~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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Preparing the Summer Border Soil
Fortunately, my new border is within most of the area of a previous larger border that I had planted and then let go to rack and ruin (long story) years ago.
When I originally planted this area, I wanted to follow Jim Crockett's advice about doubling digging the soil. After my husband and I tested digging, we did wonder how this was going to work out. We decided to buy a "horse" model rear-tilled rototiller from Troy-Built
. I promptly named it "Tillie the toiler" -- and toil it did. It was the greatest purchase we made for this property with "soil" of clay and of rocks from pebbles to boulders.
The boulders had to be dug out manually and we let the rototiller dig into the soil to its ability of 6 inches. Once the top soil was loosened, we then started the double digging. We hoped to follow Jim's advice and go down to 24 inches. Needless to say, we found this depth too much for our endurance! Sometimes we could go down about 18 inches, but sometimes not much more than 12.
We dug out the subsoil and replaced it with the top soil plus peat moss, lime, and fertilizer (1 shovel soil, 1 shovel of dry peat moss, 1 shovel of sharp sand--when we had it). We then amended the subsoil--same way-- and placed it on top. Let me tell you that double digging gets very tiring very quickly and that this was the only area that we did it. Sorry Jim, we really did try ...
Now, my new border is smaller but still has to be dug over with shovel 
and spading fork 
(I couldn't garden without a spading fork -- able to get into all kinds of soil!). I add lots of peat moss. I do not double dig! There are still a lot of rocks to remove -- I think they come up from China. It does help that the old garden was "double dug".I will have to buy topsoil because this new area slopes downward at the rear and I want the entire garden to be at the same level.I have dug over about a 10 foot length out of about 60 feet. I am starting at the gazebo end because the other end is still in a "planning stage". I am planning to work on the soil as much into the winter as I can and then begin again in the spring in time for planting.
. I promptly named it "Tillie the toiler" -- and toil it did. It was the greatest purchase we made for this property with "soil" of clay and of rocks from pebbles to boulders.
and spading fork 
(I couldn't garden without a spading fork -- able to get into all kinds of soil!). I add lots of peat moss. I do not double dig! There are still a lot of rocks to remove -- I think they come up from China. It does help that the old garden was "double dug".
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