My Summer House Garden Through the Seasons
Looking back over the seasons of a garden is both beautiful and useful.
On this blog, I share many photos of my gardens through the year - when the plants come to life in spring, when the flowers are in full bloom in summer, when the colors of autumn peak, and when snow covers the landscape in winter white. Documenting a garden's seasonal transformations helps me see what is growing well, or not, and where more plants may be needed, but more so - it's interesting to watch the same area evolve over time, and to take note of its many wonderful changes.
Enjoy these photos of my sunken Summer House Garden.
-
- I began planning this formal garden more than 10 years ago. The focal point is the great old ginkgo tree at the back of the space that is original to the property. Over time, I’ve planted American and English boxwood, smaller ginkgo trees, smoke bushes, Siberian weeping pea shrubs, peonies, hostas, lilies, alliums, and so much more. Yesterday, my outdoor grounds crew raked and blew all the fallen leaves from the area, exposing beds now ready for their winter sleep.
-
- This is one of six weeping Siberian pea shrubs with cascading weeping branches. One can see its interesting habit. It has already dropped all but a handful of its leaves.
-
- I have low boxwood hedges, teardrop shaped boxwood shrubs, and surrounding the garden on three sides is tall American boxwood. I love how it encloses the space. And because the Summer House faces a rather busy intersection, the wall of boxwood provides a good deal of privacy.
-
- The autumn leaves are cleared. The beds will soon be top dressed with composted mulch and the boxwood covered in burlap or netting.
-
- And here is a view looking south at my Summer House. The former owner of my farm, Mrs. Ruth Sharp, occupied two houses on the property. She called this house the Summer House, where she stayed during warm weather. What is still called the Winter House had a better heating system. It was where Mrs. Sharp was comfortable during the cold months. I kept the names of the buildings, although major changes were made to both. Today, the Summer House serves as a library and entertaining space.
-
- Winter officially starts in 33-days, just a little more than a month from now. This is what the garden looks like when all the sensitive European boxwood is covered in protective burlap. The tall American boxwood is wrapped in netting, so the branches do not splay under heavy snowfall.
-
- And do you recognize the center footpath? It is completely blanketed in winter white. The sun dial is still at the back, all covered with snow. And the giant ginkgo stands tall behind it.
-
- It’s a different look in spring. In April, the beds are filled with Leucojum vernum – the spring snowflake, a perennial plant that grows between six to 10 inches in height.
-
- The plant produces green, linear leaves and white, bell-shaped flowers with a green edge and green dots. Don’t confuse them with Snowdrops – those bloom much earlier. The Snowflake is a much taller growing bulb which normally has more than one flower per stem.
-
- The netting around the American boxwood is gone and all these evergreens are lush.
-
- This is the time the first tree peonies start to open. Tree peonies are larger, woody relatives of the common herbaceous peony, growing up to five feet wide and tall in about 10-years. They are highly prized for the prolific blooms.
-
- It’s also when we see trout lilies open in this garden. This is ‘Pagoda Dogtooth.’ It produces up to 10 clustered, 12-inch arching stems that bear yellow, nodding flowers with reflexed petals.
-
- And here, all the hostas start to unfurl. Hostas are a perennial favorite among gardeners. The lush green foliage varying in leaf shape, size and texture, and their easy care requirements make them ideal for many areas.
-
- This is the garden in late June. Growing beneath the ginkgo is a beautiful chocolate mimosa tree, a fast-growing, deciduous tree with a wide, umbrella-shaped canopy.
-
- It has beautiful bronze-green, fern-like leaves appearing in late spring and then a deeper rich chocolate-burgundy color in summer. It shows off delicate, pink, pincushion-like blooms later in the season.
-
- And here are the seed-bearing puffs of the smoke bushes at their peak. These billowing puffs float over the leaves of the purple dark Cotinus – a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs. I have many smoke bushes around the farm – it is among my favorite small trees. These can grow to a moderate size – up to 15-feet tall and 10-feet wide.
-
- The ginkgo biloba is one of the most distinct and beautiful of all deciduous trees. The ginkgo has a cone-like shape when young, and becomes irregularly rounded as it ages.
-
- And just last week, the very same garden was filled with fallen leaves in yellow, brown, and gold, mostly from the ginkgo and silver maples above.
-
- The trees are bare, and the hedges and shrubs covered in leaves.
-
- The green ginko of June becomes the golden yellow ginkgo of October. This ginkgo was the last to lose its foliage in the garden.
-
- This time of year, all the ginkgo fruits fall from the trees. Inside is a single hard-shelled seed enclosing an edible kernel. The kernels are often roasted and used in Asian cuisines. I collect them and share them with those who enjoy cooking them.
-
- And now the last of the weeping Siberian pea shrub leaves are just waiting to fall too… and then the garden sleeps through winter, until spring, when everything comes to life once more.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
