Friday Favorite: Hedges
Continuing with our tour of Heronswood garden in the Pacific Northwest, I had to post about hedges. I must admit, that a beautiful hedge makes me go weak in the knees. I’ve always dreamed about having beautiful hedges in my garden, but have yet to make that dream come true. I planted a short boxwood hedge in my Ohio garden (16 plants) and it was starting to grow out when we moved. Thankfully, the previous owners didn’t want the plants, so I dug them up and brought them with me. There are still in the nursery area, waiting until I have their final garden area finished. Most likely, they will be moved next spring to a new garden area right below the house.
On Wednesday, I talked about the scalloped hornbeam hedge at Hersonwood, behind this garden is a lovely formal garden with box lined triangular shaped beds. These beds are filled with a riot of colorful perennials that grow up and out and spill over the box borders. Here are just a few of the lovely flower spilling out of the box borders.
The beauty of a box hedge is that it contains some of the chaos that can happen in a perennial garden. It provides structure that grounds all the other plants. I can only imagine how lovely this garden looks in the winter, when all the flowers have faded but the bones of the box remain, it must be stunning!
I will never have hedges to this scale in my garden, at least not unless I hire a gardener to help me maintain them. There are still things I can take away from a garden like this. Even on a small scale, a hedge can something beautiful in the garden. So often we look at grand gardens like this and feel like we can never achieve anything like it. The truth is we can, we just have to look work within our boundaries. Even a five foot box hedge will provide the same feel in your garden.
Do you have any hedges in your garden? What’s your favorite hedge plant?
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Friday Favorite: ZZZZZZ
I like to get good sleep every night, sometimes I go through phases where I don’t. The last week or so, I’ve been waking at 4 am, not quite the rising time that keeps me most productive throughout the day.
Perhaps it’s the moon, or maybe the coyotes are howling at that time, or one the cats might be playing with something. You never quite appreciate uninterrupted sleep until you’ve gone without it for a while. I’m keeping my fingers crosses that tonight I’ll be able to sleep until at least 5:45, which is my normal wake-up time.
What time do you usually get up in the morning?
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Friday Favorite: Frost
Frost is a beautiful thing, perhaps not so much if you’re trying to eek a few more tomatoes and peppers out of the garden in fall, or if it kills all your spring seedlings. In the fall I like to wake up to a shimmering wonderland. Not only is it beautiful, but it signals the waning of the garden season and means that rest is ahead. Typically, the end of Sept is our first frost date. We managed to get a few extra weeks of decent growing this year.
Yesterday we woke up to a little bit of patchy frost outside. This was our first frost, which is pretty amazing for our area. It won’t be long until things the mercury drops, we’re supposed to have temperatures in the mid 20’s this weekend. Luckily, everything left in the garden can take the cold and anything that can’t is ready to go anyways. I’m certainly ready to curl up by the wood burner with my book or my crochet hook.
What are your frost dates in your garden?
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Friday Favorite: Preserving the Harvest
Our apple trees are loaded with fruit this year, there are so many we could never eat/use/preserve them all. Luckily, we have friends that can use some and they have been. We’ve been eating them out of hand and I’ve been making applesauce and dried apple slices. We’re hoping to make cider next weekend as well.
One of the things I love about dried apples is that they store in the pantry, there’s not much work involved in prepping them. I simply core and slice each apple into 8 sections, yes I leave the peels on. They are layered onto racks in my oven and set to dry at 150 degrees until dry and leather, usually 6-8 hours depending on how full the oven is.
I love using my oven as to dry things because it fits so much more than a dehydrator. A few years ago, I purchased extra racks so I could fill it completely. This batch produced 3 half gallon jars filled with dried apple slices. Mr Chiots will certainly appreciate them for delicious and healthy treats during the winter. I’m not a huge fan of dried apples, well of apples in general. I do love dried pears however, which reminds me I need to read up on pears this winter because I’ll be planting pear trees in the spring.
Do you dehydrate any fruit? What’s your favorite.
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Friday Favorite: Labeled Plants
I’m sure I’ve told of my love for labeled plants before, but after visiting Longwood Gardens I’m once again going to talk about how much I LOVE this!
In the parking lot there are these lovely Winterberry Holly shrubs that I admire every single time I visit, which has always been in the spring and summer. The berries on it this fall were stunning! Now that I’ve seen it in all three season I’m certain I’ll be adding some to my garden.
Over the past few winters I’ve been reading about adding winter interest to the garden. I’ve also been keeping a keen eye as I’m out and about to find things that work in my area. I think this plant will be a stunning addition to the garden for fall and winter interest.
When it comes to plant descriptions, my favorite place to check first is the Missouri Botanical Garden database. See what they have to say about Winterberry Holly here. It’s great to bookmark this site to use as a reference guide. Now off to find a few plants!
Do you have any plants that add winter interest in the garden?
