The Ruthless Gardener

Warning! There will be no pretty gardening photos in the post….so be forewarned!

I was considering titling this "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" But there's only bad and ugly here. One of the lessons I'm learning quickly is that when you have a small garden every inch counts. Gone are the days I could plan sweeping beds and try a multitude of plants. I'm not complaining, we live a wonderful life and I put in a full week at work but I've still got lots to learn about cottage gardening!

In the past I could afford to let plants take a few years to settle in or maybe I'd move them to another location. Here in our darling cottage garden I'm becoming much more ruthless. A few spindly daffodil leaves and some blind tulips? (Tulips that don't bloom are called "blind") You're outta here!

This is Lamiastrum "Hermann's Pride" planted just last year in lovely soil. 

Shame shame Hermann, no pride here.

See that little spec in the middle? It's Hermann's Pride again. The Hosta are loving the location. So I've got to fault Hermann. Too bad because it's such a lovely plant when it's happy.

Seeing these bare spots I know I lost something here too, I added some Labrador violets in hopes they spread to fill in the holes.

Anemone tomentosa "Robustissima" not looking too robust to me. In the past I've had Anemone's go wild, will have to look for a different cultivar as I love their fall blooms.

Phlox is blooming all over my neighborhood, huge billowing massive drifts of phlox. Here in my garden it's half the size it was when I bought it last year. No bueno, move over baby there's a Heuchera waiting for that spot.

Here you can see the hardy Geranium cantabrigense "Karmina" and golden Oregano. Both are growing like gang busters but right in the middle was pretty Dianthus planted there last spring. With the cost of perennials today I won't bother to replace it, in a few weeks the surrounding plants will fill this spot which gets plenty of sun and water.

Today was cold and rainy, a challenging day for gardening but I managed to visit and photograph two of my favorite places here on Long Island. I'll post the photos on my other blog www.melaniesperennials.blogspot.com

Next post will be a pretty one, I promise.

Melanie

May Day 2016

May Day has always been a day to celebrate. Not only is the garden busting out in all it's glory, May 1st was my father's birthday. He always told me he had the coolest day for his birthday and I have to agree. Dad truly gave me the love of the outdoors, the fascination of things that grow. Mom gave me a love to walk, the two traits combined keep me busy at this time of year.

Today we had unusual weather for May 1st, it's been cold and rainy since we woke up this morning. Not to be put off by the weather we still went to a nursery to add plants to our new garden and just as the light began to dim I took my daily walk down past the gardens of Huntington Beach community and along the foggy beach itself. 

This photo was taken as I walked the route, a lovely curbside garden filled with spring blooms.

Our garden has lots of spring blooms too, it's a new garden though so I still see too much soil and not enough plant material.

The good news though is I really have a garden again. Not my own, this garden is mine and Andy's. It's a darling little cottage garden just blocks from the beach on Long Island.

This is the second year I've really been adding plant material, there was and still is quite a bit of overgrown material to remove. At one time this garden was artfully designed with top quality plant material but it quickly over-grew the small space.

Working on this small scale is a whole new experience for me. My mom tells me it's a blessing that we have a small garden, I work full time now as an assistant manager at a bank. She's right, this garden is just the right size to fit our lifestyle.

 We have a darling front porch that is one of my favorite places to sit and share my dreams with Andy. I don't know if anybody is actually going to be a reading this but I finally feel like I'll be back to blogging. At first I'll struggle a bit, I use three different types of cameras to photograph plants and it's taking me a bit to get up to speed with the newer technology.

Can't wait to show you more!

melanie

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

Photo's through the years

Being January, there's not much I can do about gardening right now. One of my new years resolutions is to rejoin the gardening world, plant a new garden and hopefully see some gardening friends again. Over the last four years I've continued to grow some things, visit gardens and take photos. My mind though is rusty, plant names that used to trip across my tongue are hard to remember. I've been reading my old posts and going through thousands of photos to loosen things up in my brain. 

Thousands of photos? Absolutely! Today I added up a few photos and found that in 2008 I took 1,656 garden related photos. 2009 was a banner year with 2,498 photos. 2010 was the last year I had my big garden, I was working at that time but I still managed to take 799 photos. Today's post will take you back through those years with a focus on what I want now for our new garden.

We have more shade than sun in our little cottage garden. This opening shot of variegated Lamium taken in 2008 shows the type of plant that will grow well here.

In 2009 this pink Symphytum combined with a very tall Thalictrum caught my eye. I won't have the luxury of many large plants but I think I can fit both of these in our back shade corner.

There will definitely be room for a few Pulmonaria. I like this variety without spots on the leaves.

Succulents were already a passion of mine. The first time Andy brought me to his home I was thrilled to find he grew cacti in his kitchen window. We will both have a nice little succulent garden out front.

Hosta "Liberty" was a show stopper. I'll be on the lookout to see if I can find it again. 

One small garden we haven't begun clearing yet will be the perfect spot for some cottage flowers. I'll be looking for handouts, hope somebody has an Iris or two to share with me. This was taken in 2010, the hot pink plant behind it is an annual that self sows, "Silene armeria".

Stokesia is another cottage garden plant that will do well for us. I remember being disappointed at first when growing it as it sprawled all over. Once I learned to take advantage of that trait, it became a favorite.

My life has been full of changes since 2010. For three years I rented a darling cottage in Centerport, just two blocks away from here. Early 2013 I met the love of my life, Andy. We spent many an evening that summer sipping a drink in my little patio garden. 

Andy loves the outdoors as much as I do if not more. We both love to travel, in 2013 we rode bicycles on Block Island, walked the Brooklyn Bridge, swam in Florida, rode a motorcycle all over Long Island and so much more. 

While visiting Andy's family I got my first glimpse of Green Lakes State Park outside of Syracuse NY

2014 brought a new change, Andy surprised me with an awesome new camera, a Nikon D5300. to tell the truth, it was so advanced from anything I ever used that it's taken me a year to begin to become comfortable with it. We love to visit all the wonderful parks and gardens around us, this was taken in September at SUNY Farmingdale. I have so many amazing photos from that day that I'll have to post them on their own.

The Peconic River Herb Farm was a delightful afternoon ride for us with the reward of visiting some delicious vineyards before heading home. The trips only escalated in 2014, Florida and Block Island again plus a trip of a lifetime through California.

Long Island isn't the only draw, we go in to Manhattan often. A fall walk on the HiLine was a mind blowing trip. Hopefully we'll go back there again around Mother's Day.

I can't tell you all how much I am enjoying sharing these photos and words with all of you, it feels good to be back.

melanie

In a nutshell - 2014

With the year coming to a close I find myself looking through the photos I've taken this past year. Although I haven't been posting, it doesn't mean I haven't been gardening. Those of you who know me will recognize that the location of my garden has changed again. This time I think I'm really home.

The gardens here are quite different than anything I've worked with before. It's by far the smallest property I've worked with which actually turns out to be quite difficult. In the past I had a large empty piece of property to develop. The yards here were overgrown and quite shady. Luckily Andy
encourages me to make changes.

The existing beds still need quite a bit of work, this one is filled with the common ditch daylily. I've learned not to rip anything out until I'm ready to replant the area.

My first focal point was this small garden along the front porch. It gets afternoon sun, just enough to support most perennials. I'm trying hard to stick with a cottage garden theme.

This small area was already planted with a few perennials and bulbs. Although I thinned them out I tried to keep what I liked. I'm not sure but I think these are scilla, if you know better please let me know.

By June the plants filled in well enough. Maybe it's silly but I have the hardest time buying plants that I used to give away. These all grew in such abundance in my other gardens, I'm looking forward to having enough plants that I can trade some for other varieties. The Ladies Mantle (Alchemilla Mollis) was a must have for me.

The next bed was the one inside the front fence. This is another key location as we see it when we sit on the front porch and walk out the door. It's also visible to the many walkers that fill this neighborhood. It will take another year before I have this filled the way I like. Andy replaced the globe light with a nice lantern just last week, it makes a huge difference.

In front of the picket fence along the street is a stretch that is just covered with pebbles. In a moment of genius I realized I had a spot to grow my succulents. While they'd like a little more light, they did quite well in this location. I was thrilled that nobody tried to help themselves to anything here.

The last garden which was the only one we planted in 2013 too is the small vegetable bed. We had tomatoes, eggplants and peppers here. The peppers did the best but we loved the eggplant so much that we want to plant more next year. The fence won't make it through another year so there'll be a new one before we plant our next crop.

Over the next few months I'll break these gardens down a bit. It looks like Melanie's Old Country Garden has become a cottage garden. Hope you don't mind!

melanie

A New Blog For Me

Hi there!

It's been an awful long time since I've posted to this blog. As some of you know, there have been many changes to my life in the past four years. 

The good news is I'm in a wonderful place now and finally back on track for some writing and photography. While my gardens now are a small cottage garden and not yet ready for photos, I get to visit lots and lots of other gardens like the one photographed above, The Peconic River Herb Farm.

My partner Andy and I travel quite a bit, even if sometimes its just to one of the stunning locations right here on Long Island. I've started a new blog, it's at The Island Walkabout and I hope you'll come visit me and say "hi"!

I've missed so many of you so I will try to post here too, there's always lots of gardening ideas to share like this hanging bottle tree. 

Glad to be back!

melanie