Getting Started April 28, 2008

 

Two weeks of having my garden, and I finally feel like I’m making some progress with it.   Digging the pathways and raised beds was quite the laborious task and took a lot more time than I anticipated.  But I wanted to do the framework right, putting in deep paths with a deep layer of mulch so weeds and mud will be staved off most of the time. 

 

 

Grunt work done, it was time to get planting.  On April 24th, I direct sowed Easter Egg Radishes (Raphanus sativus), Sugar Snap Peas (Pisum sativum), and an “antique” lettuce cutting mix (Lactuca sativa).  I sowed a 3′ x 5′ section of raised bed with the radishes.  For the peas and lettuce, I sowed them on the same section of another raised bed, hoping the peas growing up the trellis will eventually provide enough shade to keep the lettuce happy a little longer in this unseasonably warm spring.  Granted, this little scheme of mine depends on the peas taking off themselves, a challenge on dry near-80 degree days like we’ve been having this April.  

 

                      
                               Radish Seeds                                      Sugar Snap Pea Seeds

 

In any case, I sowed 20 peas and a 2′ x 6′ section of lettuce.   I wish I had talked to Harold soon about some of his helpful tricks in this clay-rich soil of Chester County, something I’m not so used to handling.  Next time I direct sow small seeds like lettuce and radish, I’ll cover them with potting soil instead of the existing dirt that tends to form a hard crust that diminishes germination success.  Live and learn, right?

 

 Lettuce Mix Seeds

 

Next up on the direct sowing list are carrots, swiss chard, sorrel, and chicory.   I also need to get to work on sowing seeds in trays for transplants of tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and cucumbers.  I’m also looking around for some more unusual stuff: a hardy kiwi and ground cherries.   The complete crop list, or at least complete as it stands right now, is captured below (click it to make it bigger). 

 

 

To keep myself organized, on my garden design sheet, I’ve broken out each of my four raised beds, which are three feet wide, into five foot sections.  This particular break-out is in part due to Harold’s required planting space, but I also feel it will be a good general amount of space for most of the crops I am growing to feed myself over the summer and to put back some preserves for winter.  We’ll see how this plan works out. 

 

Garden Design April 26, 2008

my garden as it looked at the end of my first day of digging in it

 

It took a week and several revisions, but I’ve finally come up with what I think is my final design for this year’s garden.  It consists of four long raised beds for the vegetable plot, each three feet wide.  Figuring out that part was easy.  The design of the herbaceous was a whole different beast.  

I wasn’t exactly intimidated by it so much as I was uninspired.  I knew that I wanted to focus a good portion on growing flowers for cutting as that’s an area of interest for me as I move forward in my horticulture career.   I also wanted enough room for a “tea garden”, a section that will allow me to experiment with new herbs in order to broaden my tea-making portfolio.   Here’s the starter list for that: 

 

 

Another general group of plants that interest me are seedums, something I know little about but am very intrigued by their shapes and textures.  I put them on the original design layout but really had no vision for their presentation.  Then the horticulture gods smiled upon me, and I was gifted with three baby Metasequoia trees.  They were just the jolt of inspiration I needed to get going with some ideas.  The major design element of my herbaceous area will be a constructed “bank” to showcase a sweep of succulents resting under the three trees that are now anchoring the bank at its highest point (more on how I engineered this bank to come).  Tucked in below the bank of succulents will be my tea garden, assuming all those herbs can play nice in such a small space.  

 

 

The required container for our gardens was an easy piece for me, in concept.  Granted I haven’t implemented it yet, other than to sit it out there in the intersection of my pathways.  I envision a water garden container for the summer, showcasing a pitcher plant, some bog grasses, and a water lily.  I have zero experience in bog plants and water gardening.  But I am eager to start this piece, hopefully with the help of Kari (Italian Water Gardens area), who knows a good bit about them.

I’m still sketching out ideas for the “facade” of my garden, toying with ideas of growing a hardy kiwi vine up poles on each corner and stringing solar powered twinkle lights entwined with willow branches between them.  Those plans will have to wait though.  At the moment, I need to get all of my seeds sown! 

 

Class Snapshots: April April 25, 2008

Garden Day 2008 April 21, 2008

The start of something big…

Here’s the breakdown:

• April 17th
• 80+ degrees in the sun
• Light breeze
• 15′ wide x 50′ long
• BIG BLANK SLATE

As is to be expected (if you know me and how desperate I was to get a piece of ground to plant for myself), Garden Day was on the forefront of my mind since the day I stepped onto the Row.  It had been an “unseasonably hot” week leading up to it, so the ground was loose and dry.  We started off the day with some training on the equipment:  tractor, mowers, and ’tillers.  I confess, I was yawning a lot.  All I really wanted was to get a shovel and get started!!

 

 

Earlier in the week, I’d drawn up a rather basic layout for my plot, one I’ve since modified and may very likely modify again.  It’s below though, just for the record.  Thanks to Joyce’s mental limbering-up session with some killer Latin music for bubble drawings, I’ve since come up with some more definitve ideas for the herbacious portions of the garden.  More on those plans next time… 

The biggest surprise of the day came when it started dawning on us as a group that the plots had been measured out incorrectly.  This realization came AFTER we’d all dug our paths (2′ wide x 50′ long x 6″ deep) in the blazing sun and put down mulch on many of them.  It was a touch decision to make: keep what we had, though it was smaller than we’d all been planning for, or rake up the mulch, shovel in the paths and start over.   It had a few people fired up, but in the end we did start over.  

Re-doing our hard work wasn’t fun, that’s for sure, but it did illustrate a couple important points that I hope I can remember as I move forward with this project:

1. Gardening, or at least the successful kind, requires flexibility and a willingness to work a little harder when some unforeseen obstacle comes up
2. If something’s not quite the way I want it, it’s okay to start over.  In fact, it’s often the best policy.  So when there’s a plant in my garden that’s just not doing well, it might be better to pull it out (thanks, Joyce, for the affirmation).
3. We all need a little “zen” in our gardens.  

 

 

 

My Sweet Ride April 20, 2008

Outdoor Rotation: Peirce’s Woods April 20, 2008

Sanguinaria canadensis
Bloodroot

 

I’ve spent a few weeks now in the outdoor rotation, my first work rotation here at Longwood.  It’s a rotation well-suited to my interests coming into this program.  Peirce’s Woods is a managed woodland showcasing native plants with a staff of gardeners who have interests in green practices and permaculture that match my own.    Longwood’s overall focus on display and constant change-out of plants (and even treehouses someday?) for ultimate impact is one with which I’m still coming to terms.  It’s the farmer in me that doesn’t understand how you can rip out productive plants you worked so hard to grow.  In any case,  Peirce’s Woods is a good place for me to start getting more familiar with Longwood and with many native plants. 

 

Kentucky Coffee Tree

 

Spring in the Woods is the best time of year, I’m certain of that.  All those little plants that carpet the forest floor and look rather boring the rest of the year are in full bloom: Bloodroot, Twin Leaf, Dutchman’s Breeches, Foam Flower, Alumroot, and even Skunk Cabbage.  The fiddleheads on the Ostrich Fern are pretty incredible too.  

 

Fiddlehead of the Ostrich Fern

 

The work I’ve been doing has been rather rewarding, aside from all the weeding (I know, I know…that’s to be expected).  In my first week, I helped plant at Kentucky Coffee Tree at the top of Peirce’s Park, right alongside all the immense historical hemlocks.  Also planted my first week were a couple oaks in the Woods and three dogwoods in containers on the Plaza.  During my second week, I worked around the Italian Water Garden more and helped plant 16 rodadendron and five red bud trees, all in preparation for a big press event around the big treehouse.  It was fulfilling to see a blank spot filled in with so many new plants that will be there for quite some time.   I’ll be sure to go back an snap an “after” shot when the red buds are in full bloom.  

 

 
Redbuds planted and then the rodadendrons

 

I’ve also been learning a good bit about bog plants from Kari, one of the gardener’s in this section.  Thanks in part to her enthusiasim, I’ll be trying my hand at my first water garden in the require container planting in my garden up on the Row.  I’m totally fascinated by pitcher plants and look forward to discovering other interesting bog plants. 

Two more weeks in this rotation will no doubt yeild more interesting experiences.  I’m not sure if any of them will top weeding in the Italian Water Garden with the fountains swirling around me.   Yes, I too was shocked that my favorite experience thus far at Longwood was one that involved weeding! 

 

Italian Water Gardens

Plant of the Week: Aeonium Arboreum “Zwartkop” April 10, 2008

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Aeonium Arboreum, “Zwartkop”
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I was only at Longwood for two days when I stumbled on this plant back in one of the greenhouses attached to the conservatory.  I immediately fell in love with it’s unnaturally paired qualities of a small woody plant and an herbacious succulent.   A succulent on a trunk!  Besides the cool trunk, the leaves are a striking glossy purple shaped in a sunburst.  I love it so much that I’m thinking of using it in my garden design as anchors for the corners of my ornamental plot.  The tough part though will be finding where to get it as I doubt the greenhouse staff would appreciate me pilfering theirs. 

Winterthur Tour April 9, 2008

Our first class field trip wasn’t to a far away place, but it was a world apart in terms of design.  Winterthur, an “American country estate”, is also a du Pont horticulture legacy much in keeping with Longwood’s own history.  However, Henry du Pont, or at least those folks in whose capable hands he left Winterthur, had a much more “relaxed” sense of design, creating sweeping hills and meadows as a framework for enchanted pocket gardens and wooded nooks.  There is a penchant for peonies and azaleas while there are no real formal settings and certainly no conservatories.  The walk around the grounds was led by Colvin, although most of us were consistently getting left behind when we lingered over a particular plant, usually one of the outstanding spring bloom specimens.  I am looking forward to returning to Winterthur when the peonies are in bloom.  Since it’s only a short drive from Longwood, I might also stop over there for a summer picnic sometime.  Would be a jolly good time, don’t you think?

 

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PHOTOS FROM WINTERTHUR – APRIL 2008

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Merrill Magnolia

 
Geophytes in bloom, creating a carpet of blue

Geophytes

Merrill Magnolia heavy with blooms

Another magnolia but not sure which one specifically

Gold Finch Hellebore

Rolling Vista

Exploring Winterthur