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Garden Design- late June
Gertrude Jekyll- (rhymes with treacle) liked to think of her gardens as ‘making pictures.’ Trained in the visual arts and part of the arts and craft movement in England, she viewed garden design as a...
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The Value of Green in the Flowering Border- Design
Some designers /gardeners are jamming lots of interesting textures into a flowering border but in many instances they are over doing it in my humble opinion! Plant breeders have gone overboard too;...
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Michael Dodge’s Wonderful World of Willows
I have been admiring willow structures in books for the past decade, but had yet to make the leap of attempting to make one of own. All that began to change when last winter a friend sent me a link to...
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The Entry Room- chartreuse and white garden
After the renovation of my house I designed what I call the ‘entry way room’ that leads to, and partially surrounds an area by the front door. The palette of this room is chartreuse and white. I...
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New: Blogroll
Rooting for Ideas is a blog primarily about garden design and the investigation of ideas that come from garden literature. I recently added a Blogroll to my homepage located on the right side with a...
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Grey/Silver foliage plants
The more I garden the more I value the wonderful variety of texture and color that is possible in foliage. Unlike flowers that are here today and gone in10, foliage is around from spring until late...
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The Value of Dark Green Foliage in the Landscape
I can’t talk or write enough about the value of good solid green foliage in the garden. It’s getting harder to find good greens with the sea of crazy colors being hybridized these days, and the...
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Italian Gardens
I have been in Italy for a family wedding and was charmed by the Italian gardens. The terrain there is often steep and requires some terracing and most gardens in this hot climate do not rely on...
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Last Bow
White and to my surprise, dusty pink to mauve flowers are dominating the garden now. I didn’t plan it this way, but some of the perennials like Phlox David have grown so huge they are threatening to...
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Chinese Scholar’s Garden Staten Island
I recently discovered a wonderful place, the Chinese Scholar’s Garden in Staten Island. I have been reading about Chinese gardens and learned that the first private gardens in China were created by...
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Happy New Year!
We are having a good winter this year with lots of snow protecting our plants and two gentle thaws already, one in November and another in early December, replenishing the aquifers . 2014 promises to...
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Franklin Garden Club Lecture Series
Franklin Garden Lecture Series Great Dixter spring display, photograph by Diana Hall The Franklin Garden Club invites you to attend garden talks on Saturday afternoons, followed by light refreshments....
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Symbolic Chinese Garden Design Concepts
Last autumn I visited the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden in Staten Island, located within the large Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden complex with 27 buildings and beautiful...
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The New Perennial Movement
photography by Iwan Baan and James Golden 1. Chelsea Grasslands, between West 19th Street and West 20th Street, looking North – photo must be credited to Iwan Baan © 2009 I began working as a garden...
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New Parking area- ‘before and after’
For years the too small parking area next to the house has been problematic. Regardless of age our friends, you know who you are, crushed my flowering plants along the edge and had to make ten point...
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Conversation among the Plants
When plant combinations work it is because they enhance one another. I like to think of these sometimes planned, sometimes serendipitous events as conversations between the plants involved. Repeating...
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Winter – A Time to See Garden’s Architecture
Those of you who live in the northern hemisphere, experience a winter season pared to its bare essentials. And it is by no means all bad news. In this reduced landscape you have the advantage of seeing...
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Plowed Snow Damages Plants
Winter is hard enough on plants with all the freezing and thawing, and subzero weather, but we also have to make sure, when we design a garden, that our plants will be out of the way of the snow plow....
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Creating Vertical Elements in the Garden
Four years ago, I started a small willow nursery for personal use. I got willow cuttings from my friend Michael Dodge who owns Vermont Willows. I also bought 12’ foot willow rods to make a living...
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June Garden photos
Fields behind the house full of buttercups and bed straw- a backdrop to the garden View from top of staircase in driveway Astilbiodies tabularis, Darmera peltata at base of new dry stone retaining wall...
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