July 24th, 2010
This has been a fantastic growing year. We’ve had sunny, hot and humid days (maybe a bit too humid at times) and good rain (though last Wednesday’s storm that washed out the roads around here was a bit much). Consequently, we have been fantastically busy trying to keep up with everything. But I’ve still had time to enjoy what sun and rain and soil can do for plants.
The lavender was grand in bloom.
The bordeaux spinach was just as much fun after it bolted as when we started eating the tender new leaves.
I didn’t harvest all of the leeks that overwintered under one of our mini hoop-houses. And look what they do when they go to seed.
They have been awesome to watch.
The stewartia is about through blooming, but what a show we’ve had all month.
And the astrantia has been particularly lovely.
We’ve cut it back and hope for a second bloom as we look toward August. — A. C.
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July 24th, 2010
We’ve been woking to augment and somewhat reconfigure a naturalizing project. The client wanted this guest house to fit into the surrounding woods. During construction three years ago the site was cleared and disturbed. Quite a few plantings were already taking root around the house, but it still had an arid, wide-open feeling, sitting in what seemed like an acre of wood chips.
So we added some rocks, moved and grouped existing shrubs differently, transplanted spruce and transplanted scads of hayscented ferns to eventully carpet the ground. (I know, it helps to see the place in full summer as opposed to early spring.)
In the vincinity where Adam is kneeling there are now two nice clumps of birch.
We hope that the spruce we transplanted will take and make this a denser sort of planting, as one might find coming up in the surrounding woods. The side of the house before we moved plants around:
And after:
Molly and Hannah spent way more time than they probably wanted digging up hayscented ferns and planting them all through the site.
But our hope is that when they leaf back out (we had to cut them back during the transplanting process) the drifts of ferns will roll right up the slope to the house.
At some edges we added blueberry sod, which should start to creep out and settle the building even more into the woodland.
We’ll see. I’m looking forward to seeing the ferns all unfurled and filling in. — A. C.
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July 24th, 2010
This past month Hedgerow crew took on the challenge of reconfiguring a garden in Rockland.
In April the existing garden was a bit bleak. It is on a very wet site, so the existing picket fence was heaving further out of the ground after each winter, some plants were ailing in the wetness, and it was much larger than it needed to be.
So we started in. The first thing that happened was that the fence and arbor came out. After we popped out the plants that had to be moved we shrank the outline of the garden, reconfigured the path and added soil and what we hope will be a drain along the edge of the garden.
One of the additions to this garden was a HUGE climbing hydrangea that was a challenge to plant. Once we got it off the truck the question was: Now what?
The now what is that we straightened it up and planted it. Then we constructed an arbor for it to cover.
This is a photo of the garden almost finished. We planted a magnificent Gold Rush Dawn Redwood just outside of the garden to screen out the neighbor’s house. And Adam and Julie completed the arbor one very hot and humid Saturday.
A good project. — A. C.
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June 23rd, 2010
The ornamental rhubarb leaves are fantastic.
In every way. — A. C.
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June 23rd, 2010
Our challenge on this property was to give the owner of this converted church on a very small corner lot an outside “room” and gardens.
We’re getting there.
Rockers build a lovely stone terrace, and Jon Bailey (who took this photo) built the trellis/arcade structure around it. We have planted a beech hedge, which will take a few years to begin filling in, along the road and sidewalk, a row of crabapples across the yard, and espaliered apples filling in the openings in the trellis arcade. More plantings (and grass) to come.
More beech for the rest of the hedge arrive tomorrow. Then with a few more adjustments, this should be through. — A. C.
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June 23rd, 2010
For the better part of two weeks we worked on Hupper Island along with our friend and excavator operator, Doug Gammon, along with Steve Thomas and Evy Blum, owners of the property. The truth is we were so busy with the project I didn’t manage to document it terribly well with photos. Suffice it to say, much in the way of moving rocks, desodding, building walls, making walkways, planting birch, grasses, transplanting hay-scented ferns, building raised beds, leveling raised beds happened.
One of our challenges was to make this leach field disappear visually.
We’re hoping that the faux ledge we created along with birch plantings both in front and behind the field will do this. This photo is toward the leach field, across the circular loose stone wall we constructed.
Some side steps up to the barn.
And a wall and raised beds (made by Steve, planted by Evy).
A very satisfying project. Better photos to come. Especially after all the ferns we transplanted start unfurling and filling in. — A. C.
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June 23rd, 2010
We’ve been quite busy this year with new projects along with our on-going maintenance projects. But then, maybe we’re always this busy this time of year. The first new project to come to semi-completion (what garden is ever complete?) is in Thomaston. An old house and grounds that have been completely renovated. (More photos to come once the grass is in and perennials fill out.)
The rough grading was through as early this spring as we could manage.
And then we got to work on planting.
And planting.
Already parts of the property are settling in and relaxing, but much tweaking continues. — A. C.
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June 23rd, 2010
Our favorite neighborhood snapping turtle showed up early — probably in tune with the early warmth we’ve been experiencing this year. First the chickens setting up a ruckus and then Emmett, the orange cat, alerted me to her presence.
As with every year around this time, she was looking for a good place to lay her eggs, while broadcasting a “don’t look at me” command. But how can you not look at her? She’s magnificent and prehistoric.
And, as is usual, she chose the mulch pile for her eggs. I think I’ve isolated where she dug in and laid them, but every scoop we take out of the pile now has the potential of revealing small ping pong balls that are turtle eggs. — A. C.
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June 18th, 2010
We have a fun project going in Rockport, right on Pascal Avenue. Rockers has finished some nice stone work, Jon Bailey is working on a trellis/arcade and Doug Gammon helped us plant some large trees. Yesterday was the day most of the Hedgerow crew descended on the property to finish planting the trees, work on a beech hedge, move soil and start creating planting beds.
The day started off with just a bit of a drizzle, and even though the forecast was for showers on and off most of the day, we were hoping that Rockport would be mostly off.
We were wrong.
Still smiling after a full day in the rain. — A. C.
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May 11th, 2010
We have begun receiving deliveries to the nursery. More compost, more mulch, loam. And plants. It’s always an exciting day with the big truck from Millican Nurseries in New Hampshire rolls in. Unloading generally takes four people. This time Laura was on the truck with Judy, the driver; Adam operated the tractor and Margaret and Ingrid received the trees and blocked them.
By the end of the day Ingrid and Margaret had done their required daily amount of lifting concrete blocks into place to hold the trees (a good thing given the winds we’ve had lately). But they also got to do a bit of directing.
Once we opened up the crabapples (the branches are tied up for transport), there was a magical canopy of blossoms and bees. Very noisy, very busy bees.
What did I do during all of this? Flit around moving blocks into place, tell everyone where to put the plants, help lift off the smaller pots, keep track of what plant material we received, cheered, teased, cajooled. The usual. — A. C.
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