Garden Updates 2006

Gardening is the Slowest of the Performing Arts

Two years ago, a collaboration began between the Forest Hill Neighborhood Association and Meadowsweet Gardens.  The generous residents of Forest Hills have given their money, time and sweat.  The gardeners of Meadowsweet Gardens have contributed their knowledge of garden-making.   We share an enthusiasm to make Forest Hills park as beautiful as possible.   The results are beginning to be seen around the park.  To help interpret these gardens for you, the resident, we would like to start a series of garden updates to alert you where spots of beauty might pop up next.  As well as to explain the plants, designs and plans for the future. 

We value the work we do with the FHNA and would be happy to answer questions about the gardens and the park landscape in general.  And thank you for your generous and continuing support, in all the forms it takes. 

Jonathan and Rebecca
meadowsweetgardens@earthlink.net

What follows is a sampling of updates from Jonathan Nyberg on progress in the Forest Hills gardens.

Forest Hills Garden Update
by Jonathan Nyberg

7-11-06

 
Picnic Shelter Garden Bed
This garden is between the South end of the picnic shelter and the parking lot. 
 
On the right side you see a hedge of Oakleaf Hydrangeas with large heads of pink flowers.  These are the larger sterile flowers that surround the small fertile ones.  Also in flower are the red Bee Balm and purple coneflowers.  If you look closely about 4" from the ground you will see the subtle lavender shades of the sublime Meadow Rue (Thalictrum roschebruneanum), with the yellow stamens popping out. 
 
On the left side the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ is scattered throughout the bed.  The red Salvia is thriving, as are the free seeding annual Cleome.  The Phlox ‘David’ is a good, mildew resistant white, and the small, fading white daisy-like flowers of  Feverfew are still popping.
 
TP Garden Bed          
This garden is the big showy one at University and W. Forest Hills Blvd. 
 
The tall zinnias have reseeded from last year.  Unusual in our experience but expect more annuals to reseed if our winters continue to be warm.  The thing I like about the TP bed this year is how good it looks from the park side.  If you usually only see it from the road, take a minute to walk around to the other side.  The garden looks completely different, and this is the first year it has really filled in on that side.  Thanks to bed gardener Mary Beth Dugan.
 
Big Shrub Bed           
This is the garden you see when you turn onto E. Forest Hills Blvd. near the tennis courts. 
 
The black-eyed Susan’s are at their peak.  The purple Forest Pansy Redbud is showy, and the Tall Tails Pennisetum grass has lovely white narrow plumes.  Many of the shrubs are filling in and quite beautiful and large, thus fulfilling its name in its third growing season.  Thanks to bed gardener Karstin Rist. 

5-19-06

by Jonathan Nyberg

Garlic Storks
In the garden across from the Clubhouse, nestled in front of the banana tree, you can get a good view of the garlic storks.  The very round heads and pointy beaks are supported by  loopy, pencil thin bodies.  There is a whole flock of them.  Soon the heads will split open revealing brains of purple flowers.  Then we know we have been fooled, they are not birds at all but elephants – elephant garlic!  We are not growing them for their large mild cloves but for their ornamental nature.  We will harvest the bulbs and save the cloves to plant in the fall.  Who knows, there may be a flock of storks coming to your street.

Exhale
This is the season in the garden of the long spring exhale.  This is when the eye gets a rest from all of that spring color.  Gone are the peaks of daffodils, tulips, dogwoods, redbuds, and azaleas.  There is plenty of color but thankfully the more restful blues and whites of the spring phlox and iris.   Green is the predominate color.  Not just any green, but the green of new growth in all its shades of chartreuse. 

Soon the leaves will reach their summer green.  And the banana-canna-lantana-rama  will give us another season of flashy color.  Take a rest, then a deep breath.  It’s going to be a long beautiful summer.

4-6-06
Beautiful Natives

 For a couple of years the FHNA has put resources into clearing invasive and noxious plants on the West side from the Bollards to the Memorial Garden.  This is a quarter mile section of woods bordered by West Forest Hills Blvd.  Volunteers on workdays have cleared away Russian Olive, Privet, Honeysuckle, Grape Vines, Catbrier and other aggressive plants.  Dub Gulley diligently sprayed round-up last summer to kill poison ivy.  He also sprayed the new shoots of the aggressive plants.  The results of this effort is best seen in the section of woods between the bollards and the Kathleen Garden corner. 
 
This ‘Dog Park’ area has a garbage can halfway between the Bollards bed and the Kathleen garden area.  If you walk into the woods behind this can and towards the Kathleen garden you will come upon an area about the size of a large patio with 6 different native shrubs/small trees. 
 
Maple leaf Viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium)
Downy arrowleaf Viburnum (Viburnum rafinesquianum)
Strawberry Bush (Euonymous americanus)
Bigleaf Snowbell (Styrax grandifolius)
Pinxterbloom Azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides)        
Redbud (Cercis canadensis)
 
I saw this Pinxterbloom Azalea for the first time this year.  If you go soon you can spot it by its white flowers.  It is the most common native deciduous azalea in this area, but not common in urban areas.  There are at least two more of these showy natives in the border further towards the Memorial Garden.
 
The Bigleaf Snowbell is the rarest of this group, and I was quite surprised to see this small tree last year.  The smooth gray bark is a good way to spot it, if you know what to look for.  The flower buds are just showing now and should be fully open in a couple of weeks. 
 
The Downy Arrowleaf Viburnum is the most common Viburnum in the area.  There is one large specimen over 8 feet tall with a 6 foot wide fountain-like spread.  The Maple leaf Viburnum is prized by gardeners for its brilliant fall color, even in the shade.  Both have white flower clusters and will be quite showy in a week or two. 
 
These plants can only be seen and enjoyed because the invasive plants, especially poison ivy in this area, have been controlled.  They can now grow to mature size and provide us with beauty in all seasons for many years to come. 
 
I want to encourage all interested residents to compare this woodland area to the woodland areas along East Forest Hills Blvd.  Then you can see for yourself if you think this woodland clearing is worth the effort.  I think it is.

3-16-06

The Big Shrub Bed is across from the Picnic Shelter on  East Forest Hills Blvd.  Yesterday morning I drove by and the sun was behind the bed, highlighting the yellow glow of the forsythia and daffodils.  Quite stunning.  Also adding to the glow is a corylopsis, with chains of yellow jewels more refined than the brassy forsythia further down the bed.  The corylopsis is a wonderful selection in a small garden that has room for an 8-10 foot shrub.  It can be limbed up and the smooth gray bark and witch-hazel-like leaves are elegant.  Tall grasses that interfered with traffic visibility were removed this winter and replanted in the Teepee bed (big sunny bed across from clubhouse).

The Kathleen Garden is full of daffodils February Gold and Carlton in bloom.  The February Gold are smaller and have reflexed petals. In years to come these should bloom a month earlier than the larger Carltons.   Also leafing out now is an unusual shrub called variegated five-leaf aralia, (Eleutherococcus sieboldianus ‘Variegatus’).  The new growth is one of the best features of this plant, a creamy yellow green pattern.  Another good feature is its ability to survive tough conditions. 

Beauty Alert!  The buds of the Mohawk viburnum in the Bollards Bed are starting to swell and start their journey into balls of white, sweetly fragrant floweres.  They are beautiful at every stage but it happens quickly, so don’t miss out.  There  are five of them to the right as you enter the dog park at the bollards. 

Good Gardening,  Jonathan Nyberg