Emerald City
Big leaves. Tall plants. Prodigious blooms. More than nine inches of rain in the past six weeks have created a Rosseau-esque vision on Walnut Hill. Our plants look as if we’ve treated them with major fertilizer, but we have not. Not since June 2014, when Roger Foley documented our early summer gardens for the book, […]
Fall Cleanup?
While our goal used to be leaf-free by Christmas, we’ve come to do much less fall cleanup. We now do one leaf gathering before Thanksgiving and let the remaining leaves (there are plenty of latecomers) rest on the beds until spring. This way we have minimal disruption and, as new growth emerges, we remove […]
Hortus Club of New York
Few things invigorate on a 96-degree Baltimore day. Our garden being the first stop on the three-day summer expedition of the prestigious Hortus Club of New York did just that. With membership limited to 30 horticulturalists from the finest nurseries, botanical gardens, arboretums, and universities in New York, the level of experience and knowledge among […]
In Praise of Hoses
In the 1990s, when our hillside was terraced and the gardens were transformed, no automatic irrigation system was installed. We made that decision, because sprinkler systems need frequent monitoring and maintenance. We were concerned that when we travelled, an automatic system might malfunction and flood the new gardens. Plants can drown where puddles form. Too […]
