Garden Rant

Beautiful—but also kind of a yawn

This might be at the other end of the spectrum from funky bottle trees and found object enclosures. Acres and acres of lawn. Although Asheville’s Biltmore estate is set inside a magnificent wooded landscape, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the formal gardens surrounding the house (also by FLO) have retained less of their appeal. Appeal for me, that is. I’ve toured lots of estate gardens, mainly in England, and—although with these large properties there was also plenty of lawn (you can’t do without it)—the borders, water features, touches of whimsy, topiary and other, more intimate elements rose to a level I didn’t see at Biltmore. The Biltmore gardens are magnificent in some ways, but disappointingly lacking in personality in many others.

This article talks about the lawn care and other horticultural requirements. It takes a lot of horsepower to manage 8,000 acres!

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. The drive to the estate was a wonder to behold, with its luminous plantings of bamboo and, of course, rhododendrons. The views from the terrace are breathtaking and I am always a sucker for a nice statue or three, especially when they are lightly clothed in moss. But the formal gardens overall? Too broad stroke.

If you'd like to see more, here is my facebook album from 3+ days of Asheville gardens.

One rises; another falls

Voodoo Lily image from the Gentling garden, Asheville

There’s no doubt that independent garden centers and nurseries—like many businesses—have been seeing their sales decline over the last few years. The percentage dips have been in as much as the double digits, depending on where you are in the U.S. Many nurseries and IGCs have been forced to close.

Things could look up, probably as the stately pace of the economic recovery continues. But is it really all about the recession?

Not so much, says consultant Clint Albin, who regularly works with independent garden centers. Albin always has interesting things to say (In a Regency romance, someone would flirt their fan and trill “Such a rattle!” here.), so I was pleased that he was one of the attendees at last weekend’s Asheville bloggers’ meet. He’s lots of fun.

Albin’s theory is that a major recent impact on garden center sales has been a disappointing performance by the baby boomer set. Why? He says it was expected that aging baby boomers, sliding into their golden years, would turn to gardening—and other gentle home-related pastimes—more and more as they lost interest in the passions of their youth.

But then came … VIAGRA. Suddenly an activity that had become somewhat problematic was very much on the menu. Who needs a hobby? And there you have it. Garden centers were the hapless victims of a renewed interest in sex on the part of older Americans.

I can’t say I really buy this. It doesn’t fully explain the female part of this equation, and—well—I'm sticking with the recession. But I like the originality; kudos to Clint.

There is one irony here that has always struck me. I think it is true that many of us got into gardening somewhat later in our adulthood. I am certainly one of those people—I really didn’t start seriously gardening until after forty. But it just seems so unfortunate that I initiated an activity that requires the worst kind of lifting and bending you can imagine just when my body became more vulnerable to the damage that can inflict.

Clint, can you explain this?

Triolife Planter--We Have a Winner!

The winner of the Triolife planter, chosen at random, was Nell Jean at Seedscatterer.  Congrats, and thanks as always for playing along, everybody!

Aunt Tilly Needed a Drink

This just in from Jay and Ken at Atlock Farm, a most intriguing place in Somerset, NJ:

After some 20 years, perched high above the succulents,in a green houses at Atlock Farm, (in Somerset, New Jersey), much beloved Aunt Tilly, cut loose and unceremoniously plopped to the ground.

Owner Ken Selody felt it only fitting to give the girl a chair and a cheer, by having her join us for cocktails. She had a Cosmo. A double.

This report was followed quickly by the following:

Okay...Ken said I must be honest here... Tillandsia had suicidal tendencies, and unbeknownst to me, she'd tried this before. We'll never know for sure, but she might well have purposely thrown herself from the top of the greenhouse....plunging to... her, well.... nearest cocktail? She liked to drink...albiet sparingly, considering her genus.

That is all.

Crimes Against Horticulture, Pruning Division

I can't help but steal my post title from Billy Goodnick - the term is just too apt, in the case of these two juicy examples of bad pruning.  

On the left, the power company seems like the obvious culprit but once homeowners plant trees too close to the power lines, what's a company to do?  I shot this from my car last winter but I bet it looks just as ridiculous now, with leaves on that poor tree.

And on the right is the foundation planting in front of a gorgeous Capitol HIll townhouse, where two Euonymuses (Euonymi?) aren't just horribly shaped, but pruned to completely block the windows.  This is the garden of a new client of mine, who impressively hired me to give her landscape suggestions even before she and her fiance had moved in!  I happily reinforced their intention to get rid of these hideous blobs, as soon as possible.  It's a south exposure, so the choice of better alternatives is huge.

 

Shovel ready

I don't mind stealing a phrase many others have used concerning the Asheville garden of Christopher Mello, visited by garden bloggers (our annual get-together) this past weekend.

The space is dominated by a central circular space filled with Tonka trucks and surrounded by upright shovels. There are also perennial borders—amazing blue (ish) poppies and campanula among other plants—and many other found object constructions. Spectacular bottle trees are another prominent feature.

Some members of our group suggested there might be a gender divide when it comes to truly appreciating such a garden. Others disagree. What do you think?

(Hotel wi-fi is not working, so had to resort to an iPhone post.)