The Good, the Bad, and the Mystifying

AT TWILIGHT YESTERDAY, I surveyed my 4/10 of an acre. Now that the bulk of the wisteria and weeds have been cleared away, I can see what I’ve got here, though I can’t identify all of it.

Love those rhodies

There’s a lot of damage; what the wisteria didn’t strangle, the deer ate.

You were so generous with your cottage color suggestions, I thought I’d pick your collective brains once more. If anyone has thoughts on what I can do about these garden challenges (on a shoestring budget, remember), please let ’em rip.

Got a $2600 quote for an 80' gravel driveway lined with Belgian block but i'm in no great hurry

Normally I avoid photographing unsightly automobiles, wires, disarray or ugliness of any sort. But in this post I’m going to show you the crappiest areas of my garden, just begging to be transformed.

Arborvitae(?) with a large chunk taken out of it. Anyone know if it can it be pruned into something more shapely?

And if anyone can ID any of the many plants I can’t (plain English is fine), I’d be very grateful.

Close-up of the foregoing for ID purposes

Sad hinoki cypress, bottom half gobbled up by deer - and right outside the back door. What to do?

Something more elegant is definitely called for in the way of a path

The circle around the cherry tree in the area where the demolished shed used to be is 30 feet wide. How to transform bare dirt into a circular garden room on a mini budget? Wood chips for starters?

I'm sure I can do better for edging

A rustic arbor on its way down, with a vine I cannot ID - no sign of flowers

Love this "picnic area" with a bit of scrubby lawn and a backdrop of juniper, a tall droopy evergreen, a blue spruce, and a couple of specimen conifers gone wrong

This one looks like something out of Dr. Seuss

Big-leaved something (what?) amidst lily of the valley

Talk about unsightly: crook of the amputee cherry tree. Could become a....?

Nothing like an electric meter to add class to the front deck

This one confounds me most - there's lots of it, it's a perennial (brown remnant from last year). Don't think it's phlox - help!

GARDEN VOYEUR: Same Designer, Different Styles in Park Slope

HERE’S AN ILLUMINATING EXAMPLE  of how a professional landscape architect, working to address clients’ unique needs and properties, comes up with totally individualized solutions.

The professional is Liz Farrell of Park Slope, who has degrees in environmental science and landscape architecture, and has been in business since 1994. The clients are, in the first case, a family with three teens, two dogs, and a small budget; in the second, an empty-nest couple with an 800 square foot, excessively shady backyard.

#1: COTTAGE

Sunny, tiny (18’x35’) and cost-conscious, this Park Slope garden was originally a rectangle of struggling lawn with a concrete perimeter.

Four years ago, the homeowners called Farrell to rethink it. They wanted an area for entertaining as well as space for their two yellow Labs to let off steam; they also had a desire for a cottage-style garden full of herbs and flowers.

Today, they have all that. Farrell divided the space into two functional areas: a paved half of Belgian block and a symmetrically planted garden centered on a circular area made of salvaged slate. To save money and raise the back and sides of the garden up a few inches, Farrell re-used the original concrete curb that rimmed the lawn. An arched trellis at the entrance to the planted area and a metal tuteur with clematis in the center provide vertical structure, along with two tall junipers at the back.

Bold primary colors on the house extension (a mud/utility room) provide cheer in all seasons.

Japanese holly divides the paved and planted areas. Summer-flowering shrubs (spirea, astilbe, honeysuckle, azaleas, climbing hydrangea, barberries) border the perimeter; perennials (geraniums, clematis, and more) and herbs are toward the center. Pink roses climb the fence on either side of the garden in early June.

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#2 ZEN

This 800 sq. ft. garden behind an elegant row house was a “real shade challenge,” in Farrell’s words. The homeowners wanted privacy while sitting on the deck and a focal element they could enjoy from the kitchen’s square bay window.

Farrell designed a spiral-shaped water feature of pebbles from Long Island Sound, with a simple, low fountain made by drilling a hole through natural rock. The stacked stone bench and bamboo fence, made from rolls of bamboo threaded with copper wire on a wood frame, give the garden a meditative, somewhat Asian feel.

Plantings include white paper birches, wood hyacinth, ferns, liriope, oak leaf and climbing hydrangeas and rhododendrons. The irregular paving stones have moss joints. A stand of bamboo under the metal deck and tall taxus in corners provide additional privacy from surrounding neighbors.