Juniper Hill Farm

I recently visited Juniper Hill Farm, Joe Valentine and Paula Hunter's garden in Francistown, New Hampshire.  Joe is a fellow blogger (click here!) and is interested in all things garden related: garden history, different gardening styles, England, and, of course, plants. Joe and Paula together have created a beautiful garden in the rolling and rocky hills of rural New Hampshire. They have traveled all over England and America visiting the best gardens, attending lectures and symposiums, buying plants, and bringing many of these ideas home to their garden. There are English style hedges, Japanese inspired garden rooms, and American meadows. Through these different ideas, Joe and Paula have developed their own style, while always incorporating the natural landscape- not always an easy task.

Their garden has the most wonderful collection of conifers and evergreens, designed beautifully to create lines and layers of hedges and undulating forms.

One of Paula's container displays. Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost,' Aparagus densiflorus 'Meyersii,' and a Japanese maple.

And now, the Verbascum conundrum. I LOVE these things every time I see them, from the roadside ditches to the formal topiary garden, their gangly spires make a statement. The trouble for me is figuring out who is who. The one pictured above is Verbascum 'High Noon,' which looks a bit like the one pictured below, Verbascum 'Yellow Lightening' (one, I believe, was named by Fergus Garrett) I would love to line up all the Verbascums, side by side, and really study their differences.

A newly designed pool garden, already full of frogs!

Looking from the lower pool garden up to the house. I love the vase- like sprays of brightly colored grasses against the tight, dark green box and lilac topiary.

Deb Shumlin's Garden

I have been working on Deb Shumlin's garden for a few years now, but it was only in the last two seasons that we started to make some real changes.  The garden pictured above was tweaked a few years ago. It once was full of iris and primrose and we have slowly added trollious 'Golden Queen,' Thalictrum rochebrunianum, Rodgersia pinnata, Lobelia cardinalis, Lobelia siphilitica, and a Salix integra 'Hakura Nishiki.' It is filling in nicely and really has a wonderful spring display.

This is her entrance walk. The walk way was rebuilt by Paul Bemis and we amended the garden. Once full of Phlox, Delphinium, and Echinacea, we have kept some of the originals and added lots more. Some of the great new gems are Pinus parviflora 'Arnold Arboretm Dwarf,' Boxwood 'Green Mountain,' Daphne 'Carol Mackie,' Sedum seiboldi, Actaea simplex 'Black Negligee,' Echinacea 'Green Jewel,' Centranthus rubra, Amsonia heubrechtii, Sidalcea 'Party Girl,' and Verbascum 'Clementine,' to name a few. It is full to the brim and exciting.

A nice cross cut view of over lapping gardens.

This year we decided to close off the far end of the lawn that dropped off down to the dirt road below Deb's house. So we built a hedge out of Taxus media 'Hicksii,' as recommended by gardening friend and fellow blogger Joe Valentine. We planted these in a large snaking S- curve and we used a tractor with an auger to dig the holes. Only a few mishaps (we cut the power line to her house, but no one was electrocuted...!) and the hedge was in. 

This is a before shot- the gardens on the property ran straight and narrow along numerous stone walls and over the years they had mostly filled in with ferns, phlox, iris, and peonies. Deb wanted more and so we have been working this year to bring out all the gardens significantly and making them curvy and irregular. Then filling them with interesting plants that will give year round interest; from evergreens to annuals, we are covering all the seasons this year.

The newly dug, transplanted, and half- planted bed.

Just opposite the previous photo is another long stone wall and we started to bring out the beds...

...and fill them with plants....

...then plant them and watch them grow. It will be exciting to see how this garden develops over time.