The Creative Gardener

My creative impulses feel constricted by a too narrow canvas. I'm staring at the driveway, the area between the house and fence we share with my neighbor. We hired a fellow with a Bobcat to dig up about a third of the asphalt where we plan to add a courtyard garden outside our kitchen door. A short time ago we graveled it in for the winter because of the mud problem. What was once the old driveway ends in a hump of soil, mostly clay left from the excavators when they dug the foundation for our new addition. This hump continues to a back fence "guarded" by several husky, Rambler Roses, "American Pillar," "Silver Moon," and "The Garland." Here, the space is hemmed in by the house and an ugly firewall, erected and by a former neighbor, and left undisputed by the former owners of our house. It is now considered, "Grandfathered" in. A big fat pain in the arse. Sorry, but what does one do with a gray, cinder block wall? This particular area was once the site of my little greenhouse, gone now because of the new addition. My problem is how to utilize this space. Should I make an herb and fruit garden? I have two wonderful columnar apple trees, "North Pole." They grow straight up into the air, with small laterals that hug the main trunk so they don't take up much space. The apples, of the variety I have are fat, and rosy red. Nice, crisp eating. There are several new varieties available.

The real question is a design problem, not what to plant. I need to figure out the "bones." We will need a fence to inclose what will be the courtyard garden, plus a gate and pathways. The area not in use as a courtyard will have to serve as a practical area as well. Where are the garbage cans going? I have to decide on a shape for the space. I don't want a tunnel effect. I'm thinking of an arbor across the width. This will provide a home for several new plants I've acquired, a Clematis Faseicul flora, the marbled form, a Honeysuckle, with white and pink splattered leaves, I must check the name for this one, and a fabulous new golden foliaged Jasmine. I may need more than one arbor. Hmmm. I'll have to hit the drawing board.

Winter Clean Up and Inaugural Balls

The rain turned into sun and warm temperatures hitting the high 60's this week. This was a good excuse to work outside and ignore the inauguration. It was much better to immerse myself in chopping down last years ornamental grasses then watch the Dubbya and his Stepford wife on tv. I did peek in later in the day to catch a short bit of coverage on the Inaugural balls being held around Washington. It seems some Republican's, big donators to the cause, and for whom the balls were being held, (or tolled) were somewhat miffed when they discovered they had to pay for their drinks. Tsk, tsk. This on top of the price they paid for tickets. . . . With the big tax breaks they're getting from the present adminisration, they can afford to get soused.

I found the first Hellebores pushing their noses up through the winter mulch. Ahh, now this is a good thing.

Rain, Mud and Gravel

I should be thankful for rain. It usually means the temperatures are at a decent level. Warm. Of course there is freezing rain. Freezing rain occurs when snow melts as it is coming down from the atmosphere, hits cold air, then freezes as it touches down on something. We call this phenomenon a 'Silver Thaw' here in the Willamette Valley. Last year we had a nasty silver thaw. The icey rain lay so heavy on several of my trees, they were literally up ended. I'm talking roots stabbing the air. It was awful. Two other trees, my Golden Cypresses were badly damaged. One was left leaning horizontally against the Westeria arbor some distance away, the other snapped in two. I was in anguish. It's taken several years for them to grow to a size where they could make a bold statement at the end of my reflecting pool. I nearly chopped them down in a rage. In the end I only shrugged my shoulders and let them be. We gardeners are, after all, no better than glorified farmers. We are subject to the whims of nature. Disaster visits our gardens and we press on. I am now thankful I left nature take its course. I did do a little clean up, trimmed the ragged edges of the Cypress that had snapped in two. In a few short months, one season. The pair of them staged glorious come backs. The broken Cypress grew into a fat, healthy, speciman, albeit, a little short, and the other lifted itself off the arbor and straightened out on its own. It began with the tip bending slightly upwards towards the sun, and then little by little the lower parts joined in, and viola! A garden miracle. It was standing straight. . . . I did consider cutting it down to match its fat partner, then quickly changed my mind. There is charm in the asymmetrical. . . . We had freezing rain yesterday, and the day before. I took a quick stroll around the garden this morning. I didn't find any damage. Today it's still raining in intervals, but it's warm. Yes.

I'm in a tizzy over the state of the driveway. As a temporary measure my husband dumped a truck load of gravel to keep the mud down. I believe I mentioned in my last post that we have been under some pretty heavy constrution. I had this brilliant idea that we should get rid of part of the asphalt and put in a cobblestone courtyard outside the kitchen door. As it turns out we are short on money and the project must wait. The gravel has worked out fine, until the fence guy tracked in sticky, clay mud from the back yard where he was working. I was back out in the rain later in the day racking gravel, trying to get the slick, clay bits buried so it doesn't get tracked in to the house. . . . Are we having fun yet?

Garden Weeds Now, World Domination Next

We have a new back yard fence. This one replacing the one that blew down in a storm two years ago. We, the royal we, meaning my husband, not moi, is slow to get cracking on garden projects because of the one and a half years of house renovations and additions, and all the attendant mess created by the carpenters, plumbers, electricians. He hates to get in their way, he says. Sure. He was still dawdling so in the end I hired a student to put up the fence. What a blessing. I don't have to look at the rental next door with the giant blackberry bushes. For the most part I am an organic gardener. I draw the line though, at the fence. There is no way I'm letting those monstrous briars gain a stronghold in my garden, tossing their thorny canes on to my property, setting roots at every tip that touches the ground. Horrors! They're as tenacious as Bindweed, that other hideous weed with its serpentine, easy to snap into a hundred pieces -- root where they fall, stems. Bindweed like to travel. God knows how far underground. By the time you see them, their lovely white, 'Morning Glory' like flowers bobbing in the air on the far side of the garden, the damage is done. By then they've put a strangle hold on some defensless plant, pulled it to the ground so tightly you can barely see that a plant ever existed in that spot. "Didn't there used to be a stand of waving, wands of Stipa gigantea in that corner?" you ask. Hmmm. I'm looking for that can of RoundUp..

"SunLight On the Lawn"

This morning I woke up to sun light streaming through my upstairs bedroom window. Smells of coffee and toast floating up from the kitchen below. . . . Nice. For a moment I was fooled into thinking Spring was here. I roused myself to take a peek outside. Darn, . . . Winter frost sparkled brightly on the lawn, the buds on a venerable Exbury Azalea, so large now it nearly touches the roof line of our porch, are still tight, little balls of promise.

Hello. My name is Espahan. Welcome to my first blog. "Sunlight On the Lawn" is the title of a book by my favorite writer, and garden design guru, Beverley Nichols. If you love all things gardening, peruse and enjoy the words of a consumate, and very opinionated gardener.