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slideshow: a look back at spring 2008

by Ken Smith
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godlight1NOT MUCH TO LOOK AT YET HERE, so I’m looking back at old photos instead, from spring 2008, our first year online. I know, not very Buddhist or in-the-moment of me, but a lot more fun than looking out at the mud and traces of dirty snow.

By the way, I also highly recommend the winter-garden walk (speaking of looking backward in time), if you haven’t seen it already. For spring 2008, though, click the first thumbnail to get started, then toggle from slide to slide using the arrows beside each caption:

spotted-salamander-from-the-frog-pool.jpg
Cleaning out the frog ponds in late March, you never know who you'll find. In this case, a sleepy yellow spotted salamander.
viola-terra-cotta-and-others.jpg
The first impromptu arrangement of the 2008 season: violas in a tiny old medicine bottle.
pots-await-summer-residents.jpg
Out come the pots, awaiting their summer residents.
linderaspicebush.jpg
One of my favorite forsythia alternatives, the native spicebush or Lindera benzoin, blooms in April, then produces bird-friendly fruit and the hottest yellow fall color extra-late.
old-apple-hellebores.jpg
Looking out past the old apple nearest the house, across hellebores and Hylomecon to other apples with drifts of Narcissus beneath them.
old-apple-hellebores-2.jpg
Under the old apple nearest the house, ephemerals like trillium and Hylomecon join the sheets of hellebores in earliest spring.
darkest-hellebores.jpg
Many of my hellebores are in what's called the "black" or very dark red range, and are among my most cherished.
hybrid-helleborus-orientalis.jpg
I love looking to see what odd-colored seedlings my many old hybrid Helleborus orientalis have birthed. They bloom in April and May here.
japanese-maples-out-of-the-storage-barn.jpg
The big terra cotta pots housing tender Japanese maples spend the winter in the unheated barn, safe from wind and ice. They come back out when the weather starts to settle a bit.
potted-japanese-maples-leafing-out.jpg
The Japanese maples leaf out quickly as the weather warms; late frost can damage them, so I keep an eye out (and a sheet ready).
front-yard-may.jpg
The beds out front in May 2008, a mix of shrubs and perennials, were just edged in this photo, and will now start to fill in.
pulmonaria-rubra.jpg
One of the earliest perennials to awaken each year is Pulmonaria rubra (a lungwort with plain green leaves).
ballerina-loebneri-magnolia.jpg
One of the first woody plants I put in the garden was a Loebner magnolia called ‘Ballerina,’ now taller than the house. It blooms in April.
magnolia-bed-wakes-up.jpg
The magnolia and the bed beneath it form my primary view from the kitchen and living room, an ever-changing series of vignettes from earliest April to late November.
hylomecon-and-primula-kisoana-wake-up.jpg
The primulas and Hakonechloa under the old magnolia start to awaken and show color by early May.
primula-kisoana.jpg
My bawdiest primula, P. kisoana, with blue-green fuzzy leaves, really catches my attention out the kitchen window all mid- to late-spring long.
bleeding-hearts-galore-front-walk.jpg
The front walk (never really used except to weed the beds beside it) is a sea of white and pink bleeding hearts through the spring.
'Butterflies' magnolia
The yellow magnolia ‘Butterflies’ in the sunset, 2008.
lathyrus-vernus-spring-vetchling.jpg
A favorite spring perennial, the little pea or spring vetchling called Lathyrus vernus.
magnolia-is-beautiful-even-fallen.jpg
Remember, nothing lasts: the magnolia snows on the landscape in April 2008, a beautiful moment.
magnolia-is-snowing.jpg
The shattered magnolia flowers remind me: carpe diem! Nothing is forever.
the-oldest-apple-crabapples-beyond.jpg
The oldest of 6 remaining apples from this former orchard is a prize in every season. Pink crabapples bloom beyond it, spring 2008.
espaliered-asian-pear-south-side.jpg
An espaliered Asian pear on the south facade of the house bloomed sparsely in 2008, and had little fruit.
crabapples-and-copper-beech.jpg
On the hill behind the house, 10 crabapples and a copper beech I planted when it was tiny…now shaping up into a real tree.
view-of-backyard-from-field-above.jpg
The view down from the hillside onto the backyard, with one of the frogponds where hill meets level ground.
aesculus-pavia-up-on-the-hill.jpg
Again, from up the hill, looking down onto the house and the Catskills in the far distance, across the red flowers of Aesculus pavia.
gold-moneywort-and-gold-foliage-of-crippsii-chamaecyparis.jpg
Golden moneywort and the golden foliage of Chamaecyparis ‘Crippsii’ mingle at an old Chinese stone bench or altar out back.
gold-form-of-yew-taxus-baccata-repandens.jpg
Taxus baccata ‘Repandens’ has gold new foliage well into the growing season, but is green in fall and winter.
looking-past-an-old-apple-to-agincourt-beauty-lilacs.jpg
There is nothing like lilac time; I have probably 18 or so large shrubs of many varieties. Those are ‘Agincourt Beauty,’ a great upright dark purple, in the distance, in 2008.
syringa-hyacinthiflora-mount-baker.jpg
A Syringa hyacinthiflora called ‘Mount Baker’ beside the vegetable garden toolshed, 2008.
cutting-lilacs-hammer-stems.jpg
When cutting lilacs for bouquets, always hammer the stems so the ends can take up water, or the blooms will wilt.
the old rhododendron
I almost cut down this 20-by-15 rhododendron, which sat in the middle of the backyard by itself when I arrived here 22 years ago. Instead I united it with other evergreens and dug a little pond in front of it.
edging-makes-all-the-difference_0.jpg
In May, a clean edge hides a multitude of sins. I love to edge.
jack-helps-with-edging-around-steppers.jpg
Jack the Demon Cat inspects the freshly edged pavers in the back yard. No help whatsoever.
underplanting-by-the-old-magnolia.jpg
Hakonechloa ‘All Gold,’ Asarum europaeum, painted fern and Hosta ‘June’ delight me for many months in the bed below the old magnolia, from May onward.
springtime sunset
The classic springtime sunset here, early May, before the leaves are on the trees. I could stare at the sky here forever.
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  2. boodely says:

    Ahhhhhh. Thank you.

    Here there are snowdrops disregarding the mud and gloom and bringing joy greatly out of proportion to their size.

    Reply
  4. Brian G. says:

    My back and legs (and neck and arms and…) ache from clearing beds this weekend. Cleaning up the massive winter mess feels a little hopeless right now but your photos give me hope, they are really superb. I would love to see what your place looked like when you moved in.

    Reply
  5. Johanna says:

    Oh, what a lovely refreshment these photos were during a long day of humdrum work! Thanks! I hope there will be more slideshows on all sorts of topics!

    Reply
    1. margaret says:

      Brian, it would be YOU who was hitting on the link just as I was struggling to write the html to direct it in the first place. Making those “thumbnail” images on the slideshows page flush left and keeping the text from the next teaser from pulling up into the previous line of text…ugh. That was what I was doing at about 4 PM yesterday. We intersected.

      Reply
  7. Bill says:

    Wow, what a great trip through your 2008 garden. I’d like to see how some of these areas or specific plants within certain areas of your garden have changed from last year to this year and your reasons for making the changes.

    Reply
  8. Heidi says:

    Ahhh, thank you Margaret. My garden looks like the ravages of winter have won so it was refreshing to see such beauty and peace. I wish I could come sit on your patio with a nice cuppa tea and watch everything come awake. It has been blowing a gale here for 3 days, very unusual.

    I do have one question because this has come up before and I can’t tell, even though I took a magnifying glass to the monitor to check your beds. Do you mulch with bark mulch or are all the beds covered in compost? Everything is so perfect (yes, the edging is lovely. I am also a big edger, kind of like vacuuming to clean up the whole house). Some people believe in bark mulch and some are adamantly opposed. I have done both although now because I have scattered so many seeds I don’t mulch every bed. What’s your expert opinion?

    Reply
    1. margaret says:

      Thank you, Heidi, for all your kindnesses. The mulch I use is a composted stable bedding, made locally from the material mucked out of stalls after cattle and horses use it, then heaped up in a large-scale operation and well-composted. It’s somewhere in texture between wood shavings and very, very small chips, so not chunky nor like sawdust. The key is that it is composted before I use it. A local farmer changed over his efforts from growing crops to making this product, using materials from many local farms; there are others doing it in many locations. I get it by the truckload, in bulk. I am adamantly opposed to bark mulch (using your phrase!) except for pathways.

      Reply
  9. Laura says:

    So beautiful and inspiring . . . will you be on any garden tours this spring I might have to drive up from Philadelphia!

    Reply
  10. Brian G. says:

    OUCH! I haven’t been hit with rosary beads for decades. Three ‘Hail Marys” and an ‘Our Father’. Am I forgiven, oh frog mama?

    Reply
  11. Heidi says:

    OK, to quote Tiny Fey,” I need to go to there” and get me some of the same composted stable muck. Now a new want in era of only purchasing “needs”. But the stock market went up today, so maybe I can justify investing in composted stable muck. It looks great and would be a wonderful soil amendment to my rocky, clay soil. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    1. margaret says:

      Welcome, Colleen…I hear from other contacts that you are about to be the owner of a garden…yippee! I will be boxing up perennials for shipment as soon as you say the word. :) You will love it. Love it.

      Reply
  15. Emily says:

    Wow! I have never looked at what your garden looks like as a whole. I am so impressed, I wish My house and garden looked so refined and beautiful! Keep up the good work! I like seeing the pictures of the creatures you find in your garden (as well as your plants :) )

    Reply
    1. margaret says:

      Welcome, Emily. Thank you for your sweet words. I loved putting the slideshows together to give some sense of place….which is hard in individual shots. More to come. See you soon again.

      Reply
  17. Wendy Erickson says:

    Hi Margaret,
    No need to post this, but last spring I think I promised to send a snapshot of a container or two that we were discussing in one of the forums, but for some silly reason couldn’t figure out how to send them. For future reference, can you let me know?
    Thanks very much- I love your site and I hope I can come up and see your garden on open garden days. I have a smallish garden, maybe 25ftx25ft with garden surrounding a circle of lawn, and some “side parts” that are dedicated to ferns, a little boggy area, etc. I have stockade fence on most of the sides (we have dogs) – it’s three years old now and I expect this year to be a great one, even better than last year. My Edith Bogue Magnolia survived the winter- not sure about both my new Percy Wiseman Rhodies (sigh) but every day something new is popping out of the ground and I am starting to smile again…
    -Wendy

    Reply
    1. margaret says:

      Hi, Wendy. If you give your email, get a username and password, and then click on the confirmation email for the forums, you will be a member, and can upload images. Keep them to a smallish size jpg (you may have to output the photo from your computer’s library in a smaller format than you shot it in). Very easy.

      Reply
  18. Brenda Dumont says:

    love your blog. photos are great!! keep up the good work. your garden is almost in sync with mine. do you do that “victorian trenching” for your edging? I can’t get my husband to give up on the beat up plastic edging which is looking very tattered after many years of being run over with the lawnmower people (our sons). any suggestions?

    Reply

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