Sep-2-2010
Designing a Perennial Garden to Bloom All Summer part 1
Posted by Anthony Turner under Gardening Tips
Without further ado, here’s the first video in the two-part series on designing a perennial flower bed to bloom all summer.
Archive for the ‘Gardening Tips’ Category
Big, bold and beautiful elders (Sambucus spp.) bring to mind country laneways: with shrubs billowing with lacy, white flowers in mid-summer, then later in early fall, hanging heavily with sprays of deep purple berries. “When the elder blows, summer is established,” wrote Gilbert White (1720-1793), the Hampshire naturalist regarded as England’s first ecologist. One hundred years later, Gertrude Jekyll agreed that “Midsummer Day…is clearly labelled by the full and perfect flowering of the Elder.”
Part of the everyday genius of gardening is adapting an earlier century’s plants to a modern landscape. Graceful and old-fashioned, elders are ideal for vacant corners, fencelines and shrub borders where form and substance are wanted, with little need for maintenance.
There are some things in life that should not be tampered with. Period.
I get up early in the morning most days – early dawn and it’s still dark in the bedroom. Too dark to see well and in the winter, too dark to see at all. (What I’m doing up at that ungawdly hour of the day is well beyond me – my system simply started waking me up then and going back to sleep seems to be a waste of time so I just roll with whatever the auld bod is delivering)
It’s dark.
In the good old days, underwear manufacturers for men would put a label on the inside at the back. In the dark, you can slide your hands around the waistband, identify the label and get things in order.
Ths s a uftuatey ecd, beg the atest have gtte y fst pe tat case f aye was wdeg, ths was the 1 ga cat upsde dw gade pate
In my experience, gardeners approach their gardens as we approach a long winding staircase.
We climb easily onto the first landing where we pause and marvel at the landscape. For the first time in our lives, we see flowers and vegetables – we now know we want some but we have absolutely no idea how to do it.
We climb further.
After climbing another flight of stairs we begin to understand some basics. Plants have roots, they need water and food if they are to grow. And interestingly enough if you don’t feed them properly, they won’t grow.
Some, easily satisfied, stay on this landing but others climb further.
Learning new skills and growing different plants.
We climb further.
Along the way, the landings fill up with those who are happy with their lives and gardens – they visit and rest from their labors.