Friday, June 29, 2012

July Calendar

If I were limited to one plant family (Heaven forbid) it would be hydrangeas.  They come into their own in July, which is when I settle in for the summer, or try to.  I miss the peonies and iris almost every year, but have never missed the hydrangeas.  The two northeast native hydrangea species that work for us in the Catskills are arborescens, and quercifolia.  The macrophylla, though risky here, is too good to resist, so we have taken a flyer. The temperamental Nikko Blue will not bloom well this year because of a late spring frost, but we have last year to remember.  Petiolaris is clambering over a shed, for late summer we’ve planted Tardiva, and we are ready for further trials.

Early Stage Arborescens

Preparation and maintenance are not difficult. For best performance, the soil should be amended with organic material, acid in character, and well-drained. Moisture seems to be the critical growth factor.  Hydrangeas must be well-watered; a drooping plant is a sure sign there is not enough moisture in the soil.  As the summer sun swings around on its daily course and hits the plant directly, you can watch an under-watered hydrangea wilt.

Unidentified Hydrangea in a Connecticut Garden

Pruning, on the other hand is tricky.  If your hydrangea refuses to bloom, incorrect pruning is likely to be the culprit.  It is a tricky task, and your best guide is Michael Dirr’s masterly book, Hydrangeas.


Week One
Enjoy the holiday weekend.  Everything can wait.
Beware of ticks.  This is supposed to be a particularly bad year.  No flip-flops in the garden, please.     
Keep track of summer dry spells –- when they start and how long they last.  A simple rain gauge will tell you when it’s wise to water.
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.
If you have newly purchased flowers and shrubs, they will be blooming earlier this year than next. Make a note in your journal.



Week Two

Cleome in the Garden


If you missed starting annuals from seed, and didn’t have the foresight to buy flats, your last hope is the potted annual at your local nursery.  They are expensive, but if you missed the boat earlier, it’s still not too late to sail into summer.                                           
For terraces and patios, try herbs in pots instead of flowers.  We are doing it this year, and it’s nice having them closer to the kitchen. 

Week Three

Lay in a good supply of stakes while they are still available. Or make your own by saving twiggy branch cuttings.  They are good for propping up billowy perennials like peonies or baptisia. 
Monarda, Late July


Most flowers will need staking, but if this is not your game observe flowers that can stand on their own feet.  Monarda, daylilies, meadow rue, Shasta daisies are all good bets.  But unless you are mad for monarda, beware.  It takes over.

Set stakes early for all plants likely to need support.  Landscape –size perennials bought late in the season will need them.  Set stakes well below the top of the plants.
Calibrochia




Check moisture in large plant containers every three or four days.  Check hanging baskets and small pots daily.
Hellebores are getting better each year.  They are still holding their foliage in our garden, along with the heucheras.

Week Four

Once your annuals start to flower, pick faded flowers so that they don’t form seed pods.  Seed formation drains strength and will prevent reflowering.
If you are growing dahlias and are pinching back for bigger flower heads, cease and desist by August 1.
This is the month when you realize you need a shade tree.  Pick your location now, decide on the tree and place your order for fall planting.
Replenish the mulch in your flower borders to keep roots cool and to maintain moisture in the upcoming dry season.  Water well first so that you are not mulching dry soil. 
H. Nikko Blue, July 4th 2011



If you have plants in containers and are planning a vacation, group them together in the shade, provide each with a good saucer and water thoroughly before leaving. 


Wednesday, June 20, 2012

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





Sunday, June 3, 2012

The War on Wisteria


For a number of years I photographed a wisteria on 71st 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 71st 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 71st 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…