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

Doodle dog farm

What’s in a name? For so many years my garden was named Old Country Gardens but that garden belongs to somebody else now. Much as I want to continue using that name it doesn’t suit the little beach cottage where we live. Calie the wonderdoodle still gardens with me, she is 13 years old now and we named the garden after her. Welcome to doodle dog farm!

Our cottage is a few blocks from the Long Island Sound on the north shore of Long Island. The neighborhood is called Huntington Beach Community Association and it’s filled with darling cottages and beach homes. 

This is a view over our fence and you can see what I mean about small cottages.

We are surrounded with mature Oak trees so most of the gardens are shade beds. My beloved daylilies are not used as much as I wish but the hosta truly shine.

We have a lovely Cherry tree that rains pink petals everywhere.

This last year I set out a small sale table featuring succulents and a few perennials that were ready for dividing. This spring I will be putting more out.  I’m so happy to be blogging again, just trying to figure out the best way to get my photos and words here. 

Testing. 1....2....3....

It’s been so long since I’ve posted anything on my blogs. Computers change, tablets come and go too. This is a test post to see if I can still get my words and photos out to the world.

These photos were taken in the spring of 2017 at Planting Fields Arboretum. Andy and I were married at town hall on Valentines Day and celebrated a few months later with our family. My name has changed to Melanie Chopay but I’m still me. Stay tuned, hopefully there will be garden photos to come. 

Spring Clean-up

When do you know it's time to begin your spring clean-up? Andy saved me an article that had a different garden chore for each day. Articles like that are written well in advance and in actuality are only worthwhile as a list of garden chores. In real life mother nature (aka the weather) has everything to do with deciding on which garden chore can or should be done. 

Early this week our garden was covered in snow and ice and I had no plan to begin clean-up. Temperatures in the upper 50's and the amazing sight of this Hellebore that began to bloom with a vengeance changed my mind. It's instinct, I suddenly knew it was time to begin removing all the winter leaves from the beds.

I spent much of the day filling bag after bag with leaves and I was in all my glory.

This morning we made our first trip of the season to Home Depot to get some tools and potting soil. Their pansies were ok but not what I really wanted so we stopped at Fort Hill Nursery on the way home where I got a juicy flat filled with pansies and a few pots of Johnny Jump-ups.

Unlike yesterday though today was raw and cold with occasional periods of drizzling rain. Ugh... but I was determined to do more clean-up.

On the side of our cottage (as you look at it here) there's a little spot on the right of the porch. It's sheltered on three sides by the porch the house and a picket fence. In the fall we placed all  my succulent pots in this area and left the fallen leaves where they fell.

It's not the most attractive sight but it's the perfect holding area to overwinter potted plants.

As I started to remove the leaves I was thrilled to see how well everything wintered over. The Sempervivum (Hens & Chicks) and various varieties of Sedum looked great.

Calie spent the day supervising from her new favorite spot.

Look how beautiful these pots are! They are chock full of succulents and with a bit of sun and warmth they are just going to explode.

Sempervivum come in different colors, sizes and shapes. During the summer heat they lose their colors but this time of year the colors are super vibrant. I can't wait to start to repot these babies, it's one of my favorite garden pastimes. 

So what are you doing in the garden right now?

The Front Porch

Tomorrow is the first day of spring. Much as I want to be in the garden right now it's just not possible. Last week's storm left us with several inches of frozen ice and snow and today is the first day that's warm enough for it to begin to melt. So I'm doing the next best thing, I'm sitting here on my front porch, in the chair you see in this photo. The cushions are still in the shed but the heat of the sun is warming this sheltered spot. While the air temperature is 45 degrees, it's in the high 50's at least here.

When I first moved here there was a solid 6' tall stockade fence where you see the picket fence now. A grouchy old couple lived in the cottage next door. With all their complaints about where to park and where to place our garbage cans we had no desire to have them watching us. As soon as they put the house on the market I asked Andy if we could remove the fence and replace it with picket fencing  to match the front and he immediately hired somebody to do so. 

Our new neighbor Helen has done some amazing things to the inside of her cottage, but the yard is a bit daunting. While planted with many sturdy perennials years and years ago the weeds were allowed to take over. Still, when the Iris, Peonies and Daylilies start to bloom I love to sit here and look at her garden. This year we'll divide some perennials together.

Our porch isn't large, comfortable for four, just perfect for two (and a doodle dog too). The white vinyl wicker furniture I've been moving around with me for 5 years seems to be made for this space.

There's a small wind chime hanging over my head and it makes the softest chimes. Our neighborhood is so far from any major roads that we don't have any traffic noises nor plane or train noise. 

The garden centers are starting to stock pansies, I just adore them. I'm sure before this week is over I'll have bought a flat of them. It's so hard to choose which colors I want. Last year I bought white, blue and yellow ones. This year I want to add pink and purple. Our cottage is a pale yellow with blue and white trim so I want to stick with those colors. Maybe I'll add a flat of Johnny jump-ups in hopes they reseed in the garden. 

One of the advantages of gardening in a small space is being able to make a big splash with just a few plants. Coming home from work to this sight is the most wonderful feeling.

Hurry up spring, I'm ready for you!!!

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...

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