slideshow: august garden open day
CAN ANYBODY RECOMMEND A LAWNCARE EXPERT? That was my first thought after 650 sets of feet marched on the garden Saturday, in my final Garden Conservancy Open Day of the 2013 visiting season. I say “marched on the garden,” because from an hour before official opening time, that’s what it looked like: a march. My second thought, though: What a great day! A recap, in photos.
august open day slideshow
2 Ways to Watch: 1, Watch right in the player frame by clicking each thumbnail (or the arrows that appear if you hover your cursor on a photo’s sides). Or: 2, Simply click the large photo and the show plays slightly larger on your darkened screen (using keyboard arrows or the ones on the photos’ sides to advance). A tip: Occasional vertical images don’t render well in #1; all images will be biggest in #2. Links below the thumbnails offer more information about some key plants shown. Enjoy!
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- Getting ready for Garden Conservancy Open Days takes some work. First you mow. A lot.
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- Then you mow some more. Like 6 or 7 hours a week, week in and out since late April. (It has rained so much the lawn has needed mowing every three or four days.) You edge, too, crawling around with giant scissors, clipping, clipping. And you weed, endlessly.
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- Above the house and one frogpond, I experiment with making mown and unmown shapes in the field for more visual interest, and more beneficial insect activity.
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- Up in the longer grass area I’ve been letting grow, it’s a whole other ecosystem. It even sounds different uphill, lots of insect voices. Birds love the insects, and later will love the seeds. Dragonflies hunt up there, and even sleep on the unmown grass.
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- Besides mowing, I wanted to skim the frogponds before visitors arrived, too — to remove fallen twigs and leaves. But various frogs objected to my using the net. Like this one.
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- This one objected, too, preferring I leave the net just where it was so he could pretend to balance it on his nose. There are so many obstacles to garden preparation around here!
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- An hour before expected, here they come — up the narrow walk to the Garden Conservancy sign-in table by the house.
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- I wish I could have invited all 650 people into the house, to see the garden as I do: from inside, out the windows. Here’s the view of the entry path and pavers near the door, with groupings of pots.
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- One of those groupings: my houseplants (mostly begonias) and two troughs filled with water, duckweed, and frogs…
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- …like this handsome frogboy.
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- The potted pineapple lilies, or Eucomis bicolor, set on the paved area caught people’s eye, too (but not as much as the frogs).
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- So did a favorite tender vine I grow for its showy leaves. It’s Cissus discolor, the Rex begonia vine. Lots of questions about this big boy from visitors. (It needs to come inside in winter.)
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- On the way into the backyard, you get a glimpse of the first thing I planted here: that Japanese umbrella pine at the end of the path.
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- The two most asked-about plants come into view there: Petasites (an invasive Asian perennial with giant leaves, left…I planted it 20-something years ago before I knew of its lusty ways) and the Japanese umbrella pine (Sciadopitys verticillata), straight ahead, the first plant I planted here 25-plus years ago.
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- The same view, to the west from upstairs, but later in summer.
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- The same view in spring — before the cannas erupt and erase everything. Different, huh?
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- The canna was, as it is each year at the August Open Day, a plant everyone asked about, as in “What’s that giant thing?” It’s the so-called banana canna, or Canna ‘Musafolia’ (also called ‘Grande’). Big!
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- On that patio that is all but hidden in canna leaves July through October-ish, more pots…full of foliage favorites, not flowers. I love leaves of Phormium, Acalypha, Alternanthera and coleus, for instance.
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- I let oodles of Nicotiana self-sow in the cracks in the wall and pavers on that west patio, too, luring hummingbirds galore. I sit and work all day just a few feet away, inside the dining room window, and get to watch the aerobatic antics all summer into mid-September.
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- I like to have informal flowers in the vegetable garden, too — and people asked why there were zinnias, calendulas … and why I let my arugula and lettuce and some carrots bloom, then allow all of it go to seed. Because beneficial insects seem to like the blooms, and then birds like the resulting seeds. (And it’s pretty, too.)
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- Another tall character everyone (including the hummingbirds) enjoyed on the west side: the annual cardinal climber, taller than I have ever seen it at maybe 15 feet, way past its support.
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- Out to the far west edge of the place, a seasonal wall of giant Miscanthus, Miscanthus giganteus. It gets to 12 feet or so, hiding my compost heap and mulch pile and such, summer through late winter.
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- Jack started out the day posing for all arriving guests, lying on the pathways and generally draping himself everywhere. As soon as I closed the gate behind the last visitor: much snoring to be heard from his favorite chair, right through till dawn. I think he has the right idea.
please delete me for comments
I was thrilled to finally tour the garden after years of reading about it. In fact, I recognized the basketweave planters that were on the cover of my well-worn March 2003 Martha Stewart Living Garden Issue!
Glad you came to visit, too, Doreen. And yes, I have managed NOT to break those pots! (Many others have come and gone, but either those are extra-strong or I am extra-careful with them, not sure.)
Margaret,
Thanks so much for the aerial photo of your garden in the Open Days slide show. What a great shot…to see the garden design from your window enhances the jewel in its setting.
A big thank you to you and Jack for sharing your garden through Open Days. I was sorry to miss this one. I have to buy a Eucomis. Your photo reminds me how much I love that plant!
You are welcome, Laura. Not sure where I would be without the Garden Conservancy. Participation in Open Days has urged me to be a better gardener, and to see through others’ eyes. (Including yours!) Big hugs.
Thank you for the garden tour! It was beautiful. I too, wish I lived closer to you. I would have been the 651st gardener with camera to capture your wonderful garden, but you did it for us. Some day I would love to see it in person!
I loved your book the backyard parables, oh and and I shall have some peace there too.
Your gardens are spectacular! I will be making refrigerator pickles this week with my bumper crop of cucumbers. Thank you.
It took me two-three yrs. to rid our pond of the previous owner’s planting of Japanese Petacites. and it was spreading!
How do you keep the spaces in between the pavers clean of weeds? Great info on canning, thanks