Fall « The Garden Worm blog

September 27, 2011

Caution: Winter approaching

Filed under: Fall,Flowers,Grasses,Our gardens — Judy @ 3:52 pm

The air has been soft and warm these last few days and the pool warm enough to swim in, BUT time to be outdoors in shorts and tank tops is getting short before the snow flies. The signs of winter approaching are getting more numerous. The fall grasses are starting to throw up their plumage.

The Virgina creeper in the trees is starting to color up, and a few of the early maples already are turning red and orange. Some yellow is peeking through on the birches and the ashes and, with a little bit of rain, the last roses of summer are pulling out all the stops and blooming like crazy.

Rosa 'Cuyahoga'

Rosa 'Morden Blush'

The sweet autumn clematis is putting (Clematis terniflora, formerly C. paniculata) on a spectacular show this year with, it seems like, millions of tiny flowers.

The ‘Nikko Blue’ and ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangeas are pinking up.

The crabapples

and the seedheads on the coneflowers and rudbeckias are ripening, soon to be devoured by the hungry birds.

But the Autumn Joy sedum is still pink and the Amsonia hubrechtii is only just beginning to turn yellow.

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' and Amsonia hubrichtii

This is one of my favorite fall plant combinations – their glory is still to come! Maybe there is still time yet!

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February 7, 2011

Genius loci pars duo

Filed under: Contests,Fall,Flowers,Grasses,Our gardens,Spring,Summer,Veggies,Winter — Judy @ 10:25 pm

I’ve been thinking more about the concept of ‘Genius loci’ and how it relates to my own personal gardens. Currently buried under a sea of white here in upstate New York, I thought that perhaps I could find some older pictures of my gardens to use to convey ‘the spirit of the place’ to others for the Picture This contest for February over at Gardening Gone Wild. I found nothing that I felt was suitable. Why was that? Had I ignored the ‘Genius loci’ when I was creating my own gardens or had the ‘Genius loci’ really left the area!

First of all, location, location, location. Andrea Jones’ photos showed us enticing and gorgeous vistas. I live in suburbia. Granted, we have almost an acre of land, but everywhere you look there is another house impinging on the “vista.” Losing seven mature trees in ice storms over the years does not help! I can’t grow trees tall enough in my lifetime to block out all those houses looming over us.

So what if I thought about the ‘borrowed’ vistas, a time-proven fundamental of landscape design? Hmm! I found this, this, and this.

Yes, but those are not of my gardens specifically and doesn’t everyone have lovely pictures of snowstorms and sunsets and moons? Well, what else could I find that would entice you in and make you want to visit, or at least to convey what makes my gardens special to me?

Nice range of colors, nice sunshine, open gate, feels good to me, but that picture brings up the second major problem – I am not a very good photographer! There’s that pool skimmer and brush in the corner. If I crop that out, the picture just doesn’t have the same feeling. It becomes blasé – all because of a pool skimmer? Ok, so my photographic skills need to be improved on, but surely among all those hundreds, nay, thousands of photos I have taken over the years, there might be a few really good ones of my own gardens. Hah!

At this point in my thinking, I still don’t know whether I had ignored the ‘Genius loci’ or whether it had left when I wasn’t looking (if a ‘Genius loci’ can even do that!). It occurred to me that our little plot of land used to be a cornfield before it became suburbia. But what do they do when they build and build and build? Why, they scrape off all the good dirt and sell it down the river! Yikes! What if there never was a ‘Genius loci’ here?

No, no no! I mean, really, look at that pool picture again – there are some good things going on there! There are some pretty perennials, some great grasses, some shrubs growing into nice specimens, and lots of varied evergreens (both mine and borrowed).

All right, so maybe I need to think more about what I love or want in my gardens. In no particular order then –

Attracting birds, even predators like this juvenile Cooper’s hawk:

A place for children and adults to play – in the pool, in the yard:

A place to grow lots of vegetables and fruit and flowers:

A place for herbs for my cooking adventures:

So, what about the ‘Genius loci’ in my own gardens? Perhaps we created a new one while bringing in new soil and composting and amending and planning and planting all these years, and maybe it is just waiting under the snow to emerge once again in the spring.

Too bad I don’t have the photographic skills to convey the ‘Genius loci’ to you . . . yet!

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February 6, 2011

Genius loci

Filed under: Contests,Fall,Miscellaneous,Parks,Summer,Travel,Winter — Judy @ 3:17 pm

They are running another photo contest over at Gardening Gone Wild, this time having to do with pictures demonstrating ‘Genius loci.’ So, what does that mean?

Essentially, ‘Genius loci’ means “special spirit or atmosphere of a place.” It’s a fundamental principle in landscape architecture and one that I feel strongly about when designing gardens or landscapes. Consider Alexander Pope’s seminal verse:

Consult the genius of the place in all;
That tells the waters or to rise, or fall;
Or helps th’ ambitious hill the heav’ns to scale,
Or scoops in circling theatres the vale;
Calls in the country, catches opening glades,
Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades,
Now breaks, or now directs, th’ intending lines;
Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs.

I spend a considerable amount of time acquainting myself with the ‘spirit of a place,’ listening with my heart and my head to what the land tells me, before I begin designing or even dig one iota of soil. I ‘consult the genius of the place’ first.

The judge for the contest, Andrea Jones, has posted several gorgeous, gorgeous photos to illustrate this concept and has asked readers to share the special spirit or atmosphere in their own gardens or special places. This, of course, has made me think about my own personal gardens and I’ve concluded that the ‘Genius loci’ has gotten up and left the area while I’ve been busy creating for others, at least for the moment. Hmmm, can all this snow be the “white-wash” I need to visualize how to invite the ‘Genius loci’ back to my own spaces?

In any case, while examining Andrea Jones’ photos, one gets the feeling that what makes a certain place, or a landscape, or a garden, magical is the innate beauty of the location. Capturing that magical spirit with a camera is inherently difficult. She says, “It’s just a question of feel and intuition.” Yes, lots of experience and maybe luck too? She also says, “Then I wait for the light” before she captures the scene.

The pictures I am sharing with you today, while not of my own garden, are of locations that demonstrate a special spirit or atmosphere of nature to me. The light or situation at the time was magical, and I was certainly lucky to capture the picture when I did. Here’s the background on them:

Fall colors: We were driving down a back road during the fall and this vista magically appeared. Stop the car! Fortunately, I had my camera with me!

Fall colors in Upstate New York

Foggy Fort Niagara: This shot was taken on a September evening as the fog was rolling in off of Lake Ontario onto the Niagara River. Spooky, yet calming at the same time.

Fog rolling in near Old Fort Niagara, Youngstown NY

Mendon Ponds: The little beech tree glows like a beacon in the cold winter light, guiding the cross-country skier around the Quaker Pond loop.

Beech tree in wintery Mendon Ponds Park

Canandaigua Lake: Another wild and wooly rainstorm is beginning its march down the hills and across the lake – watch out! Here it comes!

Rainstorm approaching across Canandaigua Lake

And finally, the picture I have chosen to submit to the contest was taken early in the morning as the fog was beginning to burn off over Mirror Lake. This is a location in the Adirondacks that speaks to my heart, and one that I think of often; that calms me when restless, and that cheers me when sad. We have many fond memories of visiting there. The picture was a film shot from many years ago and I had no idea that it would turn out like this until it was developed. There is one teeny tiny bright spot of color – my daughter wearing her orange life jacket! Serendipitous!

Morning Fog on Mirror Lake

Tell me about the ‘Genius loci’ in your life.

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December 4, 2010

Things past, and things to come

Filed under: Fall,Flowers,Grasses,Our gardens,Winter — Judy @ 11:59 pm

On Tuesday, I finally got a chance to get the last of my own gardens cleaned up and ready for the winter. The lawn received its last mowing, the gardens were “drive-by” mulched, and the grasses and other things that I usually leave for winter interest looked great. That is, until Wednesday when it rained about 5 inches, turned cold, and the snow “cement” arrived. Overnight, the grasses went from beautiful to smushed.

And the ‘Autumn joy’ sedums which usually dry and hold up all winter turned into mush.

But winter weather brings its own beauty. The rose hips glow against the icy blue snow.

The frozen crabapples will provide some delicious food for the birds very soon.

And the butterfly bush still seems to want to beckon those butterflies that have long gone.

The growing season might have ended up here in upstate New York for now, but if you look around you can see signs of what will come in the spring. The big fat buds of the rhododendron,

the teeny buds of the azaleas,

the fattening lilac buds,

and the quince buds are readying themselves to burst forth with color when spring returns.

Remember that new Polemonium ‘Stairway to Heaven’ I told you about in the spring? What beautiful gold yellow fall-into-winter foliage it has! I’m looking forward to seeing its next transformation in the spring.