A Hillside Garden in Jerusalem

When you drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem you climb up through hillsides and valleys, coming across new communities built along the ridges to take advantage of the views.  They move harmoniously for such large developments, as the building materials are limited to Jerusalem stone, a pale buff and rose limestone. 

A Typical Jerusalem Street

The Kaufman house is built into such a hillside, 52 steps up from the street along a public stairway to other houses along the way further up the slope.  The house is modest by American standards, about 1,000 square feet, but the garden is splendid: two levels with a sweeping view of the Jerusalem Forest.  Elizabeth and Joseph Kaufman raised a family of four here, and those children are now bringing children of their own to the garden. 

The Public Stairway, Kaufman Garden on the left

It looks very different now than it did in the early years. It started out on three levels, first the porch (which we would call a terrace) plus a semi-circle of grass, then two steps down to a flower border, and on the third level a sandbox.  The sandbox rapidly became a kitty-litter box, freely used by the roaming cat population.  The grass was high-fiber, deeply-rooted zoysia which rapidly spread to the planting level below, making it virtually impossible to grow anything else.  Then came ten dry years -- a seven-year drought bracketed by very little water for over a year before and after.  Eventually the walls holding the levels began to crumble.

Demolition of the Old Garden 

Liz: “ We put off a new garden year after year, anticipating a permit to build out, which never happened.  I would say we spent at least 10 years pondering the change.  Twenty-two years after we moved in, our needs were different.”

Now the plan includes two levels instead of three, a larger porch (about 500 square feet) with a gas grill, a second level of artificial turf (about 250 square feet), and minimal planting.  Changing access to the house became a major decision: the old entrance gate was from the public stairway, and since “no one ever closed the gate behind them, everyone passing had a straight line of vision into my kitchen.”

The trek up 52 stairs did not deter the contractors, since they had no intention of making the climb.  All heavy lifting was done by cranes.  Cement was made at street level and hoisted up; all building materials arrived at the site this way.  When the contractors were ready to deploy soil, it was hoisted up in huge bags, the bottom of the bags slit open and the soil poured in place. 

Soil Poured on Site

A pergola shades part of the porch, small children play down below on the artificial turf (which I believe is vacuumed rather than mown), cooling off in a water-filled plastic tub.  An olive tree, planted when the garden was new 22 years ago, provides the only shade. 

The Olive Tree, Sole Survivor of the Original Garden

Year One

The flower border is now on one side of the porch, in a raised bed 25 feet long and three feet wide.  The tall back wall is painted a vivid terra cotta and provides a handsome background to plants which grow at an astonishing rate by our northeastern standards.  The bed is filled with high-quality potting soil and an irrigation system. 

Year Two

Liz is a veterinarian at the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem, a horticultural wonder with an extraordinary array of plants.  Joni Goldberg, the Chief Horticulturalist, was the unofficial consultant, while I was unofficial commentator.  In the interests of full disclosure Liz is my daughter, which is why I have been in and out of this garden over the years, and why I have no problem offering unsolicited advice.  

If you only have 25 feet to work with, every plant is important, and when a plant peaks and wilts, Liz is ruthless in removing it.  On my last visit non-performing snapdragons gave way to tuberous begonias and calibrachoa.  Her favorite place to shop is the Nursery of the Jerusalem Botanical Garden.  Adjacent to the garden itself, the nursery grows for the garden but also sells to the public. 

Bougainvillea in the Nursery

 Jerusalem is a Mediterranean climate, so bougainvillea is everywhere, lavender looks glorious, rosemary survives chilly winters to become broad and hardy, and plumbago, which we grow only in tiny hanging baskets, is rampant on fences and sprawls over walls.  Some of the plants are familiar to us, but others we have never seen outside California or in greenhouses. Cannas, an acquired taste here, proliferate in Jerusalem, Clarkia, a popular California flower, is offered for sale in the nursery.

Clarkia in the Jerusalem Botanical Garden

The entire process took four to five months from demolition to completion, not counting the decade of pondering. The result is a cool, sophisticated private space enclosed in sand-blasted glass. Planting is kept to a manageable minimum.  The porch comfortably holds an ever-increasing family, it’s floor pitched to a pipe under the grass so that the water runs down the public stairs and out into the street.  Nobody seems to object. 

A Typical Sidewalk Wall of Plumbago

The War on Wisteria

For a number of years I photographed a wisteria on 71^st Street between Park and Lexington Avenues in Manhattan.  It was growing up the face of a townhouse, having been planted years ago in a small courtyard leading to the front door.

The house is unmistakable.  It is gracious, three windows wide, one of which was completely obscured by wisteria from the ground floor to the roof.  The wisteria grew not only upward but outward as well, leaping to the adjacent house.  I caught up with the owner of the adjacent house one afternoon.  “Surely,” I said, “you resent the encroaching out-of-control wisteria.”  “Oh no,” he replied, “we rather like it.”  

Wisteria on the March

Meanwhile, the courtyard paving of the principal house

had heaved as the wisteria continued its relentless march up the front facade.  The doctor occupying the ground floor office, while stepping cautiously over the heaving pavement, said, “I don’t really mind it.  I’m only annoyed when I forget the trunk I’ve lashed over the front door and bang my head.”  Clearly, New Yorkers regard any sign of vegetation as a bonus, no matter how intrusive.

Principal House Courtyard

Am I alone in the War against Wisteria?  In the Catskills we finally succeeded in removing the wisteria that was choking the base of a stone tower and wrapping itself around the outside staircase.  These shoots were the children of a wisteria 60 feet away; they had made their way underneath 20 feet of stone terrace, and then shot across 40 feet of lawn to make it to the base of the tower. 

We took the parent plant down to the ground last summer, and it is sending out shoots again.  It had been left unattended for years, if not decades, and had overtaken a massive stone fireplace and the aforementioned stone terrace, pushing up large flagstones with its roots before heading out across the lawn to the tower.  Of course, there was damage to both the exterior and interior of the house.  I don’t think I’ve mentioned that all this wisteria grew from a cramped one-by-two foot pocket at the base of the fireplace.

Within two weeks the wisteria had sprouted anew, indifferent to our best efforts.  By early this spring it had started up the wall again, wrapping itself through a door handle on the way.     

West Side Brownstone Window

Whenever you start to prune an old wisteria, take a deep breath and ponder the future carefully before you begin.  Timing is important here.  Wisteria buds appear in late summer or early spring, and the spectacular flower panicles bloom in early spring the following year.  When not pruned regularly, buds will refuse to set, resulting in the solid green wall on East 71^st Street, and the similar blockage on the west side of town. 

Your wisteria won’t destroy you if you pay attention to its pruning requirements.  It will need regular pruning to keep its growth in check and to encourage flowers.  Often, wisteria grown on a wall doesn’t bloom because it is impossible to prune it without erecting scaffolding.  

East 71st Street in Winter, Unpruned

This is the time to make sure your ladder is equal to the task, and not a spindly kitchen stepladder.  If your wisteria has any age to it, the branches will be thick and difficult to cut.  You will also have long, waving stems to contend with, and masses of foliage getting in your way.  As you struggle deep within the vines, make sure help is within shouting distance. 

For pruning wisteria, you should need only three tools: a good pair of hand clippers kept clean and sharp;  a pair of loppers -– long-handled pruners essential for cutting heavy branches; and a good folding hand-saw or an axe to take care of the largest branches. 

 

If your wisteria is blooming well, prune it twice during the growing season; once in the first week in July, and again in early September.  If it has gotten out of hand, start earlier. In late winter, cut back all shoots to within two or three buds of the point where they started to grow during the previous season.  Then prune again in mid-summer by cutting the current season’s new shoots to within five to six buds of their bases. 

Well-controlled Wisteria Over Carport, Cambridge, MA

If you are not meticulous about annual pruning, perhaps the lesson in this is not to plant wisteria against any building you care about.  Even a well-constructed arch or arbor will not withstand the onslaught of a vigorous wisteria.  Don’t even think about a trellis. 

Wisteria in the Garden

If you must have wisteria, build a stout pergola as far away from the house as possible.  Select the largest cedar posts you can find and the strongest planed beams you can imagine.  Set the posts firmly in concrete and make sure your cross beams are attached for life.  Once you have designed a pergola strong enough to support the weight of the wisteria, make sure it is long enough to carry visually the weightiness of the plant itself.  Plan your pergola so that you can walk beneath it to another part of the garden.  Or set it facing a view, with a bench underneath.  If cared for well, your wisteria will provide unparalleled bloom in spring.  Just be prepared to add another dependent to your family.  

East 71st Street Houses, Finally Cleared

As to the fate of the houses on East 71^st Street, new owners seem to occupy both.  Damages to the facades have been repaired. The wisteria has been pulled off the walls and hacked back to nothing.  However, if you look very closely at ground level…

June Calendar

Memorial Day weekend is the end of the gardener’s leisure.  In the weeks preceding the holiday, everything in the garden that needed tending should have been tidied up.  Plants started indoors, in a cold frame, or in a greenhouse are ready to be moved to their permanent home.  Seeds sown out of doors may be sprouting.  If you’ve done this, keep a close watch and thin the rows when they produce the second set of leaves.

In flower borders or vegetable gardens a rigorous weeding followed by a proper mulching should eliminate most additional weeding in the coming summer months.  Timing is of the essence.  If you’ve missed eliminating the thistles it’s too late.  If you haven’t gotten the grasses out of the bed, they will soon seed and it’s all over.

Container planting and hanging baskets are ready for their debut.  Set out the lawn furniture and relax while you can. 

Wave Hill Garden Chairs

WEEK ONE

If you’ve planted seeds out of doors, sprinkle every day until they germinate.

Continue vegetable planting.

Plant nasturtiums and sunflowers.

Set out tomato seedlings or transplants.

Apply general fertilizer to perennials.  Heavy rains may have leached out nutrients.

Plant waterlilies and tuberous begonias outdoors.

Thin tiny fruits in peach, plum and apple trees. Six to eight inches is good.  Doing so will avoid too heavy a crop one year and nothing the next.

A Manhattan Brownstone Window Box Remember to fertilize and water window boxes regularly.

Trim evergreen hedges after the first flush of new growth.

Every few weeks adjust the ties on plants’ supporting stakes.

WEEK TWO

Be careful working the soil if it has been unusually wet.

When setting out annuals or perennial divisions, give them a dose of liquid fertilizer, but not onto dry soil. Water first.

Finish sowing annual seeds as soon as possible.

Thin seedlings that are already sprouting.

Plant all summer-flowering bulbs.

Roses and Clematis Streetside at a Manhattan Apartment Building Make sure supports are in place for climbing vines and start training new growth.

Fertilize clematis with a handful of bonemeal.

Last call to prune pine trees.  The safest time is in the first two weeks of June.  Don’t snip off the top.  Trim back branches only where necessary.

When new shoots of phlox and bee balm are about eight to ten inches tall, remove all but four or five stems to improve air circulation.

Container-grown Calibrachoa Begin a regular fertilizer program for container plants and hanging baskets.  Feed every two weeks.

WEEK THREE

Fertilize roses after the first bloom is over.

Deadhead flowers and remove unripened seed pods.  This is important for appearances, reduced weed production and a possible second bloom.

Alchemilla in Second Bloom, Mid-summer Shear back low-growing plants to produce a second bloom.  Responsive to this treatment are Alchemilla mollis, Geranium sanguinium and Artemisia.

Early summer is a good time to prune or lift shade trees.  You can see precisely what you will lose.

Add mulch if needed, but not on dry soil. Water first..

It’s too late to move perennials.  If they need a little room and air, cut off a few of the side shoots.

Hydrangea 'Annabel' Adjust hydrangea colors towards pink or blue by increasing or decreasing soil acidity.

WEEK FOUR

Continue to pinch or cut off faded flowers from annuals and perennials.

It’s time to cage or stake tomatoes.  If you stake them they will need to be tied periodically and trimmed.  Remove suckers or short leafy stems that sprout in the axils of the side or main stems.

Flowers will remain fresh longer if cut with a sharp tool, and if foliage is stripped from the parts that will be under water.  Let flowers stand overnight in a bucket of water before arranging.

Most flowers will need staking, but if this is not your game consider daylilies.  Blooming in July and August, they are fine on their own.

Spirea Vanhouttei, the Aptly-named Bridal Wreath Prune shrubs and vines that have bloomed as soon after blooming as possible.

A Plea

        Ann Raver, please come home.  We miss your regular column in The New York Times; the recent occasional pieces are too far flung for us. The article on Peckerwood, John Fairey’s garden in Texas, while of interest to gardeners in the parched Southwest, simply does resonate with us here in the Northeast.  We know what the Times is up to, but by positioning itself as a national newspaper it has ceded the base to the Daily News.  Although the Times is published in New York, it is no longer about New Yorkers. 

Ann, we loved you when you lived and gardened on the edge of a salt marsh on Long Island.  We followed you to your Brooklyn walk-up where you gardened on the roof, lugging soil and plants and pots up and down all those flights of stairs.

Although we are hopelessly provincial here, we followed you happily to the family farm in Maryland and watched with growing sadness the aging and loss of your parents.  We rejoiced when you found a boyfriend to help with the heavy lifting, in every sense of the word. But we cannot follow you to Mr. Fairey’s garden in Texas.  The landscape is too alien, and the story too long. 

Long-windedness seems to be the Times style these days, which brings me to your presumptive (but not to us) successor, Michael Tortorello.  He stunned readers this week with about 1700 words on sunflowers of all things, with an additional sidebar of 400 words, as though we had not had enough already. 

A model of economy is Robin Lane Fox (900 or so words) in the Financial Times on Saturdays.  A few weeks ago he wrote about the ban on watering gardens in London and proposed the option of allowing families to water their spinach, providing they peed collectively into a single toilet and flushed only once a day.  How’s that for style and substance?

Unfortunately, I have no photographs of you or your garden to accompany my plea on this page.  I have no address for you.  We have never met and I don’t know how to find you.  I don’t know if this will ever reach you, but if it does please come home, Ann Raver.  We all miss you.