A tree comes down and garden possibilities open up

The tree guys finally came yesterday to cut down one of two trees growing behind our house. Not only is it an ash tree that has a fair chance of eventually succumbing to Emerald Ash Borer, but it's also closer to our house than we'd like and closes off the North and West yards from each other.

The ash tree closest to the house is the one that came down.

The tree guys got started by trimming off all the branches until only the
totem pole-like trunk remained.

The last view of both trees.

They quickly got the trunk on the ground and then cut it into
smaller (although still massively heavy) chunks.

Sawing on the trunk. The stump is still visible. Note the large piles
of logs in the background, which they left for us for firewood (and
which I moved most of myself -- very heavy work).

Then they ground out the stump using a large grinding machine that
was so loud, I had to take this photo from inside.

Then they brought in a front end loader to pick up the trunk sections and
load them on their truck. Peaceful silence followed their departure.
I was able to move most of the logs myself, but I left the
heaviest ones for my husband, who cut them into sections with
his chainsaw and moved them to where we store our firewood.
I made my (complaining) children pick up several large wheelbarrows-
full of sticks from this area, and I'm working on moving the sawdust/
mulch to the larger pile of wood chips they left:

They left behind this large pile of wood chips, which I will need for my
trees and shrubs area in the West Yard.

All the logs gone, only the mulch left to deal with.
The yard has truly been opened up now.

It's always a shame when a large tree must be cut down (and we don't have all that many mature trees to start with, so we didn't make this decision lightly). However, I think the yard looks much more open now than it did in the first photo at top. The tree was simply too close to the house, although this was not the fault of the previous owners who planted it, as we built the addition that stands too close to the trees. There was also the question of how long before Emerald Ash Borer strikes.

Now there is much more room (and light) to plant in near the house, and I hope the remaining tree will now be able to fill in and grow toward the increased light (the tree we cut down stood to the south of the remaining tree, blocking its sunlight).

I plan to expand the narrow planting strip along the back of the house to enclose the spot where the tree stood, in a generous curving garden bed along the whole length of the house. My plan is to plant mostly gold-foliage and yellow-flowering plants in these beds to light up this north side of the house. The part of the bed right next to the house is in shade, but the rest will be mostly sunny. Any favorite gold/yellow plants you can recommend?

Thanks for reading!

Island Beds and Bressingham Gardens

I've been researching about island beds as I plan to make my own ones filled with flowering trees, shrubs, evergreens and bulbs, and I became interested in the history of these freestanding beds. As a book-aholic with a large collection of garden books, I first looked on Amazon.com to see if any books had been published about island beds, and surprisingly, found only one:

"Perennials in Island Beds," written by Alan Bloom and published in 1977, is practically a dinosaur amongst garden books. It has no color photos inside, just a middle section of 16 black-and-white photos. It's a very short book of fewer than 100 pages -- and small pages at that, barely larger than a trade paperback.

But it was fascinating to read, and I suspect it will one day be of value to garden historians. Alan Bloom (1906-2005), the son of a market gardener, was a leading nurseryman in eastern England from 1926 until his death. He bought a small Georgian house and estate named Bressingham after the second world war, where he (and his son, Adrian Bloom) continued his work in developing hardy perennials. His company eventually became known as Blooms of Bressingham, and was responsible for introducing many well-known cultivars including Achillea ‘Moonshine’, Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’, Phlox ‘Eva Cullum’ and Geranium ‘Rozanne’.

He also may have discovered (and certainly popularized) the idea of planting perennials in island-shaped garden beds, in England and here in the US. This book tells the story of how he came to think of planting in this way: Tiring of staking so many of his perennial flowers in his borders, he noticed that the plants that he grew in open nursery beds didn't grow as tall as in borders and had sturdier stems, requiring far less staking, and he theorized that a wall, hedge or fence backing a border provided protection from wind that resulted in floppier, taller stems.

In 1953, he designed some experimental and ornamental demonstration beds in his grass yard at Bressingham. These worked so well that a few years later he made more island beds in an adjacent 6-acre field, called "The Dell," for a total of 50 beds containing more than 5,000 plant species. Son Adrian Bloom added another area in 1967 named "Foggy Bottom," showcasing conifers, heathers, trees and shrubs. There are now more than 8,000 species in the gardens.

Here are a few beautiful modern photos (from Flickr, taken by Nick, Puritani35):

The original beds laid out next to Bressingham Hall by Alan Bloom in 1953.  The plants have been changed around many times, of course.

The breathtakingly beautiful Dell Garden at Bressingham. The mix of evergreens, deciduous trees and shrubs, and perennials makes this resemble a paradise on earth. Too beautiful to describe.

More Dell Garden. So lovely.

Here is a greatly enjoyable 7-minute tour of the gardens given by Adrian Bloom, and this brief History of the Gardens is interesting. When/if I ever get to British shores, I will certainly make a point of visiting Bressingham gardens.

But back to the idea of island beds in general: Alan Bloom may indeed have been the one to come up with the idea of planting perennial plants in freestanding, curved, irregularly-shaped island beds, but the Victorians had planted in island beds a century earlier -- although the shapes were mostly ovals or symmetrical crescents. They often planted tender bedding annuals in their island beds, which required the labor of numerous gardeners.

Annuals in a series of island beds, from "Town Planting And The Trees, Shrubs, Herbaceous And Other Plants That Are Best Adapted For  Resisting Smoke", by Angus D. Webster (1910) from chestofbooks.com.

Another island bed with succulent plants, same source. This island bed is raised into a mound, for better viewing.

Island beds likely fell out of favor when formal Victorian bedding was renounced in favor of the more "natural" hardy perennial borders advocated by William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll in the late 19th century. They probably associated the freestanding beds with annual bedding schemes, so island beds were out of fashion during the growth of gardening popularity in the Arts & Crafts period and pre-WWII era.

It wasn't until the postwar period that Alan Bloom rediscovered the idea of planting in freestanding island beds, and he used perennials, shrubs and trees in them, not just annual bedding plants. And his beds followed the lay of the land, resulting in irregularly-shaped beds, which were perhaps also inspired by the kidney shapes in modern design that Thomas Church had incorporated into his pool designs in the 1940s, as well as Brazilian landscape architect Burle Marx' designs of the midcentury. These had in turn been influenced by the organic shapes used in modern art in the 1930s.

Thomas Church designed this famous kidney-shaped pool in 1948 for a private house in Sonoma, CA.
(picasaweb, Michelle)

It seems strange that irregularly-shaped island beds, which are so common now, are of such recent origin, but I guess many things seem inevitable after they are discovered. As an admirer of Arts & Crafts-style English gardens, I have preferred geometric shapes until now, but I think trees and shrubs might look better in these organic-shaped beds than in formal ones, and I will undoubtedly begin to appreciate perennials in island beds more now as well. Bressingham gardens has certainly demonstrated how beautiful island beds can be.

Spring is finally coming along :-)

Yay, spring! I believe it has finally sprung here in southeast Iowa. These daffodils are next to the house on the east side of the foundation, so they're always the first daffs to bloom -- but they're fully blooming.

This photo was taken on April 5, nearly two weeks ago. I'm a little
disappointed in the show these crocus made, as I planted 500 of them
in mixed colors. We got white and yellow, and a few purple ones
showed themselves, but not until later than the first two colors.
Does this really look like 500 crocus?
(They are very pretty backlit by late afternoon sun, though.)

We've been helped along by some 70- and 80-degree days, and by the two inches of rain we finally got. We're still suffering from last summer's drought, so this rain was very welcome.

I didn't put my rain gauge back up after winter until we'd gotten a bit of
rain already, so I believe we did actually get a full two inches.

The rain has helped green up our grass, after what seemed like forever. There's something truly restful about a lush, green lawn after winter's grays and browns.

We replaced this lawn with new sod several years ago, so it always
turns green faster than our large lawns outside the fence. Almost time
to start mowing again.

Rite of Spring: potting up annuals. These cool-season stocks are so
beautiful and fragrant. They'll bloom most of the time until frost if
I cut them back periodically and move them into part shade during
the hottest months.

These yellow pansies are just above the daffodils on the east side of
the house, outside my kitchen windows. They're just babies still, but
they'll fill in soon and flower until November.

I love spring! I'm so happy that it's finally arrived. Thanks for reading!

"What vexes all men? Sums?"

Still planning out my new garden areas in my north and west yards. Since these will be island beds containing mostly shrubs and small trees, they are quite large and present several physical, logistical and financial problems:

To Mound or Not to Mound?

I was given a very good suggestion by Larry at Conrad Art Gardens: mound up soil in my new island beds to improve drainage. I have clay soil here, and raising the bed level by about a foot would probably increase the chance of success of many of the trees and shrubs I am planning to plant. It would also look nice too.

However, upon calculating the cubic feet of soil needed to raise the new beds, I experienced sticker shock:

"What vexes all men? Sums?" Having recently watched
"Pirates of the Caribbean" with my children (since we had ridden
the Disney World ride in February and they hadn't seen the film),
the phrase came to my mind as I calculated the cubic feet of soil
 needed for this and the other two island beds I am planning.
(Note the two shocking dollar figures I reached at bottom right.)

After calling local quarries and finding that the cheapest garden soil costs about $250 per 16-ton truckload delivered, and calculating that I would need about NINE truckloads, I realized that this was just not doable.

We do have a two-acre field that I thought about hiring someone with a large front-end loader to come out and strip topsoil from. But the soil from the field would be filled with large chunks of sod that would take years to break down (as well as numerous weed seeds), making my new garden areas look pretty ragged for a long time -- plus, it would probably still cost close to a thousand dollars for a day of front-end loader work.

So I've decided to go with the original plan:

1. Spray grass
2. My husband plows the areas with his tractor to loosen the soil. This will make it much easier for me to dig large planting holes for planting the trees and shrubs.
3. Liberally amend each "$20 hole" ("for a ten-cent plant") with leaf compost and/or peat moss, depending on acid needs of the plants.
4. Mulch the entire areas with either wood chips or leaf compost.

#4 raises another question: which would be better to mulch the large beds with:

Wood Chips or Leaf Compost? 

Both are available to me at the local landfill for a reasonable price, and the quality of both is good.

The peony border, the near side of which has been mulched for several
years with leaf compost. It has a dark, rich look.

Leaf compost pros and cons:

1. Pro: very good for the soil, especially my heavy clay soil
2. Pro: looks nice, like rich black soil
3. Pro: keeps weeds from germinating quite effectively
4. Con: breaks down more quickly than wood chips and would need to be replaced more often
5. Con: costs twice as much per ton as wood chips 

The Green, Blue and Purple sections of the Rainbow Border
last June. This Border is mulched with wood chips, which don't
look as nice, but are probably a third the price per volume
and last longer, making for less work.

Wood chip pros and cons:

1. Pro: I have read that wood chips can deplete the nitrogen in soil, but this article (and especially the information in the first 20 accompanying comments) has debunked this fear for me (as well as the fear of transmitting plant disease from wood chips, which is a very low risk). As long as the wood chips are not tilled into the soil when fresh, the nitrogen is changed only at the soil line, and only for a couple of months. And deep-rooted plants such trees and woody shrubs are not affected by what happens at the soil line anyway.
2. Con: wood chips turn gray after a few months, which doesn't look as nice as compost
3. Pro: effectively keeps weeds from germinating
4. Pro: costs half as much per ton, and also contains more volume per ton, which makes it even cheaper -- and I can make fewer trips with my pickup truck to obtain a larger volume (when I get compost, I can only carry about a half-full truck bed, because of the weight limit of my half-ton truck; when I get wood chips, I can carry a load mounded up above the top of the truck bed)
5. Pro: wood chips don't settle or break down as quickly as compost, which means I won't have to replace it every year -- this might seem lazy, but it could take ten pickup truck loads to cover these areas, and that's a lot of work for me to unload and spread out! Eventually, my husband and I will buy a small front-end loader for this kind of task, but right now, labor is preferable to large expenditure.

I think I've decided to use the wood chips for the general ground cover mulch, making sure the planting holes are liberally amended with leaf mold. 

I'm now in the process of deciding the basic layout of trees and shrubs to plant in the areas after this ground preparation has been done (we're just waiting for the grass to begin growing, so that the glyphosate will work when we spray it). I've been visiting all the nurseries and garden centers in the area to see what trees and shrubs I can purchase locally, and I hope I can get started planting soon! 

Then, the 5-10 year wait for the trees and shrubs to grow larger will begin, and I hope someday that these areas might resemble these in some ways:

Flowering trees and bulbs are so beautiful in spring.
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/

And a few conifers too, since I like the way Adrian Bloom's
Bressingham Garden (in England) looks, with trees and shrubs
in island beds. His father, Alan Bloom, started this garden and
is credited with popularizing the island bed style of planting
in the 1960s and 1970s.
(http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2370251 Stuart Logan)

Planning, calculating, deciding... then doing!

A beautiful spring garden area (in my mind)

So in my last post, I discussed my idea for a new garden area in the space west and north of my house. I envision this area having several large island-shaped beds containing:

1. spring-flowering trees
2. flowering shrubs (mostly spring-flowering)
3. a few small evergreen trees and shrubs for winter interest
4. lots of spring bulbs
5. perhaps some lilies for summer flowers

This area will be mostly a spring garden, peaking in April and May, my favorite time to be outside enjoying the garden.

Who doesn't need more of this in spring?
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/

I think I've basically decided on the shape and placement of the three large island beds, and have been figuring out how much sun each area will receive.

And I would like to thank Larry from conradartglassgardens for all his very helpful advice via email in planning this area. I had been thinking of planting more flowering trees and bulbs, after visiting the MOBOT in St. Louis and seeing a garden video about the Butchart Gardens in British Columbia, but I wasn't sure what form these new gardens should take until I saw Larry's magnificent gardens that he shares with us on his blog. Seeing how beautiful his island-shaped beds are has helped to inspire me to plan this new area, and he has been extremely kind and generous with his time in giving me numerous helpful tips and suggestions.

Three new island beds: #1 is an arc-shaped bed in full sun;
#2 will have partial shade after the trees leaf out;
#3 is against the north foundation of my house and will be mostly shady
all year, except for the northernmost edge of the bed, from which
the second ash tree will have been removed.

I've been doing some research on the trees and shrubs I would like to include, and have been making a list. Today, I'll list a few of the spring-flowering trees that I have been thinking about:

Spring-Flowering Trees:

1. Flowering cherries (I already have five 'Kwanzan' trees that I planted two years ago, and I will be moving them to different spots in the new beds.)

   

   'Kwanzan' cherry tree in my west yard. I'll move these around.

   
   
2. Flowering dogwoods, perhaps one or two white-flowering ones

   

   White flowering dogwood (wikipedia.com)

   
   
3. Eastern redbuds, probably a couple of these beautiful purple-flowering trees 

   

   Eastern redbud trees (wikipedia.com)

   
   
4. Magnolias, several different types including Lily Magnolias, Star Magnolias and perhaps even Sweet Bay Magnolia (which is only marginally hardy here).

The Lily Magnolia 'Jane' on the east edge of my property. It arrived in the
mail as a tiny stick five years ago and now is nearly as tall as
I am. Next to it is a Chinese flowering almond shrub that I found
at Walmart 4-5 years ago. I think I'll put a couple of those in
my new area too. 

In my next post, I'll discuss some flowering shrubs that I'm thinking about including. I'm restricting my list to shrubs with showy flowers in spring, that don't spread by suckering and don't need a yearly "chop" to keep them a reasonable size and shape. I'm trying to design a relatively low-maintenance area that still flowers delightfully each spring. I think by avoiding perennials and sticking to trees, shrubs and bulbs that don't require much attention, I can do this. Here's to more spring flowers!

An idea occurs. Uh-Oh: Hard work and thinner wallet ahead....

Yes, I vowed to myself (and to my dubious husband) that I would not start any more new garden areas this year. I still need to work on several that are only a year or two old (the Rainbow Border, the North Border, and the Front Border, as well as the Addition Borders), plus I also need to start planting around the garden shed and the gazebo, which are still mostly blank slates. I already have a lot of work cut out for me this year.

But then I got a great idea! :-)

One of my concerns about my overall garden is that the garden areas are too spread out around my five-acre property. In discussing this, my good husband and I agreed that any future garden development should occur closer to the house. And looking around, I notice that there is quite a bit of undeveloped space to the west and north of my house (this didn't really just occur to me, but I never thought about it in any detail before, mostly because there is currently too much shade to the north and northwest of the house, from two large deciduous ash trees.

A drawing of the current layout of my yard near the house.
The two trees north of the house are both ash trees and
may eventually succumb to EAB

So I start thinking about the two trees north of the house: they are both ash trees, and everyone around here knows that the Emerald Ash Borer is eventually coming to destroy our ash trees. It could be 10-20 years until this happens, or it could be only a few years.

A red cloud crawls across the Midwest -- I live in east-central
Iowa, which is looking pretty red. EAB has been detected in
at least four Iowa counties already. (USDA Forest Service)

Perhaps if I removed one or both of those trees, there would be enough light and space to plant some small flowering trees and shrubs in both the north and west yards. Those areas are protected from the wind by the north and west windbreaks and would be ideal for dogwoods, eastern redbuds and other trees that can be killed by winter winds in Zone 5.

The two ash trees. The one closer to the house is smaller, perhaps
because there was a tree house built around it for about ten years,
until we removed it two years ago.

Of course, I feel bad about removing large mature trees, but here are some justifications:

1. EAB may get them eventually. If I want to plant things in the yard, it's better to remove the ash trees before there are garden beds in the area. Also, I want to plant flowering trees, which take some time to mature -- perhaps ten years or longer. Why wait to plant those until after the ash borer comes?
2. The ash trees are on the north side of the house, so they don't provide any shade for the house. We had three silver maples to the west of the house when we moved here, but when we built our library addition onto the west side of the house, we had to remove two of them. The house is much hotter in summer now, and I think I am going to plant a red oak to the southwest of the addition this year to eventually replace that shade.
3. Every time we have a storm, the ash trees drop a bunch of sticks all over the yard. I have to pick up sticks before mowing most times, which is annoying work.
4. The trees shade the west yard in the morning, and that area also receives midday shade from the remaining silver maple and late afternoon shade from the west windbreak. This makes the area too shady to plant many trees and shrubs in.

I think I have about decided to remove only Ash Tree #2, the one closest to the house, for now. It seems to be smaller and weaker than the other one, perhaps because of the tree house built around it for ten years. This will allow more light into the area and free up space for planting, and would let the remaining tree get more light, which might keep it healthier for longer. #2 also seems too close to the house now that it's mature.

But I don't want to make more mixed borders with perennials, annuals, shrubs and bulbs in these undeveloped areas; that kind of border is pretty labor-intensive and I have several already that still need work (see first paragraph). What I increasingly find myself wanting to plant are flowering trees and shrubs, and more spring-flowering bulbs.

But what style of garden? My other garden areas tend to be somewhat formal, although they are slowly becoming less formal as I garden longer.

I've started admiring curvaceous island beds and I think they might be most appropriate for flowering trees, shrubs and bulbs. I have a garden video about the Butchart Gardens in British Columbia, and that might be what started to sell me on the idea of curvy island beds, which I never thought very highly of before.

The Butchart Gardens in British Columbia, Canada.
(Flickr - Jeffrey Beall)

Curved island beds seem almost Victorian in style -- 19th-century gardeners loved to display their specimen trees in such beds -- as well as somewhat Japanese too. I was blown away by the spring flowering in the Missouri Botanical Garden's Japanese Garden the first time I visited it, and return to see it every spring -- and I've been wondering how I can include some of that glorious flowering in my own garden. I planted five Kwanzan flowering cherry trees in the west yard two years ago, but in a symmetrical layout. Now I wonder if they might look better in island beds surrounded by flowering shrubs, flowering trees in other colors and spring bulbs.

The MOBOT Japanese Garden in glorious spring.

I could have four island beds in the west and north yards, holding my existing cherry trees, one or two dogwoods and eastern redbuds and perhaps a magnolia or two. Then I could plant numerous flowering shrubs such as tree peonies (and perhaps deciduous peonies too), azaleas, flowering quince, deutzia, kerria japonica, wedding spirea, lilacs and many others -- there are even a few camellias that are marginally hardy here that I could try. The possibility for shrubs is endless. I could even include a few dwarf conifers for winter interest. In a few years I could fill in with spring bulbs, and maybe some lilies for summer flowers.

A possible layout of four island beds, after the ash tree closest to the
house is removed. A new shade tree planted in front of the house.
The west side the house is 24 feet wide (North-to-South), for scale.

The remaining ash tree would still provide enough shade in Island Bed #3 for trees, shrubs and bulbs that like shade, and the sunnier west beds would receive mostly full sun. Island Beds #2 and #3 might eventually at least partially hide the children's jungle gym and trampoline (not the most attractive items from a gardening perspective).

As far as work and cost, all I would need to do this year (after having the tree cut down and the stump ground out) would be:

1. outline the beds
2. have my husband spray the grass and after a few days come in with his tractor to plow up the ground (which is very compacted)
3. add soil amendments such as leaf compost, and peat moss for areas for acid-loving plants, and dig those amendments in, breaking up large clumps of earth
4. plant the trees and any slower-growing shrubs that I find locally at reasonable prices
5. mulch (perhaps with leaf compost)

I wouldn't have to do anything else this year and could wait for future years to fill in with more shrubs and a selection of spring bulbs and lilies.

Look at all this space barely being used. I think a few island beds
might make this area more beautiful, and not just an empty yard to mow.

I know I vowed I wouldn't make any new garden areas this year (my poor husband is still somewhat shell-shocked by my rapid about-face). But if I want to grow flowering trees and shrubs, they can be slow-growing and I should plant them ASAP (no time like the present...).

And trees and shrubs are relatively low-maintenance plants; annual work should be fairly limited, just occasional weeding and annual/biannual replacement of mulch/compost. Perhaps some pruning, as trees and shrubs become mature, and some raking of leaves in spring (the ones that don't blow away as they usually do on our windy hill). No annual cutting back of perennial foliage (except lily stems), no staking and no dividing needed.

Maybe I should think about it for a few weeks. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Book Review: "The New Low-Maintenance Garden" by Valerie Easton

Since it's been too cold to do much gardening outside over the past week, I read one of the books I checked out of the library. Here are my thoughts about it:

Published in 2009 Timber Press.
284 pages.

"The New Low-Maintenance Garden" was written by Valerie Easton, a longtime garden columnist who downsized from her large garden to "a very small house with a very small garden": a geometrical backyard entertaining area surrounded by raised beds, pots, and a few very small areas of easy-care foliage plants, with no turf to mow.

Some concerns about this book:

1) Ms. Easton gardens only in Seattle and usually writes for a Seattle readership, and this book is more than usually tailored for a specifically Northwest audience. The majority of the plants she recommends in the book are not ones that will thrive in the rest of the country, and her recommendation for planting everything in pots is certainly not "low-maintenance" here in the hot, windy Midwest, where pots often need to be watered twice a day in the dog days of summer. I prefer weeding once a month over watering daily (and isn’t that wasteful of water?).

The author's new small garden. Perhaps the most floriferous residential
garden pictured in the book.

2) Many of the areas pictured in the book are not what I consider to be "gardens." The British term the area around a house to be "the garden," but here in the United States, a "garden" implies a place where plants are the focus. A number of the "gardens" in this book are just attractive paved areas with modern-design screens for privacy and a few foliage plants in tiny beds. The few beautiful, plant-filled exceptions didn’t look particularly low-maintenance to me.

Highly modernistic plastic screens are not exactly to my taste in a garden.

3) This book was published in 2009 at the height of the eco-guilt movement, and the author does not let an opportunity for lecturing about the evils of lawns pass by. But in her zeal to rid us of them entirely, she doesn't mention reducing the work of maintaining a lawn, with mowing strips, etc. If someone doesn’t want to maintain a lawn, he should replace his with something else. But enough already with trying to guilt people who enjoy a traditional lawn into getting rid of it!

4) The author’s preference for foliage gardens is not particularly appealing to those of us who garden specifically because we love flowers. None of the gardens in the book were joyous, flower-filled spaces; no examples of small cottage gardens that can still be relatively easily maintained. I’m just not convinced that we need to give up flowers when we grow old.

This is pretty beautiful, for a largely foliage garden.
But is this really "low-maintenance"?

But the book did have some good suggestions, and I'm glad I read it. And it has caused me to think more deeply about the issue that all gardeners must confront: their physical and time limitations (and resource limits too, of course).

These limitations are not static; they change throughout our lives, as they did for the author. As young people, we often lack a settled place for gardening and money to spend on plants. When our lives become more settled, perhaps after buying a house, we enter a nesting phase in which we often wish to make our surroundings more beautiful. We still have energy and physical strength enough to handle the physical work that accompanies gardening, and may begin to desire to grow all the lovely plants that we read about. As we age, however, we are less able to handle hard physical work and may have sated our plant curiosity. Our children (if we had them) are likely grown, so this is a time we may consider downsizing.

Again, hauntingly beautiful -- but how can a pond be low-maintenance?
Her pond was one of the things the author specifically mentioned as a
source of laborious maintenance in her old garden.... 

But plant-loving older gardeners don't need to choose all or nothing. Ageing doesn't have to mean that we can no longer grow a garden full of beautiful flowers. However, the author does include some good, traditional suggestions for designing a lowER-maintenance garden:

1. Obviously, a smaller garden will take less time to maintain, all other features being the same.
2. Some plants require less attention than others. This doesn't mean that gardeners shouldn't ever grow delphiniums (which require staking) or iris (which must be divided every few years); just that they should grow mostly lower-maintenance plants and choose only a few more labor-intensive favorites. And the author is right that we should avoid aggressively spreading plants, which can be a lot of work, but then she includes in her list of recommended plants creeping lily turf (liriope spicata), which she must not be aware (Seattle-focused again) is invasive in a number of states. However, she does have a good word for modestly self-seeding plants such as borage, poppies, nigella and tall verbena, which are delightful even though you may have to pull a few out.
3. Having fewer different kinds of plants makes for easier maintenance. Older gardeners should already know which plants give them the most joy each year, and narrowing the list down does make for less work.
4. Having good, well-amended soil reduces growing problems that can require work. Likewise, mulching can reduce watering frequency.
5. Reducing (not necessarily entirely eliminating) lawn area can cut down on work -- as can mowing strips, etc. 

Ms. Easton is right that each of us needs to honestly confront our ability and willingness to do garden work before planning our gardens. But I believe that her own exhaustion has led her to overreact by advocating that gardeners eliminate many of the plants and garden features that bring them joy.

A large kitchen garden and ornamental pond, viewed from beneath
a grape- and kiwi-draped arbor under which guests "need merely to
reach up to pick dessert." Really? Low maintenance?

Unlike the author, I have not yet reached the point of wanting to reduce my garden areas. (In fact, I am thinking about making a whole new garden area this year -- albeit a relatively low-maintenance area -- despite my vow not to make any new garden areas this year. More about this in my next post.) There are still so many plants I want to grow. Of course, as a naturally lazy person, I do want to minimize the work I have to do, and the author's suggestions are for the most part good ones, but that doesn't mean I can't have my flowers.

"The New Low-Maintenance Garden" is a good book to read to stimulate thought about how to reduce the work of gardening in our own gardens. But it will ultimately be most useful for gardeners who live in the Pacific Northwest and have the same taste for modern foliage gardens as the author.

My Handy New Garden Present

Look what I got for Christmas! My lovely husband has been keeping this under a tarp in our tractor shed since before the holidays (I'd been hinting about needing one of these for some time) and last week was the first time I went out and uncovered it to take a look.

Its 10-cubic-foot-capacity can hold about twice as much material as a standard wheelbarrow and has two wheels on the front for added stability. Our other wheelbarrow is simply too small to be useful for clearing away the huge amounts of cut-down plant material in both spring and fall, and I have been using a large plastic garbage can, which is hard to drag across the yard to the compost and burn piles (and it's tearing near one of the handles from the stress of being dragged around). This looks like it'll do the trick. I think I'll call it "Big Blue."

Big Blue gets its first workout -- I made my kids pick up fallen sticks
and branches from the back yard while I was laid up with a cold last week.

My new garden equipment will soon get a taste of much harder work than this, when I begin spring cleanup in earnest (as soon as we get some slightly warmer, less windy days -- what's the point of getting an early start if it's not a joy to work outside after a long winter, the sun on your back, feeling the earth warm up beneath your feet?). My spring work is certainly cut out for me:

The 70-foot-long Rainbow Border. There's a lot of brush to cut out
and haul away from here.

The Herb Garden. Out with the old, to make room for the new.

And the Front Border definitely needs some attention.

Last fall, I cut back all back most of the plants in the Front Addition
Border, except these mums and sedum. Time to finish the job.

There are numerous other areas that will also need material cut back and hauled away, and I might be able to use my new toy for adding compost to my beds too -- such a handy item might have endless uses! I look forward to using my new garden present. Go Big Blue!