Landscapes and Life

Pennisetum alopecuroides

In every season…every month,  nearly every week of the year really, a new star emerges on the stage of the landscape. Mid- to- late fall features such stalwarts as sedums and asters and chrysanthemums – amid the cornstalks and pumpkins – as the traditional stars. They’re dependable. And predictable, which for most gardeners is a good thing. But, to me, replacing these traditional acts this time of year as the real headliners, are the various Ornamental Grasses that have established an increasing presence in our gardens. From the understated Fescues(Festuca), to the overstatement of Porcupine Grass(Miscanthus sinensis “strictus’) these plants are nearly magical in the late autumn light and offer graceful motion, reflected and diffused light as they move across the fall sun and the autumn moon… and even sound, as in the autumn breeze they shift and settle like an uneasy audience at the opening of a new performance. The plants form grass blades of varied sizes and heights and a large palate of subtle colors. Continue reading Ornamental Grasses are Fall’s Stars

My intention and enthusiasm to write this column on a regular basis – to

articulate my thoughts about gardening and landscape – is often clearly in direct conflict with my work as a landscaper and gardener as well as all the other myriad of things by which I am so often distracted and occupied. Free time doesn’t really exist for me, as I’m sure it doesn’t for many of you. I am easily distracted…or maybe it’s consumed. So instead of keeping current, I find myself looking back across the season, which offers a different perspective. And perhaps in looking back, I can see a larger, somewhat skewed canvas. Continue reading Landscape: Now and Then

The shrinking economy and the sound of crashing finances are heard everywhere; strangely reminiscent of other financial failures and the difficulties of past generations. We have our own struggles… a small business in a challenging economy… a daughter in college and a son just finished. As with almost all families these days, we watch every dollar and are careful of how we spend. But sometimes you just have to live. And recently, my wife taking off to the cape with some friends for a spring getaway, I put two bills on the counter for her because I knew she was watching every dollar. One was a hundred dollar bill and one was a fifty. This is a nice neat way to have $ 150.00. Two bills. Not a fortune by any means, but some spending money. Fun money.

Not so fast. Enter Sandy. Continue reading Third Dog – Black Thursday

With so many things in a frenzy of bloom it’s not hard to feel the excitement of spring and the promise of warmer weather and all that it brings. Despite the incessant blight that has diminished our dogwood trees (Cornus), it’s hard not to notice their beautiful bloom, even on trees that seem noticeably stressed. There’s something particularly nice about the horizontal petals of the bloom that drink up the sunlight and carry a piece of the morning through the entire day. Continue reading Gardener’s Muse – May