Planting Fields Arboretum

Today I read that a gardening friend was at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. I realized that I've only been there once, many many years ago for a symposium in the middle of the winter. I didn't walk one path in their gardens as it was miserable weather. I wonder why I've never been back.

My favorite public garden by far is Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay. I have been there hundreds of times over the past 30 years and still find new things to see. 

The amount of spring flowering trees and shrubs is just incredible. I spend hours walking the many pathways and always find lots of things to photograph.

These photos were taken May 10th so if you are planning a trip and want to see Planting Fields in all it's glory, that is the time to go. It's a huge Mother's Day location but I always try to find a day during the week so it's not as crowded.

The plant in the foreground is Bergenia. I have seen huge waves of Bergenia thriving in Germany but have not yet seen a place on Long Island where it grows well.

The fountain garden at planting fields is more of a summer location. The plant material is not at it's best in the spring time, all the more reason to go back again!

The last time I was at Planting Fields I noticed a plant that had previously escaped my attention. It's the one with the chartreuse blooms, some type of Euphorbia. 

Here you can see how wonderful this Euphorbia looks combined with the pink Azalea blooms. What really caught my attention though is that this is a shady location and this Euphorbia seems to thrive. Here at Doodle-dog farm we have mostly shade so I am going to have to try to find this plant.

Not the clearest shot but I wanted to take a close-up to share with you. If you know of this plant I'd love for you to leave me a comment.

It might be February 18th, but it feels like spring is right around the corner!

Blogging, the new direction

I don't know when I began blogging, I guess it's not hard to look up. For years my passion was gardening, the first place I learned to share my passion was with my different garden clubs. As the internet began to explode I joined an e-mail daylily robin. Although I had never met most of the other robin members, they soon became my dear friends in gardening. 

The e-mail robin I belonged to did not allow photos at the time so once I heard about blogging it became the natural progression. I found an outlet for my love of writing, photographing and sharing my passion for gardening. 

This blog, Melanie's Old Country Gardens was my first blog. It has over 400 posts and probably thousands of photos. When I began here I barely knew how to choose my background, add widgets, post hyperlinks and other technical things. In it's heyday I became quite adept at changing and updating the blog. There were so many things I wanted to share and I loved blogging so much that I began a new blog at melaniesperennials.blogspot.com.   My reason was I wanted to have a blog where I could write more and share my thoughts (this blog) and a second where I could highlight a specific plant or concept.

Having spent the last 7 or 8 years redirecting my life I suddenly find myself back to the beginning, a baby in the knowledge of how to blog. The desire never went away, blog topics pop up in my head all the time, it's just that life gets in the way. I went from being a full time mom, garden writer and lecturer to a middle age woman needing a career. Somehow I fell in to banking, first as a teller, then out on to the bank floor as an officer. My hard work has paid off, I've made it to Vice President and Manager of my own branch in Bayville NY. As fulfilling as my career has become, my lottery dream is to return to full time gardening with it's writing, lecturing, garden travels and to be with the people who share my passion.

I have visited so many incredible gardens over the past years and have so many photos and thoughts to share. Today I posted a plan on melanie's perennials blog to go back over the past years and do some arm chair tours, after all, it is February! Some of the posts will be here in Melanie's Old Country Gardens, these will have longer stories to accompany the photos. By the way one of my favorite gardens visited last year was Anna Carlson's in Jordan NY and I promise a full photo tour in the very near future. 

There are topics to cover like window box gardening (I could have taken hundreds of photos in Nantucket last August)

Sometimes I'll just blog about the beautiful places I've seen. At least once a year I visit my mother in Delray Beach Florida. The nature that abounds there calls me back over and over.

Of course there will be posts showcasing new plants I've bought and can't live without in my new garden adventures. Half the fun of finding new treasures is to share them with you!

Another post that is busting out of me is the discovery of my roots, a visit to the place my love of gardening first began. 

Last but not least this blog, my Old Country Garden is the place I can still share stories about Calie the wonder doodle and maybe my daughters will even make a some guest appearances. The garden itself, Old Country Garden may no longer be mine in property but it's here in my heart.

So glad to be back

Armchair gardening

Hi there! It must be time for my annual post again. Gee, I'd like to apologize and say I'm going to better at the blogging but I know better than to make promises I might not keep.

So much has changed in my life that I hardly know where to begin. The biggest change came a few weeks ago on Valentines day when I married the man of my dreams, Andy.

While Andy isn't a big gardening fan he is a huge fan of anything outdoors so we spend lots and lots of time hiking trails and visiting various garden. One of our new places we visited last year was Sweet Briar Park in Smithtown. I can't wait to go back when it's in bloom later this year.

As you can see it was late Autumn so we had to make our own excitement in the garden.

Luckily there are many wonderful gardens right here in our community. I have a number of favorites and walk almost daily to see what people have going on in their gardens.

SUNY Farmingdale was one location I visited, I have to get back there more often.

The Peconic River Herb farm is another favorite place for us to go. I made sure I brought home a pot of that fabulous Hakone grass.

We are only a few blocks from the north shore of Long Island. It's almost impossible to go for a walk without a water view.

Planting Fields Arboretum in Upper Brookville is the place I visited the most this past year. It's close enough to my work that I can visit it on my lunch break. My daughters Lauren and Emily both visited with me at different times.

Andy and I spent a weekend in eastern Pennsylvania and I took photos of rocks. I had visions of rock gardens and borders for our cottage garden and needed inspiration. I'll go in to more detail on another post.

Our neighbor Helen moved in just a year ago and she and I have been having such fun watching the amazing plants bloom in her garden. The Siberian Iris are amazing. I can't wait to help her divide them and add some to my garden too.

This week is the Hicks flower show, I haven't attended it yet. This photo is from last year. A blizzard was forecasted for today and I didn't want to buy plants and have to keep them indoors. We dodged the bullet and it's mostly rain and sleet out there. I'll be sure to stop at Hicks later this week to pick up some bulbs and pansies.

Here's another peek at Planting Fields, probably what it looks like right at this moment.

This is our little cottage, taken just a year ago. So much has changed in one year. The front garden is really shaping up, this year I am going to attack the back yard.

Wish I could do more than just armchair gardening today...

SUNY Farmingdale

What could be better on a cold winter night than to go through photos of lush gardens? It's a fridgid 14 degrees outside but this topic is doing it's best to warm me up.

One of my favorite places to visit on Long Island are the trial gardens at the State University at Farmingdale. There are 9 or 10 distinct different garden rooms/themes there to see, one more spectacular than the rest. It's a hidden jewel, few people know where to find it. As you drive past the parking lot there's not much more than these gates to see.

If you are lucky enough to to stop and park your car, all you need to do is take a peek through the bars and you'll find yourself transported to another world.

Andy and I visited the garden this past September, it had been a few years for me and I was thrilled to find a whole new addition with vegetables and a wild spill of cutting flowers.

Zinnias are so easy to grow and so beautiful. We grew one solitary Zinnia here last summer, I expect to grow lots and lots more this coming year!

When touring a garden of this magnitude, it's hard to find one single thing that just rocks your world. This time though it was an easy choice, those big Dr Seuss like tufts are Cyperus papyrus 'King Tut'. Although I took a dozen photos, not one does them justice, I am in love with them.

One of the first gardens you will walk through are very formal beds but the plant material is cutting edge tropicals surrounded by perennial borders.

Of course there is a silver garden, it's such a restful place after walking through a riot of color and textures.

My happy place is the tropical garden room. I think I could sit there all day. Give me a foggy day like this and I could take hundreds and hundreds of photos too. The plant with the long red blooms is Amaranthus 'Love lies a bleeding'. It's so cool!

The tropical garden is not large but every single inch is planted. September is the perfect time to visit this garden, just before the plants are brought in to the green houses for the winter.

The color and foliage combinations don't stop, there's something amazing no matter which way you turn. It's hard to grasp all that surrounds you.

The rustic arbor and goldfish pond have been there since my daughters were young. It's still just as magical as it was back then.

If you  make your way to the back corner of the gardens you'll find a shade garden filled with wonderful plants that just thrive in our Long Island conditions. I love the combination of this fern and the Asarum (ginger).

Although it wasn't rose season this part of the garden was still lovely. We'll have to make a point to go back this May when the roses and peonies are in full bloom.

There were plenty of autumn perennials to see such as this Aster. I'll take a guess and say it's 'Alma Potschke'.

One last photo, a riot of yellow blooms. If you live on Long Island or are coming this way for a visit, try to get in to see these gardens. You won't be sorry!

melanie

Centerport, my new home

Welcome! It's about time you dropped by to see the place :-)

As promised, here's some images of my new little cottage in Centerport, New York (north shore of Long Island, between Huntington and Northport).

Not everything in my life has changed. As you can see, Calie-the-wonderdoodle still greets any visitors that have managed to find out my little hide-away. At six years old though, Calie has grown a bit wiser. She'll stay on the front stoop if I ask her unless a dog is being walked right along our fence line.

This is the cottage, the whole thing. As you can see, there's not much to it but more than Calie and I need to put a smile on my face. 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bath and dining room downstairs, one room upstairs. Life is simple here, I can clean house in one evening!

We have a corner lot. Since each house on my street has only 2 homes, I guess we all have corner lots! The street is only 5 blocks long, so we really are well tucked away from the rest of the world. I love the views out of all my windows, I see flowering trees and shrubs and darling cottages in each direction.

Here's the other side along with the little side yard. Upstairs is a single room my daughters have set up when they are here. At 5'9" poor Lauren can only walk down the very middle of the room. Ouch, banged my own head once too often up there!

I brought what garden accessories I could, probably more than I should have but some just couldn't be given away or left behind. This antique chimney top came back after a wonderful trip with my friend Chris and I will drag it where ever I go.

There's a little garage although I don't use it. My landlord has the most incredible antique red tractor stored in it! A little fish pond is there too. I've put my money pot by that pond, as close to the rear left corner of the lot. The wealth has begun to flow although not cash, just lots and lots of peace, happiness and laughter.

Now here's the real treasure, just 3 short blocks (super steep down hill) is the beach! Sunday I sat there with a beer in hand (pure heaven) and watched this darling Dachshund walk along the water edge side by side with a slowly gliding swan. They continued like this for at least 5 minutes!

I've always loved birds and we have so many here but I will admit I was surprised at just how many swans are on our water. There's easily 30 of them out at one time.

The tide here changes pretty drastically. Our sand is well kept but when the tide is all the way out there's always some green sand. I spent as much time as possible there last summer but didn't go for a swim. Somehow the water doesn't appeal to me that way.

Lots of locals have kayaks and that is something that I am very interested in trying! As you can see, when the tide is out the opposite shore is quite close. We're surrounded with little coves and beaches so a kayak would have plenty of places to visit.

Hope you liked the tour! My new camera came today so soon there'll be lots of garden shots.

melanie