Art in the Garden

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

58°, windless, with light sprinkles that started again. Karl the Wonder Dog just returned from his second walk of the morning and seems disgusted that my empty oatmeal bowl is still empty. I'm wondering how it got to be 9 o'clock and I haven't pushed back from the computer yet.

Two weeks ago I was in Maine enjoying some nice gardens. One was the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden in Boothbay. I have visited there annually since it opened and it's a pleasure to see the changes. I especially enjoy the art that is incorporated and wanted to mention a couple links for those who haven't or cannot visit this fine place.

On my first visit several years back I was struck by Dale Chihuly's glass sculpture in the Slater Forest Pond. I had seen his work in Seattle before and kept going back to this little pond to see glass like I had not seen in the east before. This year I spent more time with some work by Squidge Liljeblad Davis Here are four examples that seem so simple but offer a complexity of emotion that works so well with a garden setting. I stop and stare and hope others don't see me staring until I walk away and turn back to see unknown visitors doing the same.

Maine has a large number of incredible artists and Falmouth curator June LaCombe has done a superb job showcasing their art at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden. I remember the first time I approached the gates of the garden and how struck I was by the animal sculptures of Wendy Klemperer. To see a life size elk or a howling wolf makes me see through the sculpture and visualize the same creature alive and moving through the gardens. Check out Klemperer's site and you'll find some examples that have been displayed at CMBG.

Art will have to become a memory now as I have parts of the next three days to finish work at the nursery, plant the last 3 katsura trees, a dozen lilacs and a couple-three nine barks. And I absolutely cannot forget to plant a big pot of Hosta Empress Wu and some odds and ends of pulmonaria. There may be a warm day or two in early November but more often than not when it snows the end of October, the snows is with us here when the calender displays a new year.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where Gail is making a carrot cake for tonight's Hardy Plant Club potluck while 6 turkey's have climbed the bank and are looking in my office window.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
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First Snow

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Returned home late yesterday, but fully aware that a big storm was coming. It was billed as a possible nor'easter and I knew that this time of year that could mean about anything. One forecaster had the Adirondacks of New York lined up with 12-14 inches of snow and high winds so I decided I'd try one last time to grab a few pictures and enjoy the fall scene.

The list of things to clean up in the gardens before serious snow arrives is quite long and this apparently is not the year to challenge Mother Nature. That reminder was confirmed when Vermont Public Radio mentioned a major storm of over a foot of snow on the same day in 1952. Although quite young, I remember that year well because that was when we were fairly new to Vermont and depended on a vegetable garden for food. Let me leave it that there was just not a lot to go around. Unlike the melting snow, those memories have never left me.

I changed quickly and got Karl the Wonder Dog and the camera and away we went with Karl's nose pointed out the truck window, sniffing and snorting fall smells of interest. We arrived down at Ethan Allen Corners and the view I wanted was perfect, although the rain didn't help the photographer much. The tamaracks are a beautiful yellow right now and they contrast against the rusty browns and yellows of the swamp grass. This valley opens with wildlife this time of year as large game cross back and forth and waterfowl follow the small stream southwest to where it meets the Winooski River. This is an area that makes you want to stop and stare and enjoy.

We turned around and headed back home as I wanted to walk the shade garden again. That garden has been a part of me since I began to build it years ago. It presents a tranquility, a peacefulness that I thrive on. I miss it when I can't find the time to enjoy it.

We made it to the garden bench and I spread out my jacket and sat down. Karl chased a chipmunk that was missing an inch of his tail. Rain fell, but the smell of the leaves on the air was refreshing just the same. In front of me were dozens of hostas, topless and well trimmed. Deer on fall maneuvers had diligently eaten each leaf, flower scape and seed pod, leaving only spiky looking affairs that could have served as models to Dale Chihuly's beautiful glass art. Oh those deer...what an unusual relationship I have with them!

I couldn't sit as long as I wanted. Karl was impatient and I wanted to walk a little more. The power of the granite foundation blocks looked stronger than ever, their color enhanced by the rain. The Christmas Ferns were beautiful and the adjacent groupings of European Ginger contrasted so well with the fallen maple leaves.


As Karl and I walked up out of the sunken garden, the Japanese primroses and the various hellebores were obvious. The wet summer days had set the year's seed crop well and gave last year's new plants a good jump start. Next spring Gail will have a good selection to dig and pot for sales.

We reached the yard and I noticed a crab apple tree shaking with a flock of robins devouring the seeded fruits.For some reason a line from an old Johnny Cash song came back to me, not the song's name, not the whole line, just a piece, hopefully correct, kind of appropriate to the view.

"Did you ever see a robin weep, when leaves begin to die?"

We grabbed the mail out of the box, waved to a passing neighbor and headed for the house. Our brief mission was complete.



Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where geese are resting for the night, hopeful for clear skies tomorrow.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Gardens
Vermont Flower Farm