Swift River Farm

For the past twenty years or so, Bruce Lockhart and his partner Gus Block have tirelessly worked to create a little slice of paradise at Swift River Farm. At times, they have hired garden designer Gordon Hayward for big projects, but they have done a great deal of the work themselves along with their fearless gardener and caretaker Beverly.  I deeply admire the work they have all done. The greatest thing about the garden is that it actually has everything- all parts of gardening that I love are flourishing. Bruce has built an impressive rock garden- chock full of hundreds of alpine, rocky treasures, a full-field meadow garden in the spirit of Piet Oudolf, plus formal English style gardens, a wandering woodland garden, and an orchard, bees, sheep and a vegetable garden! Even with all these different ideas, the place flows beautifully with the landscape, each area sliding into the next. They truly have it all.

In June, the garden will be on a garden tour to raise money for the East Quabbin Land Trust. The garden tour is scheduled for June 15th (rain date June 16th) from 10-4.  For more information, click here. In order to get ready for the tour, I was hired in to do some garden renovation in the more formal "English" style gardens near the house. Initially planted in the late 90's and early 2000's, it had been some time since they had been dug up, turned over, soil amended and re-planted. So that is what I (with the help of Bruce, Beverly, Matt and Laurie) did! We dug up all the old plants, placed them on tarps, excavated rocks and bolders, pulled out quack grass and vetch, dug and turned over the beds twice, mixing in beautiful, black composted goat manure. I ordered plants from Van Berkum Nursery, then taking the new and the old plant material, we reconfigured the layout. In the Pleasure Garden (pictured above), we kept to a theme of old fashioned classics, like Verbascums, Alcea, Campanula, but added some meadow-y twists- including the towering Helianthus salicifolius and Sanguisorba 'Tanna.' Next, we will thread annuals through the gardens. Unconsciously, but I think happily, I turned one of the gardens into a red and yellow garden. Most people scrunch their noses, trying to be  polite, but you just wait- it is (hopefully!) going to be gorgeous.

After everything was planted and watered in the Pleasure Garden...

This area, above the Willow garden was an annual/holding bed. Bruce suggested making a bed of beautiful grass. We dug this up and planted  Eragrostis spectabilis, Purple Love grass. I was trying to mimic the plantings of pink Mulenbergia that I have seen at the Denver Botanic Garden and at Chanticleer, but this grass is not hardy in MA. Then I came across the Purple Love Grass- which happens to be a Piet Uduolf favorite and one that they grow and sell at Great Dixter. So we can't go wrong here!

Across the way, under the upright Yews, is a mass planting of Amsonia hubrictii that Gordon Hayward designed. These areas of mass plantings offer a nice break and resting point, in between the packed in perennial borders.  

Looking up The Willow Garden to the house. This area was also dug up and turned over. The Willow Garden is also a blue garden so we stuck to the theme of purple, blue and silvery plants. Bruce wanted to move a row of boxwoods from an area of the garden and wondered where to put them. I suggested we move four of them to the interior of this garden to frame the bird bath. 

We did that, and then planted new and old plants into the freshly turned soil.

 A view from the Pleasure garden, down to the Willow garden.

Around the pond we planted Panicum 'Heavy Metal' on both sides. We needed to transplant the bright pink Lychnis coronaria that Bruce started from seed from the holding bed to somewhere... I thought the clouds of magenta would looks exciting with the steely blue grass. I tried to plant it to look self-seedy.

And now, Bruce's woodland garden.

Magnolia kobus 'Wada's Memory' with its sweet smell of vanilla.

Dangling yellow clusters of Corylopsis, which I did not know could survive our climate!

Bruce is part of a seed exchange, so he grew this little Primula frondosa from seed.

This is by far the best stand of Jeffersonia dubia I have ever seen, glorious and happy in the rock garden. There are countless treasures here and I hope to post more on Bruce's garden as the seasons change.

Denver Botanic Garden

On a recent trip to Denver, Colorado to visit my husband's brother and family, we took a trip to the Denver Botanic Garden. I encountered some incredible plants, many for the first time, thriving in a climate unlike any I have ever gardened in before. In some respects the desert and high altitude region seems harsh, but then again, many plants that have trouble over wintering in Vermont, seem to do just fine here. It was amazing to see what plants were entirely happy with extreme temperature changes coupled with constant dryness and drought. All those beautiful silvery leaved plants, gorgeous grasses, and unusual succulents were in their ultimate growing conditions.

Above photo: Bright red fruits of the desert prickly pear (Optunia phaeacantha) with Artemesia, Euphorbia, and Eriogonum all showcased in the low water garden.

I liked this little tableau of interesting foliage, shapes, textures and colors. I think the emerging purple flowers belong to Crocus speciousus, but I am not entirely confident in my ability to appropriately identify the crocus/colchicum bulbs. My inexpert guess is based on the great photographs and descriptions of the various autumn flowering bulbs found in a a recently acquired copy of Anna Pavrod's book titled Bulb.

Bouteloua graculis 'Blonde Ambition'

This was one of the most exciting plants I saw and it caught my eye from a great distance.  This grass is truly blonde with dainty, angled seed heads flicking about in the breeze. It is short (about 30"), but dense and extremly upright. Apparently the seed heads can stand tall through the winter. It is also cold hardy to Zone 4.

Erigonum wrightii var. wrightii (Snow mesa buckwheat)

I recently read about these great buckwheat plants perfectly suited to mountain climates and a great food source for the pollinators. Its seed heads are extremly beautiful, emanating a lovely coppery glow.

 A bamboo sculpture exhibit was going on in different parts of the garden and here the pool was decorated with these wiry objects rising up from the inky black water.

I thought this was another man made sculpture, but these wide, flat pads are in fact living waterlilies.  Victoria 'Longwood Hybrids'

The native plants garden was perhaps my favorite part. Since I arrived in this arid city, I have been enamored with all the wild plants that grow here- from peoples' cultivated gardens to the weeds in the sidewalk.  The large shrubs with a blush of pink are Artemesia tridentata, which are seen everywhere.

Cylindroptuntia imbricata, a cool region cactus native to the semi arid high plains of the United States

Meadow garden

Some incredible seed heads of some incredible plant (?)

Pink feathery flower heads of the grass, Mulenbergia reverchonii

This is a nice annual grass (zone 8-10) Melinis nerviglumis 'Pink Crystals'

A tall, towering stand of Leonotis, just a little bit bruised by their first frost

A captivating water feature and grass promenade

Cheryl Lewy's Garden

 

Cheryl Lewy has a real love of great gardening and of great plants. Her gardens and landscape are beautiful, including rock gardens, a cascading pond garden, and beautiful stands of shrubs and trees. One area of the garden is more formal, with a picket fence, gravel paths, roses and mix perennial plantings. It is spectacular in the spring, with iris, oriental poppies, and roses. I was hired this April with task of bringing more interest to this area of the garden from July through to October. I began in the spring by eliminating a great deal of phlox and poppy plants that had been taking up more than their fair share of space. I prepared planting areas in between many of the established plants, digging in rich compost. I then proceeded to plant, perennials, annuals (many I started from seed or purchased from Walker Farm), Dahlias, and tender Salvias.  This October, the garden is looking incredibly vibrant, full of flowers and foliage, contrasting in color, form and texture. 

Above: Bright red spots of Emilia javanica set off against the purple Verbena and Nepeta sibrica, the gray haze of Perovskia, and the dark red foliage of Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff', Pennisetum 'Vertigo', and Cotinus.

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Low light in high summer, the phlox is floating in big white drifts. In the foreground the deep pink grass, Pennisetum 'Fireworks,' is coming into bloom.

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Cheryl has a strong connection to Great Dixter and she loves the grass Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster.' Here I planted this grass in a wall-like-hedge, directly influenced by the Calamagrostis planting in the Peacock Garden at Great Dixter. Those bleached straight-up blooms catch the light in spectacular ways.

 

The following pictures were taken in the first week of October and the garden is still so varied and colorful. The Sedum has turned its robust pink, off set by a tangle of bronze fennel and silvery sprays of Panicum virgatum 'Ruby Ribbons.' The tall yellow aster is unknown to me, but it is a stately specimen with great upright habit and mildew-free foliage.

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Upright blossoms of the large, pale pink Dahlia 'Karma Prospero,' with Salvia 'Phyllis Fancy,' and the dark leaves of Pennisetum 'Vertigo.' This particular salvia is one of the most outstanding performers, it is a huge plant, loaded with blooms that starts early and ends late. Stay tuned for more shots of this plant as the weeks progress.

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 Bright fall foliage of the low spreading Indigofera.

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White flowers of Gaura lindheimeri and the bright red Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff.'

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The bright blue of Salvia uliginosa pokes its head into this October scene.

These June Days

Ahh June. A perfect month, except for the weather of course. Not that it is bad, I just wouldn't call it perfect exactly. Temperamental and heavily wet. However, the plants are happy, new plants especially, they are robust with loads of lush growth. A recent student of mine, inspired by Walt Whitman, went out into the woods and wrote a poem that included this line: "the growing; is growing." I think that just about sums it up.

These pictures are from my own, small garden, but this is about its third to fourth year and I am starting to see some of that time paying off. The plants are starting to fill in and I am moving them around less. I am particularly happy with the above rose -clematis combination that I planted to cover up the ugly water collection tank. Climbing Rose 'New Dawn' and Clematis 'Henryi' are blooming together.

A bright spot of Trollius chinensis 'Golden Queen' with blue Campanula persicafolia. Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Overdam' is here in the foreground. I love the shapely outline of those giant Thalictrum rochebrunianum, those specimens came to me folded up in a napkin as practically dead one inch sticks!

 Leonotis menthifolia

Walker Farm grows hundreds of unusual and incredible annuals.  I tend to buy at least ten or more plants each year that I have never grown before. I saw a Leonotis blooming in October in England last fall and was happy to find two different species at Walkers this spring. I picked this species for its tiny, textured leaves.

I think I am on the brink of having a penstemon problem! I have numerous different species and cultivars and the species P. digitalis is spreading itself around. Each year I find hundreds of seedlings, like this giant one on the path's edge. These elegant dark red spires with fuzzy pink buds are stippled all through the beds. I might start harvesting them and selling them soon, a real cash crop! The Physocarpus opifolius 'Gold Nugget' here in the corner is loving all the rain and heat. It is vibrant and lush and edging out its neighbors. The Continus 'Grace' is newly planted. I bought it for a client, but soon realized it was the wrong one. However, it was so beautiful with its big leaves and numerous buds I decided my garden could easily absorb it.

Our sweet little native blue eyed grass Sisyrinchium angustifolium.

Miscanthus sinensis 'Purpurascens'

 Common, beloved, and slightly invasive in the roadside ditches in the south, this is the grass I love the most- at least today!

A favorite Panicum

Panicum amarum 'Dewey Blue'

 Most fellow bloggers are posting about the splendors of the fall, which makes me think that loving the fall must be one of the things that most gardeners share. Some friends dread the winter too much to enjoy the autumn. The fall is the most beautiful time of year for me, watching the colors slowly return to the earth. The intensity of the work also takes a turn, whatever I do not accomplish this fall will be waiting for me in the spring. Instead of religiously dead heading, by late September I am pretty much letting most things go to seed and leaving seed heads up for the birds and waiting for them to catch the snow. It is really a time to just enjoy it all, admire all those things I never staked or tied up, falling over into everything else. For me, there is nothing uptight about the fall and I like to let the plants really just be themselves.

In Vermont, we have many sopped in, foggy mornings. As the sun warms the day, the gray soggy air lifts to reveal those perfect crisp days. I like the plants in the clouds, drippy and heavy, covered in spider webs.

 

Thalictrum seed heads still standing strong, framed by the fall garden.