is good for all of us. Besides, our blogs are also about community and family – which are of interest to us all.

We have friends in Sacramento so I was happy to meet Leslie who is Growing a Garden in Davis.  Now I can keep an eye on what Leslie is doing –  and what my garden friends in Sacramento are likely to be doing.   I’ve added these and a few others to my blogroll, but if you’d like to check out blogs of others I met in Buffalo you can logon to the Buffa10 website which has links to them all, and links to recent posts – with great photos – about our garden tours in Buffalo. You will meet some great people.

Reluctantly leaving Mike Shadrack's hosta and daylily gardens

One of the gardens on the Buffalo Garden Walk had many dahlias – familiar varieties in familiar colors. But this dahlia is a doozy!  I’m going to have to research a source.  Has anyone seen this in a catalog?

The second  mirror in the garden I saw was in Gordon’s rain drenched paradise. You have to look close to see the mirror because it is reflecting the variegated hostas.  There were other mirrors in this garden as well.

This is one of a series of three mirrors against a vine covered wall in Jim Charlier’s garden.  He said the mirrors are inexpensive so he doesn’t mind that they will rot away in the rain.  He has also built a kind of soffit out from the wall, which not only holds some of the vines, it hides a rope light (light rope?) which makes for a delightful effect at night – as do the three tiki lights reflecting in each mirror.  We garden bloggers were invited to lunch at Jim’s and we couldn’t see this effect, but everyone who has a copy of the current issue of Fine Gardening can see it in the Spice up the Night feature.

There is a saying that if you see three unusual things, or hear about the same odd thing three times in a row you are seeing the birth of a trend. I like this trend and I am going to look for a suitable wall.

Of course, if you happen to take a trip to the famous Buffalo Garden Walk, the country’s largest free garden tour, the last week in July, you might be able to notice other trends.  Have you noticed any new trends in your neighborhood gardens?

'Mystic Desire' dahlia

We started off at the Erie Basin Trial Gardens for the All America Selections (AAS).  The AAS helps gardeners by rating seed varieties so they can find some of  the best flowers and vegetables to plant from seed.  We all loved this brilliant red dahlia.

Yellow orchids at the Buffalo & Erie Cty Botanical Gardens

Then it was off to the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens which has a fabulous glass conservatory, modeled after the one in Kew Gardens in England.  This building opened in 1900. The Orchid House is only one of several specialty areas including an eipiphyte pavillion, a fern house and a desert  house.

Cyndy from Gardening Asylum

Then we had to shop!  Off to Lockwood’s Greenhouse. Cyndy of Gardening Asylum was glassy eyed and wilting by the time she finished. I bought a solar lantern for the garden.

Mary Ann who writes the Gardens of the Wild West, Boise to be precise, has a lot to say about how we have been spending our days. Check her out!

Front Yard Garden Contest

We not only didn’t reduce the plans for today’s itinerary for the garden  tours, we  added a drive through the rain to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Park (designed long ago by Frederick Law Olmsted) to see who we would vote for in the Front Yard Garden Contest.  The contest was set up by the National Buffalo Garden Festival and with support from the Olmsted Parks Conservancy. For more information about these totally renovated front yards and how YOU can vote online, visit Jim Charlier at The Art of Gardening.

Bird Street Garden

The rain didn’t stop us ‘from restoring the tissues’ at the Bird Street Garden, so packed with plants and ponds and fish that the vegetable garden had to move out onto the driveway to grow in pots.

This is one of two ponds in the Bird Street Garden. I don’t know if you can tell but that is watercress growing above the little waterfall.  The water was falling everywhere, but it didn’t dampen our spirits.

The sun is shining today and the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens (and more) await.

Don’t forget, you can see all this (and more) when you visit Buffalo for the Garden Walk - or almost anytime. Did I mention there is great architecture here, too. Everywhere!

Still some shade in the McGuane garden

Gardens can change overnight, as many people learned after the great May storm that took down so many large trees.  Those who had treasured their trees for the serene shade they provided, and the cooling they often brought to the house, found themselves in a new situation that could not soon be remedied.

Marty and Jan McGuane’s cool shady garden became a hot sunny garden  less dramatically, but with the same result. “We had a beautiful and very large Star magnolia that we planted on our seventh wedding anniversary. It developed canker a couple of years ago. We pruned off affected parts, but last fall the whole tree had to come down. Then we were on a quest for a new tree,” Jan McGuane said.

“The magnolia provided screening and shade. It is so hot in our yard now,” McGuane said, explaining what they looked for in a new tree. They wanted shade, but they also wanted flowers in the spring and good color in the fall. After discussing many flowering trees they settled on a Japanese Kousa dogwood. Kousas are not susceptible to the diseases that afflict Cornus florida, the familiar dogwood  that blooms early in the spring before the foliage appears.

The Kousa dogwood blooms later than Cornus florida when the tree has already leafed out. The flowers, which are actually long lasting bracts, are pointed instead of being rounded. It has deep reddish fall color and its fruits that resemble raspberries are quickly eaten by birds.

It was a job to take down the large magnolia. McGuane explained that roots are much harder than the rest of the tree and it was another big job to grind them out.. I did not know this about roots, but could see that it made sense. Roots of a large tree need strength to hold that tree in the ground.  This spring the McGuanes planted the six foot Kousa that is doing very well in the same spot.

McGuane's stone wall and path

During the time the tree was failing the McGuanes undertook another project that took two years to complete – the building of a curved stone wall for a ‘raised bed’ and a graceful stone walkway.

Working with six tons of Goshen stone for the walkway was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. At the time Marty was not able to heft the stone because of broken shoulders, but Jan said he had a much better idea of how the stone should be arranged.. “He would chose the stone and indicate how it should be sited in the path. I was the labor, but between the two of us we had a better result than either could have alone. I really like the curves in the garden, the path and the stone wall.”

The curving stone wall is located where there was a small deck.  Last fall planting the garden inside the wall was completed. Bulbs, a variety of sedums and heucheras have settled in nicely. A small shallow metal birdbath ornamented with a dragonfly sits on the wall. “I like ornaments in the garden,” McGuane said. “They are fun, and the dragonfly is a symbol of the Franklin County Hospice; Marty is on the Board.”

There are many curves in the McGuane garden. The back border which started out as a Moon Garden with white plants, curves and draws the eye when they sit out on the deck in evenings. There is a white Cornus florida, honeysuckle and a white Queen of the Prairie (filipendula), scented nicotiana, and pale variegated foliage plants.

There is a round fire pit and round table. “Marty likes to grill and we enjoy sitting out here eating and talking with friends,” McGuane said.

Jan's favorite garden spot

As much as she enjoys the spaces for friends and socializing, she said her favorite spot is in a corner of the garden where she has placed a chair made for her by a friend on a patch of  bluestone she laid herself. She planted a ninebark behind the chair to create a bit of seclusion and included a water bowl as a very small water feature. “I am happy just sitting there,” she said.  We gardeners don’t do enough sitting in our gardens, and we should always provide an enticement that will encourage us to sit and admire the day and our own work.

The McGuane garden is an urban garden, and is relatively small and yet it provides room for solitude and sociability. Sociability will be the order of the day on Saturday,  July 10 from 9 am to 4 pm when the McGuane garden will be one of several private gardens on the Greenfield Garden Club Tour. Tickets and maps for this self guided tour will be available at the Club’s Trap Plain Garden at the intersection of Silver and Federal Streets.

This year the Greenfield Historical Society is participating in the Tour, offering refreshments and opening their exhibits about Mary P. Wells. Wells, the author of the Boy Captive of Deerfield and other historical novels for children, was also the founder of the Greenfield Garden Club!

This tour is one of the major fundraisers for the Garden Club, along with the May plant and garden sale. The Club funds horticultural school projects, town beautification projects, and educational talks, tours, and craft nights as well as a newsletter for its members every month. If you are interested in joining the Club contact President Debran Brocklesby at 413-648-5227.

Between the Rows  July 3, 2010

Don’t forget the Daylily Sales today or the Hawley Garden tour!

Buffalo Garden Walk - lilies

I couldn’t wait to start showing you Buffalo’s gardens. Yesterday evening, on our way to meet one of our hosts, Elizabeth Licata of Garden Rant, we visited several urban gardens. This garden smelled heavenly with a single magnolia still in bloom and banks of lilies.  I have pink lilies and bee balm in my garden too.

Echinacea 'Papaya'

We saw plants I do not have like this amazing echinacea glowing in the late afternoon sun.

Acanthus

When we arrived at the beautiful Twentieth Century Club I saw plants I did not recognize. Acanthus leaves are much used in botanical decorations, but I did not recognize it in real life.

Garden bloggers at the Twenthieth Century Club

And here we are beginning to gather in the shade of the Twentieth Century Club courtyard where we had a fabulous dinner. What beauties and new friendships will tomorrow hold?

I’m in Buffalo, home of the Buffalo Garden Walk, the biggest garden tour in the nation.  Over 350 gardens. Free.  Along with 50 of my favorite garden bloggers I am getting a preview of some of these gardens – which you will also see right here.  Soon.

Field of greens at Pen and Plow Farm

Who would not like to live on Pudding Hollow Road? It is clearly a road steeped in the history of Hawley, a town settled in 1760, and a unique pudding contest which took place in the late 1770s.  Farms and food have always been important parts of Hawley’s history and culture so I could not resist the opportunity to visit the newest farm and an old established garden, both on Pudding Hollow Road, and both a part of Hawley’s annual Artisan’s and Garden Tour which will be held on Saturday, July 10 from 10 am until 4 pm.

When you turn off Route 8A and cross over the new bridge you are on Pudding Hollow Road, Right across from the tiny town hall is the two year old Pen and Plow Farm, so called because the Velazquez family, Sheila, her son Jason and his wife have all been in the publishing/editorial business , but since early last spring have been turning their creative energies to sustainable farming.

Merlot lettuce at Pen and Plow farm

Sheila, who said she had farmed many years ago and has had varied careers since then, was delighted that her son gave her the nudge (push?) to go back into farming. The family found 21 acres, wooded and clear, with a year round stream. They have planted a large market garden, currently boasting ‘greens’ including reds like Merlot, Red Fire and Red Sails lettuces. These can be purchased among other places, at the new Charlemont Farmer’s Market held on Saturdays at the Hawlemont School.

In addition to the mangelwurzel (for animal feed) corn, squash, and other vegetable fields, they have two Scottish Highland Cows. “They are a good breed for the country,” Sheila said. “ They are hardy and eat brush, poison ivy and wild raspberries.”  I can see that would save on feed bills. They also have chickens and recently added a Jersey milk cow to their holdings.

Jason Velazquez

Jason took time out from his chores to show me how to sharpen and use a scythe, and to talk about his pleasure in being able to return to farming. “Values you learn in a rural childhood are applicable to many walks of life,” and this is one of the reasons he wanted to leave Boston and bring his wife and children to Hawley and to make a farm.

As he showed me all the projects, he explained that they want to learn to do more with less. “Everything we do is rooted in sustainability – what the land can sustain, and the amount of labor we can sustain as a family. We wan to provide our own food, but we plan to farm to a living. We have a commitment to being part of a community that sustains itself.”

As they move towards making a living on the farm they are paying attention to the vegetables that customers prefer. They also sell fresh eggs that have the brilliant yellow yolks that are typical of free range chickens.

Paul Cooper

Paul Cooper, retired neurosurgeon and serious cook, and his wife Leslie have been summering in Hawley since 1981, enjoying the magnificent views of the hills, and tending their gardens.

Cooper toured me around his hillside, showing me new fruit trees, apples, pears, a greengage plum, peaches, and quince. Several years ago they planted two copper beech trees which are still young, but already show signs that they will grow into majestic old trees. There is a special thanks due to people like the Coopers who plant trees that will not come into their noble maturity until they themselves are no longer walking the earth.

There are colorful flower gardens that Leslie tends, daylily borders, and pink honeysuckle vines, not an invasive variety. But Cooper’s favorite garden is the fenced vegetable garden which hints at his passion for cooking.  He grows several kinds of tomatoes, Big Boy, Sun Gold, Early Girl, Celebrity and Donna. Yukon Gold, Corolla and Kennebec potatoes, Fava beans, shallots, leeks, garlic, asparagus and eggplant, “but no peppers, because I hate them,” he said.

Mint is grown in its own circular garden where the lawn mower can keep it under control.  A small herb garden supplies much of the common herbs Cooper needs.

The lettuce was lush and Cooper sighed when he said, “It’s been a lettuce summer,” which is to say cool and damp.

Paul Cooper's lambs

Cooper hasn’t forgotten the main course, He also raises lambs – and he has a large collection of lamb recipes.

The blueberry, raspberry and red currant patches suggest that diners at his table do not leave until there has been a luscious dessert.  Maybe he will find one in The Pudding Hollow Cookbook, written by Tinky Weisblat, another Hawley resident.

Akebia covered pergola at the Cooper's

The Hawley tour includes visits to other farms, gardens and a lunch at one of Hawley’s Great Houses, also on Pudding Hollow Road.

This tour, A Collage of Arts and Gardens Throughout the Town of Hawley is sponsored by the Sons and Daughters of Hawley. Proceeds will help fund restoration of East Hawley Meeting House and the Grove Building. It is hoped that the new bathrooms in the Grove Building will be completed by tour day. For more information about tickets for the  tour call Cyndie Stetson 413- 339-4231.

Betweenthe Rows  June 26, 2010