~Grandmother Never Bought a Plant~
I suppose that is not literally true since in the beginning she bought vegetables and fruits for eating and then used their seeds to start plants.
Grandmother's garden was filled with many plants--I wish I could remember all of them--including Sweet Gum, Peach, Fig, Weeping Willow, and Magnolia trees; white and blue Hydrangeas, Azaleas, various Roses, Bleeding Hearts, Ferns, Periwinkle; Weigelia, Privet, and Barberry shrubs; succulents, and a vegetable garden.
Grandmother's garden was developed from "found" items, so to speak. My grandmother knew that plants could be started from the seeds they produced (no sterile hybrids for her). She also exchanged plants and cuttings with her neighbors. If she liked a plant, she made as many as she wanted from cuttings or seeds. Her neighborhood was filled with open fields (nowadays, almost gone for the rest of us), and these areas were great places to find plants.
Obviously, one of the things my grandmother brought to this garden and learned from it--was patience. In this era of instant gratification, we forget that good things are worth the wait, that patience really is a virtue, and that there is nothing wrong with frugality, either!
~Biographies~
*My grandmother started me down the garden path and Gertrude and Jim push me along. I do know that while all my mentors are deceased, I hear their voices loud and clear -- know the environment in which you want to garden, gardening is hard work, gardens take time to develop, start plants from cuttings, and that nature is not always on our side. In other words, be realistic, be frugal, and have patience.
*Gertrude Jekyll (1843 - 1932; photogragh from her book: Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden) has had the most pronounced influence on English and American gardening. She studied the landscape and designed flower borders, woodlands, and specimen tree and shrubery placement with regard to color, vista, soil, and year-round pleasure. Gertrude Jekyll approached the garden as a canvas. It has been said that Monet planted his gardens to paint them while Gertrude Jekyll's garden was the painting.
*James Underwood Crockett (1915 - 1979; photograph from his book: Crockett's Victory Garden) was the original host of PBS's The Victory Garden, then called Crockett's Victory Garden. I was fortunate to see his weekly shows. He showed that while gardening was work, it was also enjoyable with great rewards. While reading gardening books is informative, it was great to see and hear a gardener in action and see the results. It was good for morale! Jim made a statement on a show about asters that has become famous in my family because not only does it apply to gardening -- it applies to many things in life: Life is too short to stake asters.
*Painting of a child who reminds me of myself and grandmother in her garden: Monet - The Artist's Garden at Vetheuil.
~Gardening in Connecticut~
The Ice Age was not a good thing for gardeners in this area. On its march to Long Island and the sea, the glacier removed the soil down the bedrock and then when it melted, it dropped terminal moraine (rocks) in its wake -- except for southern Long Island where it was nice enough to deposit a glacial outwash plain (sand).
My family gardened on Long Island. When I moved to Connecticut and wanted to garden, I bought a shovel. What did I know? Quickly after that, my husband bought a pick axe.
Gardening here means "digging" out rocks and then going off to buy a truckload of topsoil--and while you are at it: sharp (not play or all-purpose) sand, and a ton of peat moss--to fill in the holes so that your plants may live long and prosper.
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Beginning at the Beginning, Part 2
Non-Back-Braking Fun Part of Project, continued
-Walking through My Property
I keep walking around the property. I am trying to imagine what could be put where. I am making lots of notes and I am constantly getting new ideas, a lot of which I throw away, retrieve, and back and forth. After I have worn myself out, I give up. This is a great part of the project because I get a lot of exercise and fresh air. This step gets interleaved between my most favorite part of the project: research!
-Research: reading, cruising the internet, visiting local nurseries, and taking courses
This is really a very relaxing part of gardening! I do this constantly--when I'm designing the garden, when I need to relax, when I need inspiration. This part of gadening doesn't care what the weather is, how many rocks are in the planting hole, how tired I am, how disgusted I am, and on and on. The result of this step reminds me that I can "persevere and ... excel" (a motto of one of my alma maters ) in my garden. And reading, interneting, and taking courses can be done sitting down, which is great for my tired body.!
I buy a lot of gardening books and I also take out library books. I have subscribed to a number of magazines in the past, but the only one I have subscribed to for this venture is Fine Gardening. I hope I still like it. I am planning a visit to a bookshop and the library to review other gardening magazines to see if there are any others I want to get. I do a lot of reading, in fact as soon as I finish this section, and make dinner, I am going to spend the evening reading and dreaming over a couple of my favorite books.There is an almost endless amount of gardening info on the internet. Sites can be strictly be informational (discussions and databases) or nursery websites. Nurseries tell me what plants are available with pictures, and many have an incredible amount of related info including companion plants (with pictures) to make the most eyecatching display. I spend a lot of time on the internet and I keep finding more and more valuable sites.
Another way to get information is to take courses. I took many courses at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. The courses were very good, and I could ask questions of a "live" person, could use their library, and I could view incredible gardens.
As soon as I get my notes organized, I will start writing a Page on all the good books, magazines, and web sites I have found.
I just love this research stuff! It restoreth the soul!
continuing in Part 3 ... The Grand Design comes to life!
Judith, Planning and reading in the garden are two of the best parts of gardening as far as I'm concerned too. I also love gardening books and am a big advocate of borrwoing them from the library. If you really like a title, you can always buy it. I have found the selection at the Greenwich Library to be the best in the area - it surpasses even the best local bookstores!
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