After a long, full, busy summer, I am happy to finally find some time to see gardens, take photographs and post again. The autumn has been beautiful, with the air turning cool and crisp and leaves changing and beginning to fall. Last week I ventured to Petersham, MA to see Bruce Lockhart at Swift River Farm. Last time I was there, we were digging, moving, and planting in the meadow garden, rearranging, adding new plants, and pulling weeds. It was such a pleasure to see the meadow garden in full glory (I would say "peak), with foliage changing colors, all the seed heads upright and fading, and the plants at their fullest and wildest. Not to mention all the grasses now looking their best.
I was complimenting Bruce on the way the meadow felt, like a garden and also like a meadow. He pointed out that there seemed to be a nice balance of large blocks of plants (like large groups of the above Agastache 'Blue Fortune'), but also lots of plants dispersed more wildly through the beds, like the seed heads of the Digitalis ferruginea (also pictured above).
A nice combination of the Agastache with the Amsonia hubrichtii and Oregano 'Rosenkuppel.'
Rudbekia subtomentosa 'Henry Eliers' weaving through the Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate.' The Rudbekia can get very floppy in rich soils, but here in the meadow where is it a little more water and nutrient deprived, the plant is better behaved.
The rest of the garden also looked great such as this spot here with the Yews rising out of a sea of Amsonia.
