Pictures

[Candida]

Not sure where to put these pictures, so this seems the likely place. Unfortunately, my 20-year-old SLR camera has finally kicked the bucket. all I have right now it the camera on my cell phone, which takes TERRIBLE pictures. But I was anxious to give this a try. I will post better pics when I have a real camera.

[Candida]

I see that it did work. I guess I have too much time on my hands lately, it is cold and overcast here in upstate NY today. normally this is the weather I love to work in, but I think the mulch I hauled yesterday kinda did me in, whew.

[Jess]

Is that the wetlands area you talked about Candida? Looks fabulous even on your cellphone. Hurry up and get a digital so I can get a proper look. I wanted desperately to give you suggestions on what you could grow in there but alas I have no idea what is native to you. so bit my tongue..well sat on my fingers...
I am working on a garden at the moment that has underground springs and stays nice and soggy. It also has deer, rabbits, mice, rats, squirrels you name it...I am doing one plant at a time to see what I get left with before I plant any more so sympathise with you completely. Thank heaven for Sambucus (Elder). Nothing seems to touch it.

[Candida]

Thankyou. Yes the back yard is bordered on 2 sides by wetlands. and that is my newest area of "construction". I have 8 baby elders myself and cann't wait until they form a little grove. They are such beatutiful shrubs spring, summer and fall, not to mention I like to make/eat elderberry syrup for pancakes. So far so good on mine too. My friend gave me a weeping willow the other day. She knew I was thinking about planting one in the middle of the mucky area that is mostly skunk cabbage and a few cattails. I planted it dead center in the mucky area (where I told myself I was not going to change anything). But I did not want it in the yard (small yard for large messy weak tree) and it just fits with the fairyland picture in my minds' eye of the whole personality of the spot. Unfortunately, it will have to wait for my grandchildren to climb in as my children will be gone by the time it is big enough. Sheesh, I do go on, don't I? I could talk about gardening all day long and this forum give me the opportunity, I am just tickled by stumbling up on it. I am also very curious what it is like for you as a gardener in England? I would love to see pictures of your gardens or just the landscape there in general. Where in England are you? I assume in the countryside. I have always been drawn to the cottage garden style for my beds and when I thumb through any literature, the English cottage gardens are the ones that touch me the most. Not so formal as some.
Hope to hear from you again soon and thanks again for the compliment!!

[Jess]

I too am an obsessive compulsive gardener I do it all day, talk about it all night. It is like a drug. The more you know the more you want to know. The more you do. The more you want to do. Talk as much as you like I will listen.
I too have planted willows in this garden. 4 of them it is that big. I need to soak up a lot of water as last year the rain was so bad in the winter that it came much nearer to the house than it has in the last 40 years. 2 sisters live there and they hired me last October. It is my favourite garden as I have bog and stream in woodland one end and hot exposed North wind blown the other. Very challenging and very rewarding when it comes out right. How smelly are skunk cabbage?
I would love to use them in the bog garden I have planned but not yet dug but it runs down the left side of the house over one of the springs and would be close enough for the wind to blow unpleasant smells towards the house.
I still have not tried to post pics on here. I promise I will learn asap.
My own garden is quite small as I do not have a lot of time to look after it being a full time Landscape/Designer. I am too busy doing everybody elses gardens. I have this overwhelming urge to make the world look beautiful. A task I am never going to achieve but hopefully I will at least leave my mark. I am afraid my garden would be a big dissapointment for you. The front is nearly all herbs so quite cottagey looking but the back is terraced and cooked. No shade really so I have gone for bright and quite tropical looking. (Not formal but definitely not cottage garden style!) Hot colours and some borderline hardy plants that I seem to be able to get away with because it is so sheltered. I am surrounded by fields and a common so even though I live in a small town I am also in the countryside as I am on the very edge.
You think you go on. I had better stop now before this becomes a novel.

[Candida]

The Eastern Skunk Cabbage that are native here are not smelly at all unless bruised. Then they do smell just like a skunk, but not nearly as offensive. The odor does not linger for very long and I very much doubt you would smell them unless the deer ran through them? They get huge too, bigger than a hosta. There is a yellow skunk cabbage that I saw pictures of once, but do not know anything about it.
I envy you your terraced hot sunny spot. I have always wanted to do a rock garden with lots of miniatures, but the slopes in my yard both face northwest.
I went and did a very compulsive thing this evening and bought myself a camera. I will not have time to figure it out for a couple of days, but I am so excited. I will send you a picture of the skunk cabbage when I do.
Also, wanted to ask you what zone you are there? Is winter mostly rainy or do you get some snow?
I never used to have time for my own gardens, well more lack of energy. But 4-5 yeras ago I changed jobs from chef to doing medical transcription remotely at home on my PC. So now I do not do physicla labor for my $ and therefore actually have energy again at the end of my day. Plus, working at home means I can run outside and do little jobs as needed and work according to the weather. Plus I have not been working as much this spring, which is about to change in July when I start another account. I am going to have major withdrawals from my gardens, but it is about to get very, very hot here, so that may be a good thing. I can't take the heat anymore. I would love to do landscape design myself . I have done some gardening for a few people over the years, but really just hauling mulch and dividing, pruning, etc. Not really design. I spend a lot of time, probably ridiculous amount of time, staring at a spot in my yard before I decide what to do with it. I am always moving stuff around.
Speaking of novels, I am afraid this is turning into one
Have a lovely evening
Candy

[Jess]

Ok now I have learned how to post pics. Took a while!
View from the patio
Fence full of climbers most not flowering yet
Pond area. Most plants not flowering yet.

These are different views of the back garden. It is quite difficult with a raised garden to show everything at once. My garden is planted to look its best in July/August so most is still just green and not filled out yet. I will post again when everything is flowering.

[Jess]

The first thing I planted Ceanothus repens.
View of the garden from the other side

Herb Garden. Different angles. Raised garden again so can't get it all in one shot!




Still waiting for most of them to flower so at the moment still quite green.

[Candida]

How abslutely beautiful!! I have never seen the blue shrub such as that before. Is that a California Lilac? It is fantastic.
What is the tall one in the herbs behind the lavender that looks like a buddlea?
The palm tree is awesome too as is the garden against the fence. I am having an affair with clematis right now myself. and just planted a wysteria last year. Love climbers. I will probably be swallowed up by my property with vines when I am old
and then the water feature with the low brick wall - georgeous. I have garden envy!!
I am very impressed. Nice job!! And now nice to have all that stone as backdrop, borders. Feel free to send more anytime. It is interesting to see what grows there. Is England divided into zones as we are here in the US?
thanks for posting the pics, I am thoroughly enjoying them!!

[Jess]

Thankyou Candy

I googled skunk cabbage but it is on the invasive plant list here so looks like I better not use it. Shame cos it looks fabulous but if it escaped into the brook and spread I would be in big trouble.
Nice to hear you now have a camera. Brings a whole new dimension to gardening as you can keep such a great record. I got mine for Xmas and use it nearly everyday to help me with my garden and to keep fresh in my mind what I want to do in customers gardens.
Being a chef must be one of the most stressful and demanding jobs out there. Bet you are glad you packed it in and have a life again.
When you say it is going to get hot how hot does it get there? We don't really have zones in Britain as we are so small but I am equivalent to zone 8/9. We do get snow but not much but in recent years our winters have become quite stormy and very wet so we get lots of rain at the wrong time of the year and not enough when the plants really need it.
I too spend ages staring at one spot before I do anything. I have endless lists of plants and their pros and cons running through my head whilst staring until the ideal plant for wherever pops up. I think I have an almost photographic memory when it comes to plants. Once I know a name I rarely forget it. Wish I could do that with other things in my life!

Right now to the plants; Yes it is Californian lilac. This is a groundcover form. They come in different sizes from 6ft to 30ft and tend to grow as wide as they grow tall. Most are this powdery blue colour but there are some darker blue forms and one that is more a sky blue I think that is its name too and it is the prettiest one I think.

The one in the herbs is a Buddleia called "Peace" which has white flowers. I chop it to about a foot from the ground in the spring to keep it thick and bushy. Most I see planted don't get pruned this hard or at all and look very spindly with flowers where you cannot see them.

The palm tree was only a foot high when I bought it. It is now about 9/10ft and is providing a little bit of shade at last. If I sit in my deckchair in one position underneath a particular frond I can get out of the sun.

I would love a wisteria but I live in a bungalow and there is no room for it unless I don't want to look out my windows ever again so I envy you. Clematis are really easy from cuttings so when you see one you like ask if you can snip a bit off. That way you can drown for free in your vines
Look forward to seeing the pics on your new camera. Hurry up and learn how to use it!
Jess

[Candida]

I am in zone 5 here in upstate NY - Finger Lakes Region. Just far enough away from Lake Ontario so miss out on most of the lake effect snow, thank goodness. it gets pretty darn cold here in the winter. Sometimes with the wind chill it is well below zero. In June, July August it can be in the 90s, and if the humidity is high, is brutal. Today is like that, 90 with 95% humidity - thunderstorms predicted for this evening. It does not seem to snow as much here as it did when I was a child. Global warming perhaps? But sometimes we get a couple of feet and it is beautiful. So that gives us another aspect to use in gardening; winter landscape. For instance I am starting a stand of red osier dogwood and some of the bark on trees or branching habits add to the winter landscape.
I have a couple of buddleias too and I prune them right to the ground in the fall. My neighbor lets his regrow in teh spring and prunes them back above the new growth which to me looks funny. They begin to leaf very late spring/early summer here. Leaves on mine are only about an inch tall, but then again, I moved them last fall, so probably stunted them a bit. They bloom late summer and into fall here attracting so many butterflies and hummingbirds. I have a white, dark purple and want a red one I recently saw in a catalogue and I believe there is a yellow one too?
I built an arbor in front of my home where the parking area is. we are close to the road and the septic system runs over on that side, so I cannot plant trees there but wanted cover from the road and the arbor was the solution. I had a carpenter friend help me with the math (not my forte) I just planted the wysteria last year and it actually had 2 blossoms this year!! I have a clematis paniculata on the other side and a smaller growing variety below the wysteria, PLUS I just put a jackmanii on the same side as the paniculata.
I am looking forward to using this digital camera. It is so different from the SLR, so many capabilities. It will take some getting used to. I did get a picture of the skunk cabbage and now I just have to figure out how to upload to the PC, among other things.
I am excited to hear that clematis are easy from cuttings. I did not know that!!! I may have to visit my local garden center with my snipers cleverly concealed

[Jess]

Thats pretty cold. (she says quickly converting F to C) and hot. I don't mind heat but can't stand high humidity. I know since being on this forum that you have specific lists of plants to grow in your zones. I wouldn't have a clue. The info for Britain goes no lower than -15C and no higher than 35C (your turn to convert ) That covers everybody.

Interesting about pruning Buds. Mine leafs up from about April so I prune hard in March. Not his year. The winter was so mild it stayed evergreen! I just did as normal. I didn't know what else to do and ...hummimg birds...I wish. Must be beautiful. How come we don't get any?

Can you get the really dark red/almost black, and yellow stemmed Cornus there? There was also a new one a few years back. Midwinter Fire that has red at the base and lightens to yellow up the stems. I would love to grow them but I could probably only fit one in my little patch. Wouldn't have much of an impact by itself.

Clematis cuttings are easiest if you use semi-ripe. Cut about an inch below a leaf node and a bit above then just stick in soil upto the node. Put somewhere warm and bright but not direct sunlight ( I put them in my bathroom) and wait about 2 weeks foir signs of life. I recently took 3 Montana cuttings I don't know why just because it was growing in someones garden and I could. Now I have to find someone who wants them. Shame you don't live nearer. Btw I carry a sharp pair of nail scissors everywhere I go. You never know what they might accidentally trim off.