When is a straight path not straight enough? When is it too narrow? Last March, I decided to transform an unused farm field into something spectacular by lining the path that ran through it with crabapple trees. When the ground was barely thawed, I paced out the length to determine how many trees to order. I…
Coming home after a tour of gardens in the UK is always a shock. English gardens are so lush, so flowery, so impressive in predictable and unpredictable ways. In comparison, my garden in mid-September is a let-down. In fact, it makes me think of a gangly 13-year old. The teen may have good bones and a sense of…
Four weeks ago I wrote about the experiment I’m conducting this year on the Big Lawn. The idea was simple: let the grass grow and see what happens. My husband suggested the idea as a way to discourage the Canada geese who were frequenting the lawn and who don’t like long grass. I was sceptical but he…
Last year, an unbearable number of Canada geese decided they liked our big lawn. We didn’t like them, or what they left behind. Shouting didn’t make them go away, running at them was a joke. But we knew that if our lawn was to be usable, the geese had to go. I asked anyone I…
A common principle of garden design states that the style of a house should be mirrored in the style of the garden. A Georgian brick house is most comfortable surrounded by a symmetrical garden, a country cottage by loose and flowing borders. While this ‘rule’ is not iron-clad and exceptions can be successful if skillfully done, ignoring the architecture…
Beside our house, next to a wooden deck that is rarely used, is a juniper planted when the house was built in 1969. Or to put it more accurately, beside the house and next to the deck are the remains of one. For the last few years, the juniper has been slowly dying. The photo below shows how…
Don’t you hate reminding yourself of resolutions made and forgotten? Yesterday, as a gloomy December began, I re-read a blog post I wrote in January. I was looking ahead then to what I wanted to accomplish in 2014. There were loose ends I planned to tie up, and new projects I hoped to start. I’m sad to say…
Before and after photos are a great way of showing the effect of changes — if you have them. Which, in this case, I don’t. Last week the weather was wonderful, with warm days, bright blue skies and a touch of crispness in the air. This week, the sky is grey and the temperatures are…
A few posts ago, I wrote about the journey that water makes as it flows down the hill and into the lake. A few posts before that, I referred to the ‘haste makes waste’ pond that is just above the boathouse, the final spot on the water’s journey. Today I want to show how important…
A few weeks ago I wrote about The Big Rock and my plan to simplify the plantings around it, using a lesson I learned from touring gardens in Italy. We haven’t tackled that project yet. But we have tackled another area, applying the same principles of simplicity and balance to great effect. Beside the drive coming…