Garden Diary: the Salix and the hedge

The Salix
Willows being water lovers, I'm trying to put them to good use. My three Salix alba 'Britzensis' have been growing for several years, to little effect. If you don't know this willow, you should get acquainted. It's new growth is a brilliant golden orange that can be striking, particularly against a dark background. In direct sunlight, it's a real fireworks plant.

The Hedge
My salix have been making a small show beside a drainage channel. In my crusade to add more structure and winter interest to the garden, I decided to back them with something green, something green throughout the year. Here is the willow without a background. (These photos were taken on cloudy days so the color isn't nearly as brilliant as it can be, but you get the idea.)


And here it is with a background 'starter' hedge of Thuya occidentalis (arborvitae), the only evergreen I can even hope will survive my wet clay.


I intend to coppice these willows (I've already done one, though you can't see it) and to make many more from the cuttings, which root easily. A colony of Salix a. 'Britzensis' will spring up here in a relatively short time. Cutting them will force new growth, which has the best color.

Arborvitae is such an overused shrub in suburbia, one I've learned to dislike rather intensely, that I'm having a hard time seeing this objectively. Now, at this bare time of year, this little set piece is definitely a major feature, too self-conscious, precious, contrived. This will take some getting used to, and time to integrate with the rest of the garden. I know to wait until high summer, when the herbaceous perennials, which are now all dormant underground, will make most of this invisible.

Structure
Taking a longer view, I can see the thuya and salix grouping makes an interesting triad with the pond and the new raised stone planting bed. Lots of structural potential here.


A long view from a position more to the right (below) shows even more. I probably need a longer hedge to get better balance with the other parts of the 'triad', and I need something at the far end, where I've been thinking about a separate area of the garden, partially blocked from view, and cutting across laterally, making a kind of 'conceptual' box frame around the central garden. The jury is still out. I remind myself I'm practicing slow gardening; this isn't an instant makeover. Have patience, have patience, I say to myself.


Details
The thuya are in a straight line, but the path behind them and the stone wall are curved. Should I replant the thuya in a matching curve, or leave them as is? The straight line emphasizes the gentle curve of the stone wall behind, an interesting effect that adds a subtle complexity. Still, I have to consider the effect on a stroller on the path. A curved hedge will make it more difficult to see around the curve, making the experience of the garden, from the path, more compelling.


I should return to this post near the end of July, at the height of the season, and consider the options from that perspective.

Garden Diary: March of progress

I take a risk posting photos of my garden at this time of the year. Will you understand that gardens change continuously throughout the year? Will you view these photos knowing a perennial and grass prairie (a very wet prairie in this case) has to be appreciated for what it is now, even though not a traditional 'vision' of early spring, and viewed with its later season potential held gently in the mind's eye? This is the most barren time of the year, standing water, mud where the soil is disturbed, but all this is natural and appropriate (though a sheet of daffodils is possible, and hoped for, some day; possibly Caltha palustris; in fact, many plants with 'palustris' in their names).

If the top photo looks suspiciously like the one in my March 16 post, look more closely and you'll see the elevated stone planting bed at the end of the pond is nearing completion. Last Saturday while I mowed the remaining perennials, burned the Miscanthus giganteus and cut multiflora rose at the edge of the property, Joel and his father almost finished the stone structure. You can see from a distance it acts as a visual extension of the pond.


But all is not as planned. I tried to avoid the amoeba shape Peter H. criticized. I wanted to get a graceful curve in the stone, but either my communication ability or Joel's skill weren't up to the task. There is a definite S-curve here, but the final product is a rather clunky looking affair. It still needs some refinement, to be done next weekend, when ten cubic yards of "top soil" arrive to fill it and, I hope, leave some to spare.


We have to remove the plants stranded inside the stone walls. Now that the frozen ground has thawed, we'll be able to do that.

This is not what I expected but I'm trying to persuade myself that appropriate plantings will make this all work together as a unified structural feature. I can't afford to redo it.


I'm trying to visualize this in the photo (below) of the same area from last fall. My intent has been to plant a large oakleaf hydrangea to visually join the stone and the pond, and to use some form of evergreen topiary (simple) to create a sense of formality against the wildness of the rest of the garden.


Now I'm thinking more freely of other options. Perhaps a solid ground cover of Bergenia x 'Winterglut'. The red foliage would make a striking sight in winter and complement oranges of a new bank of Salix alba 'Britzensis'. I know the bergenia holds up well through all kinds of weather (I have it on the terrace outside the house, where it's a pleasure to see against the gravel surface). Perhaps a ground cover of bergenia under the topiary ... I'll know better by mid-summer.

Garden Diary: the long view

This view is down the length of the main wet prairie garden, on the level below the view shown in the previous post (5 July 2008). The main concept is garden as a continuation of the natural drainage pattern - a kind of metaphorical flood plain. The intent is to create a sense of sweeping movement around the end of the house, with the planting spreading out across the open clearing defined by the tree line, and flowing to the "outlet" in the distance.

The long pond is positioned in the direct path of water flow and so emphasizes the actual drainage pattern across the main garden area. I can see now how straight verticals of small willows (perhaps Salix 'Rubykins'), coppiced yearly, would provide vertical structure and an important part of the "middle layer" I'm still missing at this early stage. I would be imitating Ton ter Linden's similar use of willows in some of his wetland gardens.

My camera unfortunately lacks sufficient resolution to show detail in landscape images; the closer photo below shows Filipendula rubra 'Venusta', Rudbeckia maxima, and Salix alba 'Britzensis' serving as vertical accents in the distance.