CHANGEABLE FEBRUARY

I always have to remind myself that winter in Raleigh, NC is not over until February is gone. This year I just heard that the Jet Stream is always playing with the weather and this winter the dips have brought abundant cold, wind,  snow and ice to us. Ours is usually a gentle snow that is melted away within a week as the temperatures fluctuate between below 30' and even up to 50' throughout the month. In the meantime we enjoy and sometimes lament the changes we see in the gardens. The winds do a pretty good job of pruning the weak and dead tree branches. 

The dead wood in the trees can come down hard and ruin an older plant specimen in a heartbeat. The Tulip Poplar branch on the ground has bisected a 5 year old Daphne odora. 

Ill try gently tying the two halves together and wait for new growth later in April and cross fingers that it recovers. 

On the upside of the wind pruning. Every Feb. and March the gales that whip over my roof prune a 30 foot China Fir. I find the branchlets thrown as much as 40-50' away. Like the Sweet-gum tree if this plant were in the wrong place it would be an unwanted specimen.  I take about 15 minutes to gather up the branchlets with a rake and heavy pair of gloves and place them under the tree each year. The natural mulch  skirt looks pleasant to me and by mid summer the Vinca minor (Periwinkle) has crept up through and hidden all the brown. 

If the snowfall is a light dusting over my warmed rock terraces I get a white patchwork look for awhile. 

The deck looks more Zen  like than ever. I like the calm feeling this view gives me as a change from the cottage style planting in my other garden spaces. 

Now, the paths take center stage among the bare branches and evergreen plants .

February is always a time I like to cut budding branches and place them in the windowsill to enjoy the sight of the unfolding and scent of the flowers. 

I have an Edgeworthia chrysantha and a ' Jet Trail ' Quince in this little display. 

When all else fails to cheer up your gloomy February drag out some remembrances of the warm days in the garden. Old Mr. Sun ( he looks like a Mr. to me) is frowning on the icy sight he sees out the window to the right. The frogs, out of hybernation, remind me to keep up the yoga, and the chickens, painted by Kathleen Jardin, brighten up the display pecking in the golden sunshine of coming summer. I have a wonderful friend that told me the other day , " I want to remember this cold in the heat of summer." Maybe that mental trick will work for me when it's too hot to work in the garden.

MOSS GARDEN MOMENTS

Having multiple moss gardens in my woodland is one of the greatest joys of living here. I can't tell you how many clients living in woodlands over the years have expressed a yearning for large areas of green to look at in their landscape.  When they are living in a forest they question the inability to grow grass and usually have struggled for years trying to grow a patch of lawn in the shade. Certainly there are some grassy looking ground covers that will emulate the look of a lawn (Dwarf Mondo Grass and low creeping Carex comes to mind) but why not use mosses tolerant of your site to give you that calming space in the garden? 

No fertilizer required and a gentle sweeping and weeding are the only thing necessary to keep it beautiful.  If it is too dry,  Irrigation pop up sprayers can be fitted out to keep the area in sufficient moisture. 

Moss gardens thrive in our garden because of the moist terrain and the close to 100 year old trees shading the entire property.  I was told by the farmer who originally owned  our 3+ acres within the 30 surrounding us that underground springs on this property are the source of keeping the lake levels up behind our house. he was told when building the 5acre lake that the roots of the magnificent trees here filter the water before it reaches the lake and to not cut them down. 

                  Crocus thomasiniana

The soil type here is one more piece of the puzzle that helps the moss to thrive. It is Triassic Basin Soil.  An acidic sandy soil layer over mucky anaerobic clay is constantly wicking up moisture from the below ground springs.  (Moss also grows well on red clay soil which is more common in this area of the Piedmont of NC.) I was told that a million years ago our property was at the edge of a giant lake. Now we are in a watershed for a man made lake 10 miles away. 

Moss is also growing on these hardened bags of concrete (alkaline) that I put in place for steps three years ago. 

Moss naturally appeared on the garden paths when I consistently cleared the leaves off to demonstrate the sandy soil. It also took off after removing a pile of backfill dirt for an addition to the house we put on in 1995. 

I have harvested moss from my stone patio for client gardens and to expand my own mossy garden spaces. Using a wide metal spatula to loosen the moss in dinner plate sized patches I can have an almost instant moss garden or path. I wait about three years between liftings and then I prepare my new area by raking down to bare soil; wetting down the soil to make it muddy and finally laying down the patches of moss as closely together as I can and press those patches into the wet soil. My soil base is so hard that I can actually stamp on it with my feet to get it in good contact with the base.  It then fills in as a carpet within a year. 

If you have shade, acidic, compacted, infertile soil; a moist ecosystem and see moss growing naturally I would encourage you to try moss gardening. Look up "Japanese Moss Gardens" and see some of the most beautiful and oldest manmade moss gardens in the world. Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island in the state of Washington has an entry moss garden taking advantage the iconic tree stumps that designer Richard Haag calls 'Monuments' of the moss garden. 

'SWEET' SWEETGUMS "Their Baaaaaack!!!"

"WHAT??????"

 I am one of those crazy people that loves  Sweetgum trees (Liquidambar styraciflua).  I was first entranced by the Sweetgum's corky wings along it's branches when I was taking plant ID back in 1980 as a beginning student of landscape design. 

I knew that furniture can be made from Sweetgum wood and I fancied my self as maybe becoming 'The Forest Furniture Lady' crafting rustic pieces from saplings growing in the woods. So,  I actually made a chair out of some especially  handsome corky  branches. This was over 20 years ago. The chair was 6' tall and 6' wide with all the branches flying out from the seat and back looking , for all the world like Oberon's Throne. I pruned it over the years to fit into different corners of my inside rooms where it lived for years. Then I spray painted it red and it lived the rest of it's useful life on the front porch. Locust beetles infiltrated it there coming from a rustic bench I had brought down from the mountains.  So, it had to move from the house proper. Now, what remains has been melting into the woodland for the last four years.  It's majestic wings clipped and haggard looking in old age. 

Before I even got into landscape  design  I used to notice the interesting spiny balls dangling all over the tall trees at Christmas time. I loved seeing how they miraculously decorated themselves for the coming solstice.

If you live in a woodland with Sweetgum, Loblolly Pine, Oak, Maple, Dogwoods, the odd Elm and Sassafras,  you may be able to experience what I call 'Fairy Rain'. Just before and during the time the balls fly to the ground, while the woodland is dry and still with no wind, the seed capsules open up dropping their tiny seeds everywhere. As they bounce off the dry leafy forest floor listen for a delicate sound almost like that of sleet. 

This Fairy is only 4" tall. 

 I have often wished that the Sweetgum balls themselves would drop off before Christmas so that they could be used in decorations and arrangements. But, they hold on to the tree until February just before Valentine's Day. It's then that I collect perfect gum balls and get out my glue gun and some pretty ribbon to make prickly hearts to give to a Valentine friend or foe. 

Another way I like to use sweet gum balls is to enhance garden seats or benches that are in decline. 

This park bench started leaning to one side after the strapping beneath the bench came away from the wooden slats. I decided to keep it as a wonky garden feature.  Every year it is graced with a fresh line of prickly Sweetgum balls placed in between the mossy slats as a warning for people to not sit.  The loose decoration will last well through the summer. 

I  can twist an ankle as easily on a Sweetgum ball as I can on a pinecone so I'm pretty regular about keeping my paths cleared. 

Pine cones fall all year long and luckily Sweetgum balls for only two to three weeks. (Post Note Correction!!!! The gum balls are still falling and it is April 21st) and now July 5th the thunder storms are still shaking out the old gum balls

I rake or blow off my paths when they seem too treacherous to walk on. I know I'll get flack for using a blower these days, but, I usually plan this garden task when I can stay at home.....for the whole day. It makes me feel a little better trading off using gas in the blower as opposed to the car for a 4 mile round trip in the car to the grocery store. 

 The Sweetgum is an easy tree to garden under because the root system is fingerlike, not fibrous the way maples, oaks and dogwoods are, so if it's possible to  keep a Sweetgum tree somewhere on your property away from a driveway or frequented footpath, do. Try to  let even one in your woodland thrive. This tree will reward you with beautiful fall color, cooling summer shade, decorative seed capsules that you can use in arrangements or under Hostas as a mulch to keep pesky slugs away.  I've also been told that if you feel like your teeth need brushing while on a woodland walk you can break off a branch and start scrubbing away. You may want to Google 'Uses for a Sweetgum Tree' and be surprised at all of its useful properties. 

Enjoy our native Eastern  (Sweet) 

Sweetgum!!!!!

WINDOWS AND THE WOODLAND GARDEN

Looking From one room to another, from the inside out, was a goal I set for myself when I moved to this woodland over 20 years ago.  I quickly realized that designing in a  woodland required establishing human scale spaces with transitions from one place to another.  What better way to start then looking out your windows and creating garden vignettes. The view happens to be divided by four glass panes on the top and bottom of the window. We tend to see the whole scene at first glance but we can also study the garden details within each pain making the viewing experience four times as interesting.

Standing in the garden space outside the window panes of my Eastern view is the wall garden only 8 to 10 feet from the house.  It is an intimate hallway paved in flagstone and wainscoted with a stacked Tennessee fieldstone wall. The garden is ever-changing with low perennials, bulbs and ground covers. The view is framed with nearby shade tolerant dwarf conifers that correspond to the natural cone of vision we all have when we experience what is before our eyes. With these comfortable conifer edges you can now take in the whole picture skimming over the vegetation and into the woodland beyond from the comfort of this garden room. 

Tongue Fern growing through the wall

Helleborus orientalis seeded in at the base of the wall and Cyclamen coum at easily viewed waist height on the top edge of the wall beneath and beside a Dwarf Hinoki Cypress. 

Lets take a walk around the house and look at some of the other garden rooms I have created from inside out. 

         The snow bound front courtyard.

             Looking out the side door 

View from the front door and a rocking chair placed to enjoy the garden. 

The same view in snow. Glass flowers given to me by a friend enliven the scene

I see this view from over my kitchen sink

A winter view with fragrant branches of Witch-hazel, Edgeworthia and Quince on the window sill. 

A simple Zen treatment to the deck view from my kitchen table. Notice the wing chairs inside framing the view. 

                 A winter Zen moment

So if you have an opportunity, such as this one that a friend of mine created to watch the birds at her feeder, try creating a quiet sitting place to bring the outside garden in through your windows.