December 2016 ~ GBBD at Havenwood

English holly for a proper English garden, even in PA ;)

Welcome to December in my Pennsylvania garden! 

The snow has fallen on Havenwood and all that was brown is now fresh & clean again in time for Christmas. We are celebrating our third anniversary of being in our beloved garden, with most of it being just 1-2 years old. I love the kind of garden that most Americans would consider an English-look, though in reality it is really a combination of the formal hedges from the Italians, French styling in materials and colors, and an English-style planting.

Enjoy your look around! 

Spring Flowers for April ~ GBBD April 2016

Welcome to Havenwood!

It has been such a roller coaster spring, as I am sure you know or have heard from many other eastern US gardeners. We had more buds in January than ever before, as our true cold did not arrive until February. Then a especially mild March, with more snow and cold in the first two weeks of April. And now it is 70 degrees again today.  This is not totally abnormal for our zone 5 garden, but the high temps have been much higher than usual. This has brought the garden further along than it normally is at this time of year.

Many flowers that were doing so well, so soon... too soon... did meet a cruel end with the frost.

The star magnolia blooms were blackened after one day of blooming all around our town. The taller daffodils did not stand up as well to the snow that covered them soon after they were full out, but the shorter ones have stood the test. The pretty star of Bethlehem, that I recently posted, were soon snuffed out with cold. But still, the garden and the gardener marches on...

There are still a few pretties to see today for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day in our western PA garden.

A Few White Spring Flowers...

Lenten rose, Helleborus orientalis, comes in a plethora of beautiful colors and patterns.

We have had some beautiful spring weather! And also some more snow. That is spring here in Pennsylvania, with its immoderate temperature swings and hour by hour changes. But then much of the interior US is like that. Only the coastal areas benefit from the moderating effect of the ocean.

And yet, we can still have beautiful flowers that hold up to these extremes and come out on the mild days. Here are a few beauties I can recommend!

More Winter Scenes at Havenwood

Feather reed grass topped in light snow in front of our pillar arborvitaes and honey-brick house.

The Woodland in August

Blue and purple hydrangeas in my Hydrangea bed. Only ericaceous mulches for these lovelies! (pine needles... oak leaves... no mushroom compost.)

Shade Garden Treasures for Spring

Yellow Rhododendron 'Capistrano' with Japanese Forest grass (Hakonechloa macra aureola) in the Woodland at Havenwood.

One of the first things I often hear from people who love gardens, is that they cannot have flowers as they "have shade." But there are so many wonderful plants for the shade! Plants for dry shade and for damp shade. Here are just a few that have been blooming in our shade gardens in Pennsylvania...

Happy Thanksgiving & End of November Views

Havenwood house has some new exterior colors this month. We are giving them a try; what do you think?

Beginning the Pergola Garden

Hedging surrounding the new Pergola Garden at Havenwood.

Hello all! It has been a full month!

A few weeks ago, we were down in West Virginia to work on a garden I designed for a family there... more on that soon. :) Then we were back down south to Charlotte, NC for the inspiring Inkwell family conference. It was sponsored by all the wonderfully creative people at the Story Warren, including my husband, the gifted author of The Big Old Garden, behind the Big Old House series... humm.... wonder where he got those ideas ;)

Then we ran home (actually, a 10 hour drive) so that I could take three RHS exams to complete their Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Plant Growth, Propagation & Development. I think that they went well! Now I just need to wait patiently until September to find out for sure. :)

In the mean time, we have been planting up a storm of yew bushes around here to working away at our final plan for the new gardens at Havenwood. We have 50 in the ground as I post these photos today...

Topiary Pots in the Snow

Alberta spruce clipped into a three ball standard.

Our topiary pots have found a new home by an old shed for the present, but I am itching to use them to get started on the layout for a new knot garden... any fair day now...