As with many things in this life, gardens change over time and that change needs to be dealt with. Two years ago, this little part of the gardens was doing just fine... the plants were in scale and it was a nice spot of color in the spring through June with the flowering trees and peonies. After that, annuals in the antique cistern brightened the area through fall.
Then... a year ago this past summer, the peonies became inundated with a very bad case of botrytis. I had never had this problem before, other than the occasional black spot on the peony foliage. This was a serious case with blasted flower buds and stems covered in a gray fuzzy mold. I immediately cut all stems back to the ground and this spring I treated the plants with a potent chemical and they recovered quite well.
I needed to deal with the cause and it was obvious that this area was overgrown and acting as a heat sink as well. In the meantime, two large magnolias had become ill... verticillium wilt was my concern but after samples were tested at the UW labs in Madison, no sign of wilt was found. After discussing the situation with people in the know, the consensus appears to be herbicide damage from treating the lawns over the magnolia roots. With these 25 foot trees gone and the removal of several others, I started to see the potential for some big changes in the area.
For one thing, the four 'Little Girl' series magnolias were gaining a lot of size... largest is a plant of 'Betty' and by this mid-summer, it had spread an additional four feet as its large trunks bowed under their own weight. Pinkie was not far behind. One could always remove the bottom branches, but so often magnolias end up with all their bloom high up in the tree and I wanted to avoid that situation, so all magnolia branches were to stay attached.
The other situation involved the 'Louisa' weeping flowering crabapple which was quickly reaching it's projected 15' diameter... for this being a year with bad drought, it's amazing how rapidly some plants grew!
So that was the situation... overcrowding and poor air circulation... the solution was to remove the cistern as well as some trees, and the turf. This basically resulted in giving me a mostly blank canvas. I proceeded to spread the peonies out, add conifers, and a dozen azaleas from the Northern Lights series. I also added tulips, lilies, and other bulbs as well as a few hemerocallis.
In the following photo, the short fence temporarily marks the path. I have found 400 each, hundred year old pavers from the streets of Milwaukee which will be the front end of this path... I will probably have to do some sort of transition to complete the 100 foot path.
I continued the project a couple days ago with what I think will define the new garden area quite well. On either side of the entrance path pictured above, I am building dry stone walls. The first phase will involve a 3' wide by 40' segment with a height of about 32". I eventually hope to incorporate this into a 125' wall... if my back and shoulder hold out. The building part is a breeze and lots of fun... I basically imagine shapes and overlap stones, creating a network that holds up well to whatever comes its way... short of a bulldozer that is! The hard part for me is procuring the rocks which involves climbing the many rock piles that I discover amongst the neighboring farms. The footing is terrible... especially when carrying a large rock. Yesterday my right foot slipped backwards in such a way that my big toe was stretched and strained... it was rather painful for several hours. Following is a photo of my progress to date on this aspect of the 'azalea walk'...
I highly recommend rock wall building... such a sense of accomplishment and feeling of being a part of history... it somehow ties me to my New England ancestors who probably did a whole lot of this sort of thing in their time... I wonder how they treated their back aches?!
Take care,
Larry
For one thing, the four 'Little Girl' series magnolias were gaining a lot of size... largest is a plant of 'Betty' and by this mid-summer, it had spread an additional four feet as its large trunks bowed under their own weight. Pinkie was not far behind. One could always remove the bottom branches, but so often magnolias end up with all their bloom high up in the tree and I wanted to avoid that situation, so all magnolia branches were to stay attached.
The other situation involved the 'Louisa' weeping flowering crabapple which was quickly reaching it's projected 15' diameter... for this being a year with bad drought, it's amazing how rapidly some plants grew!
So that was the situation... overcrowding and poor air circulation... the solution was to remove the cistern as well as some trees, and the turf. This basically resulted in giving me a mostly blank canvas. I proceeded to spread the peonies out, add conifers, and a dozen azaleas from the Northern Lights series. I also added tulips, lilies, and other bulbs as well as a few hemerocallis.
In the following photo, the short fence temporarily marks the path. I have found 400 each, hundred year old pavers from the streets of Milwaukee which will be the front end of this path... I will probably have to do some sort of transition to complete the 100 foot path.
I continued the project a couple days ago with what I think will define the new garden area quite well. On either side of the entrance path pictured above, I am building dry stone walls. The first phase will involve a 3' wide by 40' segment with a height of about 32". I eventually hope to incorporate this into a 125' wall... if my back and shoulder hold out. The building part is a breeze and lots of fun... I basically imagine shapes and overlap stones, creating a network that holds up well to whatever comes its way... short of a bulldozer that is! The hard part for me is procuring the rocks which involves climbing the many rock piles that I discover amongst the neighboring farms. The footing is terrible... especially when carrying a large rock. Yesterday my right foot slipped backwards in such a way that my big toe was stretched and strained... it was rather painful for several hours. Following is a photo of my progress to date on this aspect of the 'azalea walk'...
I highly recommend rock wall building... such a sense of accomplishment and feeling of being a part of history... it somehow ties me to my New England ancestors who probably did a whole lot of this sort of thing in their time... I wonder how they treated their back aches?!
Take care,
Larry
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