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Friday, June 15, 2012

Planting Brooklyn - an Exercise in Layering

Plants for shade on the left, plants for sun on the right. Trying to keep the two different communities in balance visually is the challenge. In such a small space, the idea is to plant with enough variety to give interest through all seasons while maintaining a unified, cohesive design--an impression of simplicity, a feeling of tranquility. One key to planting in such a garden is layering--planting at low, medium, and higher levels to completely cover the ground, and create interest in limited space.

Too many evergreen balls? Those yews at back will eventually form a linear hedge, and the ball effect should disappear.
The shade side is much more fully planted, though a close look shows plenty of room for more use of layering. That requires careful selection of plants with similar cultural requirements, and with complementary shapes, colors, and textures. I think I'm well along on the road to success, but I won't really know until next year when I can see how the vegetation is spreading and knitting together. Editing and changes in placement will be inevitable.


I've been gathering plants for the sunny side for a couple of weeks. The sun is intense on this side, so I'm using plants that I know can endure the stress, mainly grasses and sedums, with a mixture of other durable perennials I like--Pycnantheum muticum (mountain mint), bronze fennel, sedum 'Autumn Joy' (for color and texture, but mostly great structure through winter) and Vera Jamison, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (blue flowers, red autumn color, and a creeping, drooping habit), the Japanese rice paper plant Tetrapanax 'Steroidal giant' (to give height and big, bold foliage, should it survive our winters), and under it Rodgersia podophylla 'Braunlab', one of the rodgersias with a wider, more geometric leaf shape. This combination will only work if the Tetrapanax grows tall and the Rodgersia mounds below it and, even then, the two strong foliage forms may clash.

I've also used some small grasses--Sporobolis heterolepis and Pennisetum 'Hameln' as well as one tall grass that's proven of great value in the Federal Twist garden, Panicum 'Cloud Nine', which develops a delicate, airy cloud of flowers in late fall that belies its strength and durability. It also colors a beautiful yellow.



Many of these plants also act as ground covers, thus obviating need for layering, but you can see from the open ground there's lots of opportunity for layering  in other areas and I need to find compatible plants for that. One I've used is a dark, almost black, Ajuga 'Black Scallop'. I'll continue my regular visits to local nurseries to find others.

My major reservation about this planting is its bluish cast, especially compared to the intense greens on the shade side, which are dramatic and sculptural against the dark wall of fencing, and its whispy, insubstantial forms. But I'll live with this for a while before making a final decision on possible changes.

Below, the view from the back. Excuse the clutter, but this is a garden-in-progress. That small stone this side of the pool has been removed, and I'm considering using larger stones at the far end of the pool. These shapes are almost ideal to my eye but I think bigger might be better. I've also speculated whether I could add a couple of Darmera peltata on the sunny side (left) as a "linking" plant. Can it take the heat?


The planting of sedum and hens and chicks. Other great plants for layering, though used alone here.


To finish, some examples of layering, up close ...


Because space is tight, small plants dominate. I'm a lover of giant plants, so this new garden requires a major shift in design approach for me. I've been surprised how easy it's been.



The prize for small plants without a doubt goes to Cornus canadensis in the middle of the photo below.


This plant, known for being difficult to establish, languished in small pots for weeks in my garden, drying out several times, but sprang to life as soon as I put it in soil. I find its leaf veining and tiered structure delightful ...



... so I'm off to Paxson Hill Farm this weekend to see if they have any left.





18 comments:

  1. Your reflecting pool is really reflecting! It looks wonderful. I find it very tempting in my garden to place pots on the railway sleepers, the equivalent of your timber edging. I keep having to tell myself to take them off as it clutters up the lines.
    I completely agree with you about Cornus canadensis - it is a really underrated ground cover choice. I don't know whether Asarum europaeum is available/hardy where you are, but I have that in shady corners to do a similar job - it's low-growing with round glossy evergreen leaves. It's hardy throughout the UK, and I love it.

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    1. A little black dye makes the pool surface shine. I put in a small fountain, but I much prefer it off, so I'll probably remove it. Asarum europaeum is hardy here, but not easy to find, and when available, rather expensive. I agree it's a good choice--IF I can't find more Cornus canadensis. Keep those pots off the railway sleepers!

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  2. It's amazing how many kinds of green there can be in a foliage garden and how something being just a little too blue or yellow can drive you crazy. But your choices look wonderful to me. It sounds like you're having a great time shopping for the plants. The little trees look so sweet, and the neighbor's bamboo is going to add another interesting texture.

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    1. I think the dark fence makes it easier to see the differences in the greens. As I finish planting the sunny border, I hope to find plants that help make the two borders more complementary (whatever that may be). Searching for the plants is fun, and it introduces a level of chance into the process since I never know what I'll find available. I do like the new texture, and screening, of the neighbor's bamboo; I just hope it stays on their side of the fence.

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  3. James, your both gardens are such a harmonious joy for the eyes - and surely for the soul, too, for those who are lucky to be there. I love the balance of your designs, and your plant choices are excellent. I look forward to following how this little Brooklyn one grows.

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    1. Liisa, thank you for the complimentary comments. I'm happy that you like the gardens. Tell me, did the rain in Seattle ever stop?

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  4. Just super. You have done so well. I am not a 'plantsman'. More a 'treeman". So I was peering closely at the Gleditisa, which I have planted here in January. Almost exactly the same size and shape. (45 degrees South. Central Otago New Zealand). We will see how they do in our desert gravel.
    Good to see the chairs. And I really like that big rock in the gravel. I think your garden has the same point as mine, although vastly different. A place to 'be' and look around.

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    1. I like that, Kerry. "A place to 'be' and look around." A good way to describe what we both seem to want. I plan to stain those chairs the same color as the fence. Glad you like the rocks. I do too, though may want to look for bigger ones with that same "wave" form.

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  5. The first impression, is oh wow! It is starting to come together, to happen. A little Zen, and a collection of plants almost all unknown to me.

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    1. Hoping to keep some of the Zen and keep little moments of revelation through use of a varied plant palette. I think it's great that I know hardly any of your plants and you know hardly any of mine. That's a little proof that the world hasn't yet become one homogenized mess.

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  6. I'm still sorting through the raised succulent planter on axis with the pool and the use of wood, but that is probably me in the desert! Thanks for all the photos from many angles, and I really appreciate how the exuberant planting on the sides will add width to the narrow space, and soften the spare lines and hedges at the rear. Once those trees grow in, nice. Exciting and already looks contemplative!

    Am already considering what I would do to adapt such a concept in the SW.

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    1. I could easily go minimal with just something low and green, the gravel, the box wood, and the reflecting pool. If I were in the SW, it might be just gravel and a few desert plants (whose names I don't know). I wonder if a pool is viable in the heat of your area. I remember seeing very pretty little tuft-shaped plants in the Argentine steppe, subtle pastel colors.

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  7. What a stunning transformation. And so much going on, so soon after installing the whole thing. Please, please leave the low rocks in front. If you do get bigger ones, I hope you can keep the low wave effect of those two simple rock shapes. I love those.

    Good luck with the cornus canadensis. After seven years of bunchberry frustration I gave up. I tried them in so many different locations, I tried amending the soil for greater acidity, I tried buying new each year and treating them like annuals. I even tried being patient. They are so beautiful, but would not grow for me. I simply mulched over their dead corpses this spring, and of course several are peeking up through the wood chips, looking perky now. I will want to see how yours do!

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    1. Laurrie,

      I want to keep the low wave effect, even if I use larger stones. One problem I noticed is practical. Our neighborhood garden group--"Brooklyn Digs--came over last week. With several people out in the garden, I noticed how easily someone could trip backwards over the stones and fall. With larger stones, there would be much less chance of that. I also think the larger stones might help unify the garden. (The idea of larger stones was suggested by a potter friend whose aesthetic opinions I respect.)

      Your bunchberry story worries me. Now I'm afraid this vigorous growth may just be short term and they may decide to die when winter comes. Time will tell.

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  8. I hope your Tetrapanax gets through the winter. It's a great plant.

    I'd be inclined to introduce more box spheres of differing sizes, mix them with grasses 'a la' Tom Stuart Smith, well it works.

    That planter should be 'brimful' as the hens n chicks multiply.

    All that green keeps it tranquil James.

    Do you plan to introduce any ferns?

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  9. Since NYC is supposed to be a solid zone 7 climate now, the Tetrapanax should be fine, though it may die back to the ground. So the question will be whether it can attain its purported height. We'll see next year.

    You have a good eye. I've thought of adding box balls to the grasses as a means of better integrating them. But that spoils my "diagonal" box arrangement across the gravel rectangle. I do agree that box can work well with the grasses, and I may yet do that.

    I had planned to use ferns, but I ran out of space for the Matteuccia struthiopteris I had wanted to use. That fern becomes quite large here and spreads rapidly, so I'm looking for other, narrower, less exuberant ferns to use as verticals and perhaps some very small ferns for low layering.

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  10. I am envious of your Paxon Hill visit. I had to excercise some restraint when I went, as there was little room in the Jetta for people, dogs, luggage and plants, plants they may or may not have liked be relocated southward.

    Your new garden is looking very nice and will soon be a green oasis in the city.

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    1. I got my Astilboides tabularis there--the only nursery I know where I can find such great plants full grown (versus small mail order plants). I got some great photos if the Imus last weekend. And Paxson Hill has a new, much improved web site: http://www.paxsonhillfarm.com/.

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