Linking With Fishtail Cottage Garden Party #21 and Fertilizer Friday... click on badges at right
It was almost a year ago when I decided something had to be done with the east side of the birch walk. When dealing with living things change is the order of the day... they just don't stay the same forever... then again, what does? There were times over the past thirty years that we've owned this piece of former cow pasture when I wished I could stop time... every thing was perfect in size, health, and the spatial relationships between the plants. Unfortunately, that only lasts so long and in a limited space such as this garden, the hand of the gardener is called to intervene and to change the design where necessary. While this is always exciting, there is some melancholy to be experienced as well... the seeming perfection of the previous effort is no more and decisions must be made. If we gardeners were truly as patient as necessary, all this turmoil could have been prevented at the outset... simply by placing plantings for the long term. As it was, the gardens looked pretty barren way back then... note the 30 year old photo below where the birch walk can be seen when the clumps were only eight feet tall.
Not so very many years ago, I decided that I needed to do more with the area to the east of the birch walk, so I leveled it out with many yards of my compost and planted lots of bulbs and conifers there. After a very few years, it had a look that I really liked... a place that I would have enjoyed frozen in time... see photos below.
As little as five years ago, the birch walk was still pleasing to my eye, both from the birch side which included a nicely planted bed...
... as well as the design on the opposite side of the conifer plantings. I felt like this was perfect and had I chosen the right conifers, I might have been able to keep this look.
As the conifers (Picea moerheim with wonderful blue foliage) continued to grow, it became necessary to remove the planting area that surrounded the birches as things were starting to feel cramped... I decided to do a few hosta about the edges of this secluded space.
And then it hit... the weather conditions were right for an outbreak of Rhizosphaera needlecast. It wasn't just here at Oak Lawn as I saw the problem all over the upper midwest. Tiny fruiting bodies of the Rhizosphaera fungus protrude through the stomata of the infected needles and it's not long before only the newest growth remains on the tree's lower branches. I'm imagine that the spruces growing so closely and with less than perfect air circulation magnified the problem. The spring before last I was left with what I considered to be a deplorable situation as seen in the following photo.
While I considered removing all the offending spruces, I realized that things would be pretty barren without them and I didn't look forward to years of waiting for replacements to get to a reasonable size. It was then that I decided that a shade garden might be the way to go. Limbed up and with better air circulation, the spruces might well retain the needles on branches eight feet above the fallen needles which probably caused ongoing problems with the fungus. Even if they didn't, I reasoned that the viewer's eye would be drawn to the ground level where the new plantings would dominate. This past spring with branch removal completed, my shady canvas was ready to be painted, early progress shown below...
I added hostas, evergreen azaleas, Japanese maples which will be kept small through pruning, phlox stoloniferas and divaricatas, calycanthus 'Hartlage Wine', surrounded by tiarellas and lots of hakonechloas. For spring I've included masses of different cultivars of Primula sieboldii as well as spring bulbs including martagon lilies, all sorts of ferns, and a rhododendron 'Ken Janeck' as well. I am considering whether more fencing is necessary... it was a bit barren this spring but once filled out, the fence seems less necessary... I'll observe the area for a time before I make a decision on that. Here are a few of the plants that now occupy the area...
From when they were in bloom, several evergreen azaleas including these...
Magnolias Rose Marie and Yellow Bird will contribute more shade as they develop...
Martagon lilies including this 'Russian Morning'...
And from today, the following...
One of several fern cultivars, this is Lady in red...
Many hostas, some of which will be moved about or replaced as I reconsider their placement...
Seiryu japanese maple is very effective with the hostas and ferns...
An Angel's Blush hydrangea has colored up nicely and adapted well in its first season in this placement. Difficult to see in this photo are three magnolia sieboldii 'Collosus' trees planted beneath the Aesculus carnea 'Briotti'. One of them just finished with it's first ever bloom season this week. I've also used lots of pulmonarias and european ginger in this area, as well as dwarf goatsbeard.
I like the sense of mystery in this view and the touch of color added by the annual impatiens.
A number of the hostas in this area were planted a few seasons ago and are getting rather large. In some cases they are overpowering the ferns so division or moving them may be in order for spring.
The back side of this area includes a good sized Princeton Sentry ginko and three Picea omorika nana (which aren't so 'nana' anymore).
The entrance to this shade garden is a bit sunnier and includes the following in the planting...
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| Aesculus carnea 'Briotii' |
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| Phlox David |
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| White foxgloves |
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| A coral bark maple |
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| Clematis |
The east side of the birch walk shade garden includes a number of Iris spuria and intersectional peonies...
In conclusion, while those earlier years of gardening were fun.... and colorful (see last photo), being the owner of a garden that's approaching maturity is also pretty special...
Take care, Larry
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