A FEELING OF PRIMEVAL ROOTS

Early September in the Piedmont of NC is not usually the time of of year you experience mists rising off cooling bodies of water. It's still just too hot. Those conditions usually arrive with the beginning of earnest leaf drop.  So, I was pleasantly surprised this week upon waking to find I was in a 'Primeval Garden'. Foggy mists cushioned the verdant summer's growth and created a very theatrical look as I walked through garden spaces and looked down connecting garden paths. 

I thought it would be worth a post to Show why moments like these reinforce my love of the forest and the gardens I have made in it. 

Looking up the driveway you may remember the trimmed mounds of Abelia chinensis flanking the driveway. This morning the crunchy pea gravel leads eerily into the mists of nowhere. 

Turning around where I stood in the driveway,  the house is in deep shadow behind the silhouette of a mature China Fir that could be the back of a sleeping dinosaur. 

Conifers and tall ground cover shrubs point to the distant forest canopy shrouded in mystery. 

Ferns and Fatshedera moistened by the mists of the morning are at my feet.  I wade through to see.....

an inkling of civilization peeking out from behind a Paw Paw Tree sapling and Chinese Spice Bush. 

Looking to the left the 'Fern Walk' is soaked in moisture and the collection is anchored by a 3' wide Holly Fern. 

As I sit and ponder the aged Tulip Poplar rising out of Holly and Broad Beech Ferns,   I imagine early Mammoths wandering the fern covered floor of the woods.  

The naturally mulched path over 'Sometime Creek' leads me on........

to the bluff where a lightly leaf sprinkled moss path points East. 

On the return path to the house I see it is still shrouded in fog and plants are dripping wet. 

Huge native Magnolia tripetala leaves hang over a simple wooden bridge. Magnolia genus fossils have been traced back to 100 million years ago making Magnolias one of the oldest plants in the world. Who or what back then looked upon the great great great.....grandparent of this tree?

The beetles that pollinate Magnolias evolved with this plant. 

And a fairy's old greenhouse remind's me.......

As the sun leaks through the clouds I head back to the present. My imagination is buoyed and  refreshed to start the day.  I love the woodlands and enjoy the gardens in mine all year in all kinds of weather. 

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.

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.