Fall is upon us

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After a brutally hot summer we have had some really enjoyable fall temperatures, and some much needed rain! As the season comes to a close we have begun to make plans for demolition of our Student Exhibition Garden. Unfortunately, this is a one season garden, and while some of the plants will move on to permanent homes in different areas of Longwood, some will be saved for the student gardens next year. It has been an amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity to design a garden that was on display in the gardens proper. It has also been an honor to have a photograph of our garden in the Longwood Chimes. Not many experiences will come close to this one and I can’t believe it is almost over. We have also started classes again-back to the books with no time to waste. Graduation is upon us and it has been a truly memorable journey.

Our gardens are at their maturity and we have started our fall crops for our Floriculture class as well. I will be growing a crop of mums-Chrysanthemum ‘Olympia’ for the fall sale. In other exciting news-Longwood had the opening of the new East Plaza! A beautifully terraced ampitheatre style lawn paired with plantings of evergreen shrubs, and the new green wall hall of restrooms. It is the largest green wall in North America!

Time for Fun!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Aside from the hectic life of a PG, it is important to take time to enjoy some of the most wonderful parts of the year…like summer! Not only do we have a world renowned garden in our backyard but we also travel to other places to embrace their wonderful qualities as well. Now is the time to enjoy the places we think about when we are covered in snow. Pictured here are some photos from Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D.C., water lillies and the sunflower field at Longwood Gardens, a state park in Virginia, Airlie Gardens in Wilminton, North Carolina, the Butterfly House at Hershey Gardens in Hershey, Pennsylvania, an amazing sunrise at the beach and ahhhh the cool forest.

Absence of Rain

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As we have all felt the sweltering heat and reprocussions of such an intense summer, the question still remains….when will we get any rain? After intensly studying the radar and weather forecast every morning I do believe it is not a question of when we will get rain; but now, what do we do in the absence of rain? Planning watering schedules and monitoring plant needs has become a necessity, and luckily we have “weathered the un-storm”. During our Landscape Design and Construction course, we were looking at plant selections and generally decided to choose plants that could withstand drought and by golly I am thankful for that! This was the original intent which has so wonderfully worked in our favor. So what were our shining stars?

Heliotrope arborescens ‘Marine’
Heliotrope was chosen for its wonderful fragrance and plentiful blooms, another great plus? It is more fragrant when kept on the dry side!

Calamintha nepeta ‘White Cloud’
Also chosen for it’s fragrance and drought tolerance

Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’
A true stand-out in the garden. Salvia’s are fragrant, yes, but not only does this variety have a stunning purple-black calyx which contrasts wonderfully with it’s deep blue flower; it is drought tolerant and did just fine without staking because of the protected area.

Schizachyrium scoparium ‘The Blues’
We were originally a little concerned with this ornamental grass because it was going to be containerized but it performed just fine and added a nice architechtural form to the east side of the plot

Carex pensylvanicum
Also a slight concern but did amazingly well considering the conditions. This filled in so nicely and really stood out the way we wanted it to as an urban turfgrass. We have been recieving requests all over the place for these plants after demolition!

A few applications of liquid feed, and merely two applications of a slow realease fertilizer carried us through the summer quite nicely.

Garden Updates

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It has been a true pleasure to see my gardens grow this year. The new student exhibition plot has done very well and I am happy with the way the plants have acclimated, as well as the performance of the plants in the containers. After a light liquid feed and an application of a slow realease fertilizer, the plants are coming to life. The colors are vibrant, the bees and birds abound, and FINALLY, we got some rainfall. It poured on friday, and saturday it rained all day long; a nice steady rain that seemed to actually have the chance to soak in instead of running off.

My garden on the row has also done well. I am lucky to have chosen plants with low watering needs this year. I am amazed at the increased size of my perennials from last year. Unfortunately I lost both Gaura plants. I am really not sure what happened; one was lost over the winter, and the other I just lost last week. I noticed that it did not have any flowers, and I was concerned and suspicious since it was covered in blooms last year at this time. About a week later, not only was it lacking flowers, but it was heading downhill fast. At this point, it is toasted. I will have to do some investigating on this matter because I have never, ever had a problem with Gaura other than aphids; and this was not the culprit. As I suspected, the mosses have not faired well in this heat, they are slowly dying off. On the other hand my Echinacea continues to happily bloom!

Mas Espana

Sagrada Familia

Inside view of the massive ceiling

On the road to Valencia

Back side entrance to Sagrada Familia

Front view of Sagrada Familia

Tree hugging

Senecio coccineiflorus

Hola Espana!

Parc Guell

Emma and I with Barcelona in the background

One of Gaudi’s works

I got too close to an Agave…

Parc del Laberint

Parc del Laberint

A random meridian on the mountain

The Labyrinth-which I definitely didn’t get lost in

After a long month of garden installations, work rotations, and night classes the PG class of 2010 is off to Spain! I can’t think of a better way to celebrate all of our hard work. We will be blogging while in Spain: www.pgprogram.wordpress.com-if you’d like to see all of the wonderful places we will be visiting. We are scheduled to fly into Barcelona where we will spend 3 days, then to Valencia for a night, 2 nights in Granada, a night in Malaga, and Seville, then north to Madrid to fly back to the U.S. I am really looking forward to seeing lots of Mediterranean plants in their native habitat and learning some of their gardening practices. We also have plans to see some amazing architectural works; Antoni Gaudi’s Park Guell and Sagrada Familia, The Alhambra and one of the oldest gothic cathedrals in Europe. I am comforted to know that our new garden will be in good hands while we are away and I am excited to see the progress that takes place while we are away.

My Garden 2010

New Vegetable Plot

New Rock Garden

Although we have the new Student Exhibition Gardens, we are still keeping our gardens at the row, which I think is great. It has been such a good learning experience and a great chance to experiment with things. This year I changed my vegetable garden around a bit to allow for better hose accesibility and just to change things up in general. I’ve changed my ornamental garden as well this year. I left most of my perennials and moved them around a bit, planted in some Amsonia hubrichtii and an Aquilegia canadensis, and the rest of the circular path I had last year has been transformed in to an ampitheatre style rock garden. I have been really interested in trying out some mosses and succulents which are filling in the rock spaces. I am really happy with the way it turned out and I think it will also be interesting to see if it can stand the test of low watering needs. I anticipate the succulents will need less water than the mosses but that is the fun part…now I get to play around with them…

We’ve come a long way…in a month!

Before…

After…

After…

Before…

It has been a whirlwind of a month!! Sometimes I had to check and see if my head was on straight! Not only have we made a huge amount of progress in our Student Exhibition Gardens, which I might add are finished-but I have also been busy in my garden on the row. During our Landscape Construction class, the PG class of 2011 was split up into each quadrant and in our quadrant we have Carolyn Scott and David Sincavage. I am very fortunate to have landed this group. Not only have Deb and I worked incredibly well together, but it has been so great to have Carolyn and David on board with us. We couldn’t have done it without them. Carolyn helped me to put together our containers and in literally two days, we had the better portion of the garden planted. I am so pleased with how it turned out, and the other student’s gardens look fantastic as well.

A Scents of Place

Breaking Ground

Moving the pieces in

Preparing for plants

Repainting some metal structures

Repainting some metal structures

Preparing for plants

Moving the pieces in

Breaking Ground

The Student Exhibition Gardens have started to take shape! It has been an irreplaceable experience and one that I am truly thrilled to be a part of. It’s not everyday you can say “My partner and I designed a garden in Longwood Gardens!” It has been a lot of hard work and many hours of dedication. Deb Wiles and I designed a garden that is intended to mimic that of a cityscape; we have three main focal points, one which is the “downtown” area and two “suburbs”. We have used mainly reclaimed metal materiels and three fabricated rebar arches that are to represent the various stages of construction and deconstruction of a city. We really worked hard at achieving this look by using galvanized trash cans as our containers and a large trough which Deb located at a feed store nearby. Inside each of the focal points will be different metal forms which we have salvaged from previous projects at Longwood. The garden has a very urban, contemporary feel and design; accompanied by a fragrant palette of plants. The plant choices were very difficult to make and we wanted to focus most of the attention on the focal points and the containers. Unlike the other plots, A Scents of Place does not have a walking path; instead we have “step-in” areas where visitors can gain a closer view of the garden. Due to the shape of our garden, we felt that it would be most beneficial to design it in this manner. The containers are filled with fragrant annuals and herbs; Anethum graveolens, Monarda didyma ‘Gardenview Scarlet’, Mentha piperita, Nicotiana alata, Crossandra infundibuliformis , Ipomoea batatas ‘Blackie’, and Cyperus involucratus. Crawling up the arches will be colorful and fragrant vines as well; Ipomoea lobata and Ipomoea alba. In the beds will be large sweeps of color and fragrance of Nemesia fruticans, Heliotrope arborescens ‘Marine’, Calamintha nepeta ‘White Cloud’, Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’, and Carex pennsylvanica as an urban groundcover. Almost all of our plants were purchased locally. Not only did this save us on shipping costs, but we were able to help support the local economy which Deb and I feel is very important. We can’t wait to get these plants in the ground-it will be a window of time that we must manage because we have to wait until the May 15 frost free date for some of the tender plants and by June 1 it needs to be finished because our class will then be traveling to Spain!

Endings and Beginnings

The Student Greenhouse under snow

Snowstorm #3

Bonsai lesson during Conservatory Plant ID

Plot B: A Scents of Place

As we near the end of our semester we have a lot to look forward to. Not only are we preparing for finals and presentations and writing papers but we have finally begun to break ground in our new Student Exhibition Gardens! After a long hard winter the process in underway. The seniors will be graduating at the end of the month and all off to put their wonderful experience at Longwood to use. Its hard to believe that we will be next, there is still so much ahead and yet the time continues to fly by. I’d have to say though, I am most excited to install our new gardens, and also anxious to see how my garden on the row will perform after this winter. I am interested to see if the snow cover had a negative or positive effect on the plants in my garden. It could be they will be very happy after being insulated for many months…or will they be unhappy from the lack of sunlight??