Lois de Vries' Garden Views

Guest Blog The Gardener’s Psychiatric Hotline has been a perennial favorite for garden humor, which those of us in the Northeast could use a little of right now. Thanks to Ron Vanderhoff of Roger’s Gardens for his version: “Many who read this column will soon retreat to their gardens for long periods of time. Once there, may will find peace, harmony, and beauty. But a few, some of whom I’ve met, will discover other, darker, qualities of the season. At this season, I worry about many of my dear gardening friends. When talking to them, I see some of the early signs; the soft mumblings, the subtle mood swings, the small nervous tics. I suspect some of these garden comrades are only a dandelion or two away from serious floral psychosis. The annual anticipation of spring, mingled and juxtaposed with delirious expectations of plant perfection and the uncertainties of nature, drive some of my fragile friends to the brink. These people need skilled help, carefully administered ...

Gardeners and garden-related professionals, environmental consultants, and government officials won’t want to miss the 10th Annual Land Ethics Symposium, sponsored by Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve (New Hope, PA). This year, the symposium focuses on ways to create economical and ecologically balanced landscapes using native plants and restoration techniques. In years past, the Land Ethics Symposium has hosted such inspirational speakers as sustainable living gurus Marcus de la Fleur http://loisdevries.blogspot.com/2008/03/recycling-water-one-drop-at-time.html and John Peter Thompson http://loisdevries.blogspot.com/2008/02/gardening-heresy-good-for-environment.html , Puget Sound ecological expert and poet Grant Jones , and Morris Arboretum master arborist Jason Lubar http://loisdevries.blogspot.com/2009/02/go-play-outside.html . There’s always at least one speaker who sweeps you back in time and reminds you in a very visceral sense of why you chose a vocation or avocation that...

We spent part of Christmas Day talking about our plans for 2010, the majority of which have to do with gardening. First on the list is building my gardener-coaching practice, something new that I’ll be debuting this spring, provided I can stay on schedule (see http://cultivatingtheinnergardener.blogspot.com ). There’s still that 75-foot cherry tree trunk in the east garden that needs to be removed, but it’s a major undertaking that requires opening up the deer exclosure and hauling sections of the trunk uphill. My friend suggested leaving it where it is and making a feature out of it. We’ll have to see. The lavender garden is a definite priority. This is the area where we moved the location of the propane tank and are installing a rock wall and wood screen. I’ve planned a double rock wall to create a planter for vertical accent plants, but still haven’t decided which ones. The construction zone will eventually be filled with more lavender plants. I’ve been pleasantly surprised ...

Have you ever walked away from the perfect garden picture without realizing it? I almost did last weekend when we had air temperatures above 32°F and ground temperatures below 32°F. As mist fell, it condensed onto the pumpkins that I hadn’t gotten around to removing from the porch steps. Initially, there was just a faint film. But as the sun set and temperatures continued to drop, sparkling crystals began to form. By 9:00pm, all four pumpkins were completely covered, as if set with crystalline gemstones. I walked past this perfect picture several times before it finally dawned on me that this was the first time I had seen something like this in the thirty-odd years I’ve lived here. How soon was I likely to see it again? Unfortunately, this was not the moment to learn how to take a time exposure in the dark, so the flash had to do. Lessons learned: We can’t be too tired, too cold, or too anything else not to run and get the camera and snap when the opportunity presents itself. We migh...

My friend Mary Ann Newcomer at Gardens of the Wild Wild West (formerly Idaho Gardener) is running a contest on why people garden http://www.gardensofthewildwildwest.com/index.php/2009/11/08/why-i-garden-a-contest/ . This one is right up my alley, since I’ve been giving serious thought to how and why people garden for the past five years. But enough about them. Here’s why I garden: Because it reconnects me to the natural world, Because I understand The Transformational Power of Gardening (http://loisdevries.blogspot.com/2007/08/transformational-power-of-gardening.html ) , Because it cultivates my inner gardener ( http://cultivatingtheinnergardener.blogspot.com ), Because it helps me extend the lives, by however small an increment, of the other sentient beings who share this space, Because it enables me to enjoy the company of wildlife pets, Because flowers perfume the air, Because the colors please my eye, Because it gives me a means of expressing my creativity and penchant...

The other day I was asked what my favorite gardening websites are and why. The first one that popped into my mind was Gardening Gone Wild http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=9088 because of its pieces on photography and design, the ability to interact and cross-blog, and the hosts’ ability to generally stir up the imagination of gardeners everywhere. So this post is an entry in GGW’s Picture This Contest for November, aptly named End of the Line. My interpretation is a literal one (top photo) – a winter scene of our cedar arbor at the end of the line formed by a decorative fence that marks the boundary (or end of the line) between where we actively garden and the next, semi-wild zone. But there’s more. There are the horizontal lines of the arbor itself. And the upright lines of the tree trunks and the tips of the fence pickets. The sentry-like vertical forms of the snow-covered rhododendrons. And finally, the curving line of the wild grapevine. Once I started looking for an approp...

Here’s a contemporary pavilion with a Japanese flair that’s produced by the unusual treatment of the beams at the eaves and the decorative detailing at the gable ends. The simple lines of the slat roof and the supporting columns create interesting reflections in the water and shadows on the decking. While the construction of a similar structure is not for the faint of heart, the basic form is within the capacity of most contractors or experienced do-it-yourselfers. The trick with translating such buildings from public spaces into home gardens is, as always, reducing the dimensions to human scale, while maintaining the correct proportions to suit the house and grounds. While this type of open-air shelter doesn’t offer much protection from inclement weather, the closely-spaced roof slats would create welcome shade in an otherwise open, sunny yard as well as a level surface for work or entertaining. Benches can be built-in or free-standing to accommodate large or small groups of people....