by Member Juliet Silveri
In February 2021 I began an ambitious, ongoing landscape project, converting overgrown but flat and sunny farm space into beauty–garden rooms, allees, rows of hedges, a terrace, and inviting paths. I hired a landscape designer, with the intent of keeping the outer areas pastoral (grass, some large trees, a fence, a stone wall) and the inner areas, close to the house, “richer,” with private gardens and a terrace.
Spring 2022 brought the creation of the bluestone terrace, a beckoning allee of sugar maples, and the excavation of two new gardens to my Shirley landscape. Directly after all this activity came blistering, unrelenting heat for most of the summer, which temporarily prevented my enjoying the beauty I had created. As I labored, relentlessly watering, I thought of this work as an investment to create future happiness. That would have to wait until fall and next spring.
I am now the owner of an upper and a lower garden–the lower garden was meant to provide winter interest, and a place for birds. It contains an inviting winter section, with a small spruce, a tall thin juniper, a small holly, ilex glabra ‘Gem box,’ and several red twig dogwood shrubs (cornus stolonifera ‘Arctic Fire’). Against the snow, their red twigs will be brilliantly fiery. There are also high bush blueberries, with very bright red twigs (brighter and slightly more orange than those of the red twig dogwoods).
Included in this article is a picture of the lower garden layout. The garden includes a 7 1/2 x 13 ft grass section in the middle, to rest the eye—this keeps the garden from feeling too busy. Paths are important for access—there are 4-ft- and 30-inch-wide paths, and in addition to the winter section, there are three amelanchiers (laevis lustre, in tree form), with four fothergillas (‘Blue Shadows’) planted under them. There are eight high bush blueberries, (Vaccinium corymbosum ‘Blue Jay,’ Blue Ray,’ and ‘Stonecrop’), all mid-season blooming for cross pollination. The corners hold three witch hazels (Hamamelis vernalis) and one pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia ‘Golden Shadows’) There is bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) and a bright green heuchera planted in front of the birdbath. Some white phlox ‘David’ and white crocuses flank the bench that will appear between two of the amelanchiers.
My designer persuaded me to delay the creation of the garden hedges until 2023, so we could concentrate on filling at least one of the gardens first. The gardens will be surrounded by holly hedges, and made into private garden rooms. Ilex crenata ‘Green lustre’ will be the hedging border for both gardens, and ilex crenata ‘Hoogendorn’ (a smaller version of Green Lustre) the hedging border for the patio. This winter I have planted a specimen of each—they are now awaiting nibbling deer and perhaps winter burn. We will see how they fare.
In the fall, there was too much fall foliage color, as the blueberry bushes, blazing with strident bright red leaves, clashed with maple trees all around, and with the Amelanchier foliage—and the fothergillas hadn’t even started with their foliage color yet! Note the colorful annual mix, called “Spring into Summer,” behind, in the upper garden, full of tall pink Cosmos—that very drought-tolerant annual seed mix drew attention from all who witnessed its fall glory. Now what should I do to tone down the cacophonous foliage screaming? Too much of a good thing…Yikes.
My new gardens continue in good health, and hold the promise of a joyful spring, in the buds of the fothergillas, the strong and arching branches of the pagoda dogwood, and the extending roots of the blueberry bushes. When May delights us, from my terrace I will observe the amelanchiers blooming white, and the high bush blueberries, fothergillas, and witch hazel growing. The lower garden will attract birds, with the blueberries, the amelanchier berries, and the heated birdbath spa, which was placed so it is easily visible from several windows in my house. Bluebirds, blue jays, and chickadees visit.
Please join me in the spring for an enchanting look down my new allee, and a look into my much longed-for upper perennial garden. You will view the first spring growing season of the new gardens!