From The Garden Bookshelf

Nicole de Vesian- Gardens: Modern Design in Provence

by Louisa Jones with photographs by Clive Nichols and Vincent Motte

Actes Sud, 2012 

Everyone has their list of favorite gardens that they have visited over the years.  And most of us also have a wish list of gardens that we would like to visit someday.  Sitting at the very top of my wish list for many years has been La Louve, the Provencal garden of Nicole de Vesian.  I have collected many photos and magazine articles about this garden but the new book by Louisa Jones, with many of the photographs by Clive Nichols, is the first complete monograph to date on de Vesian's contemporary masterpiece and probably the closest I will come to a real visit to this garden without actually hopping on a plane to France.

Confessions of a Boxwood Lover

Spheres of Buxus x 'Green Mountain' surround the potting shed at Juniper Hill

Within the world of gardening, there are few plants that can evoke such strong emotional reactions as Buxus sempervirens, better known as common boxwood. If you think the country is politically divided, be assured that, when it comes to whether or not you would plant boxwood in your garden, it’s also botanically divided.  Simply put, you either love this plant or you hate it.

How a Dull and Boring Tree Helped Pull Us Out Of a Depression

photo: Plant Photos Wiki

Let's face it, the Red Pine (Pinus resinosa) is not a glamorous tree. Its most notable characteristic is that it grows fast and straight and tall.  If you recently made a trip to the nursery looking for a tree to plant in your garden or front yard, chances are you didn't come home with a red pine; even if you could have found a red pine at the nursery.  Yet, most of the red pines in this part of New England didn't arrive here through the chancy process of seed dispersion.  They were actually planted.

Dig In- Tips from Nettie at Uncanoonuc

Nettie's Picks:  Here are two plants to know and grow!

Thermotropism in Rhododendrons or How I Use Shrubs to Help Me Dress In The Morning

On cold winter mornings, I don't have to consult a thermometer to tell me what the outside temperature is and whether or not I need to put on an extra layer of clothing.  All I need to do is take a look at the rhododendrons that are right outside our bedroom window.

Guest Blogger- Gordon Hayward

The Winter Garden

The beauty of the winter garden depends on our ability to design structure and texture from lasting vertical elements in the landscape. Whereas the summer garden is a color photograph, the winter garden is a black and white image. Photos in black and white require more attention from us. We need to look for a quieter beauty, one based on ordered and pleasingly contrasting textures of vertical plants and materials all held gently in place by structural elements and enlivened by the lines of deciduous branching. Look for that quiet beauty and you’ll find it everywhere.

Barns

Eastman Johnson:  In the Hayloft, c.1877-78, Oil on Canvas, San Diego Museum of Art

I go positively gaga over barns.  I love them.  And, the older the better.  When the freezing cold of winter seizes up almost everything in these north woods and there's not a whiff of herbal fragrance in the air to remind me of summer pleasures, I go into the barn where the smell of hay still lingers.  Our big red barn has been around for almost 200 years and during that time the earthy aroma of livestock and herbage has seeped into just about every pore of the old beams, rafters and floorboards. And I love it there.

Rachel's Garden- Poinsettia

For more art from Rachel's Garden, click here.

To see what this is all about, click here.

Garden Notables- Johann Gottfried Zinn

Zinnia

Who Are These People and Why Are They In My Garden?

Seasons Greetings