Winterthur Garden

Most of the gardens at Winterthur are woodland gardens (my earlier post about the museum is here). Henry Francis Du Pont was a naturalist gardener. He did include some exotic plants…but otherwise his garden exemplifies all the principles of woodland gardening.

The plants are arranged in natural settings.

There are plants in every nook and cranny.

Patches of light spotlight different plants during the day. There are lots of different textures and types of plants.

There are pergolas as destinations within the garden…and paths that go from meadow to forest to wetland.

Most of the garden is green and brown but the eye catches on white

And red

And orange.

I was not looking for animals but two appeared very obviously - a chipmunk

And a spider.

I noticed a violet with a double seed pod.

Closer to the museum/mansion - there was a lotus in the koi pond that used to be the swimming pool!

There is more lawn as understory closer to the mansion…still a lot of big trees.

Woodland Gardening

Last week I attended at session on Woodland Gardening at the Maryland Master Naturalist Annual Conference….which influenced my observations during a walk at Centennial Lake this past weekend.

The idea of woodland gardening is to create outdoor spaces that mimic woodlands. My planting the sassafras and spice bush in the back of my yard - moving the forest further into my ‘yard’ by another 3 feet - was my first attempt at it but I’m already thinking about my next project and looking at woodlands for ideas.

The talk presented some principles of woodland gardening and I noticed examples of these in my walk:

Distill the essence of the forest. One ‘essence’ that I find awe inspiring is the view upward. It would take a long time to create such a few in a garden. I will be content with the wall of green where the forest begins toward the back of my yard.

Celebrate light. I noticed light that filtered through the trees to the woodland floor

And highlighted leaves of the trees from above.

Sculpt with layers…which means mimicking or allowing succession to take place.I noticed that the park maintenance was not cutting as much of the grassy area around the lake - letting a meadow develop. There was a lot more milkweed in the park than in previous years which bodes well for any Monarch Butterflies in the area.

Integrate woodland textures. There are redbuds planned along some of the walkways at the edge of the forest. Their heart shaped leaves and bean-like seed pods are like a gateway to the larger trees in the forest.

Maymont (in Richmond VA)

Our road trip back from North Carolina in April took us through Richmond, Virginia and a stop a Maymont. It was a Monday so the mansion and indoor exhibits were not open…but the gardens were worth the stop by themselves.

Some of the grounds are very open  - with rolling hills

And interesting bridges over low places.

The mansion is on a ridge overlooking the James River. It is the same vintage as the Newport Mansions and looks similar from the outside to some of them….but it was a place that was lived in for more than a few months of the year and gardens were always part of the place. The Dooleys left the house and surrounding park to the city of Richmond; the furnishings were never dispersed. All very different from Newport.

The porch looks very inviting.

There were gazebos in many places as well.

There are gardens on terraces down to the river level: pools of water with koi,

Water falling over the edge of a terrace and bridges to stand on for a closer view,

Japanese lanterns and colorful foliage.

By the time I climbed the stairs back to the level of the mansion, it was obvious that the day was warming fast and I decided to stick to shade as much as possible for the rest of the afternoon; the back of my neck was unprotected by my hat or sunscreen (and indeed - I did get a little sunburn).

Maymont is a place I want to see again - and next time I will make sure it is a day the indoor exhibits and mansion are open. It would be a good day trip for us next fall!

The Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo NC

Most of our destinations in North Carolina were wildlife refuges; The Elizabethan Gardens was an exception. It has been open since 1960 - a project of the Garden Club of North Carolina. It is located on the outer banks of North Carolina with one side bounded by water.

When we were there earlier this month the camellias were still blooming profusely (although there were a lot on the ground too), bulbs were in their first waves, pines pollen coated everything, redbuds were blooming, and everything was either green or greening.

The gardens have a nice balance of formal gardens and more rustic beds. It was easy to image several areas as wedding venues - a lawn surrounded by planting low enough that the water was visible beyond, a thatch roofed gazebo with plenty of space around it. I liked the smiling dwarf statues in one of the rustic areas.

We had visited the gardens years ago. The statue of Elizabeth I had been added since our last visit.

Enjoy the slideshow of this special place!

Plans for Spring

We had a first spring-like March day this past weekend: breezy, a little warmer, and sunny. I started thinking about our typical spring plans.

After being at home more than usual during the latter part of winter we are ready for some travel. We are planning a road trip to the coastal North Carolina wildlife refuges sometime in April. The rest will be day trips. I want to visit old favorites and some of places mentioned in the Master Naturalist Training:

• Brookside Gardens
• Longwood Gardens
• Washington DC cherry blossoms (picture from last year)
  
• Soldiers Delight State National Environmental Area
• Adkins Arboretum
• Cylburn Arboretum

Other plans fall into the spring cleaning:

• Pulling leaves and dried stems from flowerbeds, moving compost that is ‘ready’ to the beds and starting a new compost pile
• Cleaning all the windows in the house - inside and out
• Dispositioning the piles of ‘stuff’ that have not been moved since fall (most if it should probably be given away)
• Moving warm weather clothes to closest and deciding which winter clothes to keep/which will not be worn again and should be given away

Now that I’ve made the lists - it is enough to overlay on activities like Master Naturalist class and the subsequent volunteer work for the Howard County Conservancy. I am anticipating a busy - and fun - Spring 2015.