The garden is naked

A week after burning and cutting, the garden is naked, the dance has begun. The curvature of the stone walls and the paths of gravel and concrete make a metaphor of motion -- swirls and circles, curves in unexpected places, points of rest and turnings, almost all visible from the house.

The photos don't capture the geometry completely enough. It takes a wide look around to get the motion of the paths. It's like the movement of water -- literally -- because the paths imitate the movement of water over the surface of the land, marking its direction of flow down the gentle slope to the Lockatong Creek.

What structure the garden has is visible now. By midsummer, it will be mostly invisible. So I will enjoy it for the next few weeks as the perennial vegetation emerges. It's best on these late afternoons when the sun is low and the trees cast long shadows across the flatness, providing a subtle interplay with the dancing movement of the paths.

Clearer definition of the long pond would help bring the scene to life. Cleaning it it out would be a good start. I wonder if I can summon the energy to put on waders and stumble around the rocky bottom tomorrow. It's not a pleasant task -- cutting the dead plants below water level, then heaving the heavy wet mass out onto the water's edge. A direct participation in the experience of water, so to speak. Certainly the least enjoyable part of caring for this garden.

The path starts here, just inside the gate by the house, then winds down to a long stone wall, where the other paths branch off into the main garden field.

On the far side looking back into the setting sun, three Japanese Fan Tail willows, Salix sachalinensis 'Sekka', catch the light. I give these a heavy annual pruning to keep them looking like small trees.

This is their moment for only now do they show their vase-like form. Later in the season, they become background to the perennials.

It's hard to remember the curved area paved in concrete squares will become a secret bower in July when it will almost be hidden by the large perennial plantings.

If I had planned it at this time of year rather than when the garden was fully grown, I probably would have paid more attention to shaping the paths, especially the paved area on the right. It wasn't intended as a curve reflecting the opposite curve, only as an internal sitting area.

Such imperfections may be part of the nature of this garden. A misstep (never could dance!). Something to think about.

Gravel Path

We started the garden paths using cedar chips from the cedars (Juniperus virginiana) we cut down to make space for planting. Good to start with, but cedar rots in this wet, muddy place, and every time we have a big rain, it washes out. Time to bite the bullet. I had 20 cubic yards of "river washed" pea gravel and 15 of coarser gravel delivered a couple of weeks ago.

 We're laying a geotextile fabric to keep down weeds, then a thick two-inch layer of coarser "blue" driveway gravel, and a top layer of pea gravel. This appears to be making a solid, stable, easy walking path that will keep the feet well above the extreme wetness of the garden soil.

I've always wanted a gravel path not just for the look, but more for the feel of walking on it, and for the sound, a soft sursurration of movement and faint crackle - it's a synaesthetic experience, part of appealing to all senses in the garden.

Of course, the gravel isn't cheap. And since limited access makes it necessary to move and place the gravel by hand, labor cost is high. I'm hoping this path will last.

Now the path calls out for groundcovers and varied pathside plantings to better integrate it into the whole. That means plants that can survive and thrive in wet clay, are at least moderately agressive but not too much so, and will spread into the surrounding areas to moderate the growth of weeds and create a visual ground congruent with the larger plantings. For starters, various carex, Deschampsia caespetosa, Lysimachia nummularia. Suggestions welcome.

Garden Diary: Inner Paths

Some German parks and gardens have small paths, just wide enough for a single person wandering alone, to allow a more intimate experience of plants. These networks of narrow passageways are separate from the major garden paths. Their entrances are sometimes hard to find and the paths tend to be invisible from outside the garden.

My garden is wide and long and densely planted. I'm quite used to walking through my plantings, but others, particularly those a little intimidated by large plants, wouldn't even think of venturing across the garden. Besides, they might step in the wrong place and hurt themselves or do damage.

I got out my small mower the other day and started a network of small paths. Now I've opened up new opportunities for planting - for more work too. The thing is, the small paths now need to be paved in wood chips or gravel, and their edges need to be refined and integrated with surrounding parts of the garden by adding small-scale plantings to define (and decorate) the newly opened spaces.

I have to admit I've never seen such paths, never been to the German gardens I'm describing. All I know of this I've read in various books by Noel Kingsbury, who does the service of making German gardening concepts and practices available to those of us who don't read or speak German. But he doesn't provide detailed instructions, so I'm winging it.

First take a look at the large scale in the photo below. The path I cut starts off to the left of this photo. It's a very wavy T shape with the top of the T - the crossbar - running in a curvy line across the garden out of view on the left, and the main vertical line of the T running horizontally, left to right, across the field of view in the photo, roughly in front of the bank of miscanthus glinting in the sunlight about two-thirds of the way back. Actually the vertical line of the T is split into two parts so once at the end on the right, you can either exit, or double back over a slightly different route and out via the right-hand side of the crossbar of the T.

Three entrances make it easy to enter the paths. One is shown below, about three feet left of the tall glaucous blue Rudbeckia maxima.


Next, the actual entrance. I had to cut between a Switch grass (Panicum 'Shenandoah') and a white Obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana), leaving a messy area of dead vegetation. I'm sure some of this damage will take care of itself over time, but a little attention to a walking surface, to tell a visitor where to go if nothing else, and some cosmetic edging would make me happier. (The big leafed plants are Silphium terebinthinaceum with flower stalks two to three feet high and growing rapidly. Making these "walkable" may be a challenge.)

Continuing on through in the next photo, the path makes a turn to the right, with a larger resting space just beyond the miscanthus, then a turn to the left. Remember the T-shaped model for the path? In spite of all the turns, this is all still part of the crossbar of the T.

The next photo is of this turn from outside the garden, showing how well the screening of plants hides the internal path network.

The crossbar path continues into the bright sunlight to the opposite side of the garden. Just within the area of shadow is a sharp turn to the right. This is the start of the long vertical line, or descender, of the T, which goes across the wide part of the garden shown in the opening photo.

The first view is of Miscanthus purpurescens, Veronicastrum virginicum and the smoky tops of Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerester' in the distance. Stepping forward ...

emerge the gwaky stalks of Silphium laciniatum (also lots of vernonia, Rudbeckia maxima, other tall verticals), a blue Zenobia pulverulenta in the lower right, a golden arborvitae standing gnome-like in the mid-distance and the beacon of a Sunburst honey locust at the end.

The final few feet, pictured below, show the need for some quick attention to planting to make this a welcoming destination. And I have to cut that old cedar root, which is a tripping hazard.

Here you may exit, having traversed about 40 feet of interior garden, or make a turn to the left and retrace a slightly different path back to the crossbar of the T. If you turn left, this is the path you take through a group of Inula Sonnenspeer, a bank of Miscanthus 'Silberfeder', and on the left a Vernonia gigantea (from Alan Armitage's Plant Delights nursery). Moving forward ...

you can see the giant leaves of the inula in more detail - rather scratchy plants to brush against. But this path is only for people who want to see such plants in detail, and close up. It's not for the casual viewer.
Moving onward into the sunlight, you enter the crossbar of the T again, making a right turn which takes you to the exit near a sitting area under a maple.

As always, "just doing it" without further thought leads to new discoveries (actually, I've thought about doing this for two years at least; just never got around to it, then plunged in). I had thought I'd only need to attend to providing some "paving" to preserve the outline of the paths. Now I foresee need for very careful attention to maintenance if I'm to avoid damaging the surrounding plants. I may even have to move some. And what of those that decide to topple over - staking? cutting? And how to clean up the rough edges?