This is the Garden at Federal Twist after several inches of overnight rain.
It looks better from a distance. Blurring gives it an impressionistic look. You can see an even blurrier video by clicking on the photo above (you'll also hear frogs, crickets, and the pop of lingering rain drops).
This mid-August deluge tells me fall is on the way. Increasing complexity of line (call it chaos if you will) marks the dropping away of excess growth, revealing the underlying skeletons of highly structural perennials, the start of structural failure among weaker plants, the "relaxed" forms of those that have passed their peak and are headed downhill.
Thomas Rainer of grounded design gave me a useful concept for understanding what's happening here. Speaking of my garden, he referred to its "nice balance between legibility and intricacy." Wish I'd thought of putting it so succinctly. It's certainly something I've worked to achieve, but Thomas "got it" and gave it back in a couple of clear, concise words ... proof, if we need it, that professional designers are called "professional" for a reason.
I think you can see that in the close-ups. Even after heavy rain, amid the complexity of the storm-tossed garden, the plants, their lines, forms, textures, colors remain legible.
I would rather see a garden dishevled by the rain, than one crying for it.
ReplyDeleteI'd recognize that dry sense of humor anywhere. Yes, I'm grateful for all our rain this summer.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I love the most about gardening with perennials. Even a simple rainshower can make the garden look entirely different for a few hours. Delightful images.
ReplyDeleteGreat post (and loved the video...hope you do more!). I always anticipate our first rain after summer with a mix of dread and longing. I love to finally have some moisture back, but the plants, unaccustomed to all that extra weight, really do flop badly! The first year, I was a bit of a nervous wreck, but last year, sort of accepted it for what it was. I like you're observation that it's a bit of a foretaste of the slip into fall (and winter). It's so good to remember that gardens are a slave of the seasons...so we might as well enjoy them in any way we can, even when they are not at their "best". Part of me loves seeing the slow decay as fall approaches, the seedheads and whatnot...it really reminds me of the cyclical nature of things. Again, great post :-)
ReplyDeleteI know you don't stake anything but for a couple of very flop prone plants I can recommend 'pea sticks'.
ReplyDeleteA twee name I know, but if you've any Hazel or similar, a makeshift twig teepee does the trick, looks natural and eventually gets hidden anyway.
Despite the 'flopping', I bet the garden looks better overall, I agree with Les.
Funny thing, I was admiring some angelica gigas at a nursery today and was reliably informed that left to their own devices self seeding can be a little scarce. Apparently it's a good idea to save some seed and broadcast them yourself. That same nursery gave me Rick Darkes encyclopedia of grasses to thumb through (a little nursery in a field here in France rurale) and lo and behold you have a link to Monsieur Darkes site on your sidebar thingymejig. Un petit monde!
Call me stupid, James, but your garden doesn't seem to have been undone at all by the deluge. It looks like it's stood up to what the elements have tossed at it well. If it had all been washed away or pulverized then maybe you'd need to change your plant selection ( or location! )...as is suggested, though, alteration, flux, decay and renewal are natural and cyclic, and there'd be something seriously wrong if you COULDN'T see them.
ReplyDeleteThomas, yes, the weather does make for rapid changes in a perennial garden, but nothing compared to the changes of the seasons. I look forward to fall, to my mind the best season in this kind of garden.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your comments, Scott. We've had a lot of rain this summer, so the plants grew tall quickly and they do tend to flop. Not "flop" actually, but "lean." In the heave rain the Silphiums make graceful curves and, even if they don't right themselves, they have a different kind of interest. Rudbeckia maxima, not having any leaves on the long flowering stems, comes through the weather firm and straight; they do lean, but in straight lines, not curves. This is sort of an exercise in geometry, ha! Unfortunately, some of the Panicums were demolished. Only the shorter ones like Shenandoah and Heavy Metal. The taller ones, Cloud 9 and Northwind, came through the heavy rain unscathed. Go figure. Can't wait for fall, the most colorful season in my garden.
ReplyDeleteRob, I'll take your advice and same some of the Angelica seed.
ReplyDeleteI've been to a couple of Rick Darke's presentations. He a master. Quite exciting as a speaker, full of ideas, uses beautiful photos and superb presentation equipment. He's also among my favorite writers on landscape and garden (and culture). He gave a presentation in London a few months back (I can't remember for what group, perhaps the Society of Garden Designers, or the Garden History Museum) that really wowed them. Even across the ocean, I heard the delighted buzz. He has a couple of great books on grasses out. He also put out a reissue of William Robinson's The Wild Garden, with added Rick Darke photos and text, placing much of contemporary garden design within that historical context.
Faisal, I think you misunderstood me. I did start the post by saying a perennial garden has disadvantages, but by the end I was appreciating the changes wrought by the weather. I enjoy watching the process of birth, growth, decay, and death, then the vacant, empty garden in early spring, leading to the same cycle, over and over. True, there is some irreparable physical damage, but that's inevitable. You accurately detected the tension I feel between watching the natural process that ultimately leads to decay and dissolution, the the impossible desire to maintain something in a kind of timeless perfection. I exaggerate, but I think you get my point.
ReplyDeleteI probably did, James. It's not that I'd felt that you didn't respect the cycle of breakdown and renewal, it was only that your garden appears so well in these images, after the assault of a heavy downpour, a testament, perhaps, to your work.
ReplyDeleteYes, there is something truly appalling about the upright,uptight,ramrod straight , wired and tied perennial collection. Plants should move with wind and rain, especially in your rural environment. I stake nothing and mostly find that close grown even the tall things support each other. Any lapses get a shrug from me!
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Faisal, I often have conflicting feelings, about the garden and probably everything else (you recognized that), but the garden is a focal point where I can sometimes see this conflict in action. We certainly are not rational beings, or only in part rationale. The world of emotions, some unconscious, is a hard place to travel, at least for me, and the garden is a kind of road map, or place of engagement, or a stage on which to enact this exploration.
ReplyDeleteRobert,
ReplyDeleteIt's surprising that some of the flimsiest things, the ones you would think would immediately fall over, stand tall through the worst weather. Patrinia scabiosifolia and Panicum Cloud 9, a tall, diaphanous grass, both have proven to be capable of amazing feats of resistance. It's been raining all week now, and is raining again now. The garden looks well, appropriate to this weather and time of year.
You're absolutely right. The mixing and blurring of the plants forces you to look at the garden in a very "impressionistic" way. Looks like you're having a wonderful summer in your garden. Although it sounds crazy to say this, I look forward to watching the colors turn in your garden as Fall approaches.
ReplyDeleteMichael,
ReplyDeleteFall is the best season, after the grasses and perennials take on foliage color, and the leaves begin dropping from the trees letting low shafts of light through. Thanks for commenting.
Staking plants is an excercise in control and this brown duck abhors such stuff..If a garden cannot cope with ones standard weather then it ain't right in the first place..Damned if i can comprehend the use of 'legibility' though. That aside the place is looking fine and dandy!
ReplyDeleteI understand it to mean the intricacy/complexity doesn't become chaos. You can tell the plants apart (especially if you know what they are). I'm not familiar with your use of "brown duck." I'll have to look it up.
ReplyDeleteBlack Duck/little brown loaf..whatever! I welcome the 'chaos' of the garden getting on with itself and the weather..hells bells one can only complain if a typhoon swept through..or similar..Seems to me those who want a garden to remain 'just so' don't need a garden at all!
ReplyDeletePerhaps i am having a curmudgeon day!
the use of brown/black duck or whatever is by way of saying one is humbly 'saying' ..my interpretation
ReplyDeleteI think this brown duck is having a curmudgeon day.
ReplyDeleteIs that a comment on a comment, commenting about comments within?
ReplyDeleteSeems the Scotts/Aussie curmudgeon is back.
ReplyDeleteI have Aster held up with twiggy things, stops them lolloping on the ground and looking half rotted following a torrential hammerin'. Nuffin wrong in that, a bit of editing to keep things looking spiffy and yes, still natural.
Here, deep in the Perigord is duck country.
By the way, did you see http://noels-garden.blogspot.com/2011/08/historic-andrew-chatto-archives-now.html
Rob, all in good fun. It's true. My asters are wedged between so many other plants they have no problem standing. I did see the new Andrew Chatto archives. I look forward to exploring it. One of my major irritations is lack of information on the places of origin on plant labels. Makes it very difficult to understand their native conditions.
ReplyDeleteI googled "Dutch New Wave" and found this blog. Thanks for the look around your beautiful garden.
ReplyDeleteI had wondered how grasses' invasiveness could be controlled, and now that I've read about your flame torch, I know. Not a solution for me: I'll have to continue with dig, divide, discard.
Best wishes from Dunedin, New Zealand
Jocelyn,
ReplyDeleteIt also heps to use the torch while some snow cover remains, but I don't imagine you have that option. It doesn't really control invasiveness; it renews the vigor of the grasses. I do have to cut some grasses that are near shrubs of trees, and I admit there is a lot of material to move in that case. If you have a wild garden, however, you can cut the grasses in "layers" so they form 2- or 3-inch pieces, and just leave them on the ground as mulch. An option only available in a naturalistic garden. Not a neat and tidy garden.
Thanks for your reply, James.
ReplyDeleteMy trouble with naturalistic vs well-ordered is that I want a bit of everything. Choices, choices.
Best
"One of my major irritations is lack of information on the places of origin on plant labels. Makes it very difficult to understand their native conditions."
ReplyDeleteDear oh dear James you disappoint me...Is your garden book library dominated by the many 'style' books that most garden makers buy?
The advice i have given to those who struggle with plant selection is simply this..Buy some decent plant reference books and compost the rest!
Commenting on a comment just lodged....The greater majority of we garden makers cannot visit the plants we wish to use in their natural habitat and must resort to 'flora's' and plant reference books.( not Oudolf/Kingsbury 'style' tomes) I am in the majority but I keep my eyes open observing where the different plant I want to use grow and so on..old gardens/botanic gardens/escapees etc etc...Once a small amount of 'living' information about these plants is gathered the rest is a dawdle!
ReplyDeleteHansen and Stahl's Perennials and their Garden Habitats and the AHS Encyclopedia of Plants are the two sources I usually go to. The Hansen book is German but still extremely useful. Noel Kingsbury recently announced the availability of Andres Chatto's archives free on line. I haven't had time to explore it. I agree, nothing is better than one's own experience and observation.
ReplyDeleteAnother very simple way of establishing what plants will grow for you is to clearly identify those that DO and research where they are FROM and its a fair bet the natural companions of such plants will be be just tickety boo for you.
ReplyDeleteThe 'scholarly' plabt tomes of the late great Graham Stuart Thomas are an excellent resource for the Northern Hemisphere and even for we southerners!
I bet I can find GST's books used. Will check.
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