2010 « The Garden Worm blog

December 23, 2010

Salty Washington

Filed under: Travel,Winter — Judy @ 12:08 am

We made a quick trip to Washington for a long weekend last week for our daughter to visit George Washington University for grad school and to see a few of the historic sites. There was just over a foot of snow here when we left,

but that amount quickly dwindled and the landscape was brown and barren with just flashes of snow here and there on the way. A few flakes were drifting down as we approached Washington, but nothing to speak of according to upper New York State standards.

Washington Memorial

Unfortunately, Washingtonians apparently thought a ‘snowmageddon’ was approaching because the salt trucks were out in force, spewing megatons of salt over every inch of the highways. In fact, when we awoke the next day, there were piles of salt all over the roads up to three inches deep in places, and thick clouds of salt dust were kicked up over everything and everybody as traffic passed by.

Landscaping note: Snow, by itself, is good for the garden – it adds moisture and, if deep enough, can protect plants from drying winter winds. In fact, both snow and rain can deposit a small amount of nitrogen, sort of a ‘poor man’s fertilizer.’ But adding salt to the equation means damage to plants and the environment, with both direct and indirect effects, and short and long term effects. More information can be found here.

After traipsing around GW, the Metro zipped us to the National Mall and we visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History for a lecture, “Fossil Forensics: Investigating How Early Humans Died,” a topic of great interest to a future anthropologist.

At the Smithsonian - National Museum of Natural History

What a fabulous place that was! A return visit the next day to see more of it and a very few of the other historic sights only served to whet the appetite to see more. (more…)

Comments Off

December 11, 2010

The snow cometh

Filed under: Containers,Decorating,Our gardens,Winter — Judy @ 1:18 pm

I love snow, don’t get me wrong, but over two feet in the last week on the home turf might be a bit much even for me. This composite cell phone picture looking out the back door was taken before we had another eight inches or so. Isn’t that great?! Reminds me of a Thanksgiving when we got snowed in with four feet and the kids were sliding off the top of the deck railings down the hill!

We were shoveling three times a day to keep up with it, but actually had to break out the snowblower one morning after another eight inches was dumped overnight. A little too much to handle when you have over 200 feet of driveway to do!

Thought you might like to see a couple of fun topiaries I did for a client this year.

The spiral obelisks were wound with gold and white frosted beaded garland and white mini-lights, and then topped with a lovely gold ball.

At the base, I created a wreath of a mix of fabulous greens – blue-green noble fir, microbiota that had turned purple from the cold, blue-berried juniper, yellow arborvitae, feathery white pine, droopy douglas fir, and incense cedar – all intertwined with more white mini-lights.

The view at night – spectacular!

When the weather outside is bitter cold, and the wind is blowing, I would much rather stay inside by a warm, cozy fire. But when I can get outside, clear those cobwebs from the brain, breathe the fresh air, and maybe play in the snow – life is good!

Comments Off

December 4, 2010

Things past, and things to come

Filed under: Fall,Flowers,Grasses,Our gardens,Winter — Judy @ 11:59 pm

On Tuesday, I finally got a chance to get the last of my own gardens cleaned up and ready for the winter. The lawn received its last mowing, the gardens were “drive-by” mulched, and the grasses and other things that I usually leave for winter interest looked great. That is, until Wednesday when it rained about 5 inches, turned cold, and the snow “cement” arrived. Overnight, the grasses went from beautiful to smushed.

And the ‘Autumn joy’ sedums which usually dry and hold up all winter turned into mush.

But winter weather brings its own beauty. The rose hips glow against the icy blue snow.

The frozen crabapples will provide some delicious food for the birds very soon.

And the butterfly bush still seems to want to beckon those butterflies that have long gone.

The growing season might have ended up here in upstate New York for now, but if you look around you can see signs of what will come in the spring. The big fat buds of the rhododendron,

the teeny buds of the azaleas,

the fattening lilac buds,

and the quince buds are readying themselves to burst forth with color when spring returns.

Remember that new Polemonium ‘Stairway to Heaven’ I told you about in the spring? What beautiful gold yellow fall-into-winter foliage it has! I’m looking forward to seeing its next transformation in the spring.

Polemonium 'Stairway to Heaven' in Fall

Polemonium 'Stairway to Heaven' in Spring

One might think that nothing goes on in the garden in the winter, but already there are signs of things to come!

Comments Off

November 2, 2010

Corbett’s Glen

Filed under: Fall,Parks — Judy @ 6:19 pm

About a week ago, one of my sisters and I visited Corbett’s Glen again. It’s a beautiful area near where my grandmother used to live and we both remember following the old trolley bed behind her house with our Dad to the Glen. This, of course, was way before the trolley line became an expressway! While we were there, a train went by and brought more memories of waking up in the night to the trains rumbling by her house on the railway embankment.

Corbett’s Glen is an 18 acre hollow along Allens Creek (note: there is no apostrophe in Allens) which is now, after much inertia and politicking and pressure from developers, part of a larger 52 acre tract in the Allens Creek Valley under the umbrella of “Corbett’s Glen Nature Park.” Located just outside of Rochester, NY, in the towns of Brighton and Penfield, this valley is of environmental and historical importance.

Environment: “The Glen is surrounded on three sides by sandy ridges deposited as the glaciers that once covered the area melted and receded. It has wonderful waterfalls and features a variety of habitats, including a marsh, open fields, and mature woodlands on the surrounding hills forming the valley. Remnants of its previously forested state are located on the higher elevations of the Glen, where some oaks are estimated to be over 150 years old.”

History: “A major foot trail of the Seneca people traversed the valley, and a sacred burial site was documented in the 1800s. Sixteenth-century traders established ties with local natives at nearby Indian Landing long before Rochester was founded. In the 19th century, European settlers farmed the fertile valley lands and constructed mills to harness the manageable power of Allens Creek. The Glen is also the previous home to a pre-Civil War powder mill. It has been reported that powder from this mill was carted as far as Lockport and used to blast out larger locks when the Erie Canal was being enlarged.”

That embankment that I mentioned above was built in 1882 and crosses over Allens Creek in Corbett’s Glen by way of a vaulted arch bridge, probably the largest in upstate New York. The south entrance to the park is under this historic overpass and you feel like you are entering a secret world once you walk through.

The stone for the arch was quarried from bedrock at the edge of the Glen and you can still see square blocks lying in the creek with traces of the quarrying on the banks.

There are two miles of well-maintained trails through the park passing through all manner of habitat along Allens Creek. Check out these twin twisted vines we saw!

This little pool at the base of Postcard Falls probably has some nice trout hanging around in it.

Postcard Falls is very pretty and was probably named that because it was used on postcards sent from Rochester back in the day. Apparently, the Glen was a popular private park and picnic site back in the late 1800s – early 1900s.