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In this issue:
A focal trio makes a snappy design
Overseed to begin or end a lawn year
Why rolling lawn may gather moss
Ah-wooga, beware the Ajuga
Groundcover guru at your service
Ah June, when spruce tips gall
How many azaleas will sawfly saw
Beating back a burning bush
Free crutches prop young dahlias
Cheering on dragonflies
A lightning enlightenment
Tree lilac at 45mph
Thumbs and noses
Focal points: If one is good, why aren't two better?
Above: All it takes to be a focal point is first placement
in an area and then being flanked, backed, underlined
and/or surrounded by complementary frames. Each frame
is filled with a plant or feature which has more in common
with other frames than with the focal point. So a
combination of short plants (dwarf goatsbeard, perennial
geranium) frame this tall goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus).
The goatsbeard is literally the high point, standing out
all season. It can hold the spotlight even in its
green-only phase, despite the attention grabbing ploy of
pretty flowers on a framing mass of perennial
Geranium.
Above: We wanted attention to be drawn to the right side of
the bed, rather than the tree's trunk. We filled that focal point
with one tall goatsbeard at a distance from the tree, then
surrounded it with several groups of shorter, mounded
plants.
We intended to give visitors to this garden a triangle of
focal points (below, left, pink dots). These would lead our
intended viewer's eye around the bed. When seen in one
"take", from farther off, this trio would also frame the
picturesque trunk of the mulberry tree. As the viewer
steps closer, we hope we succeeded in making the right-side group
more important. If we did, we'll lead the viewer to walk
in that direction. Nudged along the path (below, right), the person
will come to a place where additional focal points in
distant beds become visible. Meanwhile, the person sitting
at the picnic table in the back has a more limited view because he
is closer to the bed. "Behind" the left side focal point
group, invisible to the visitor on entering, is a space to be seen
from that table which is small but can present several
focal points and frames on a smaller scale.
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Groundcover quilt
Above: At Janet's sister's home, where it was silly to have
lawn in a tiny, shady 8 x 15' space in front of the porch, we
designed and she planted a "quilt" of Lamium, Ajuga (dark leaf in
foreground is 'Caitlin's Giant'), sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum)
and variegated Liriope. The area is bounded by concrete walks on
three sides and the house on the fourth, so we didn't even have to
set up no-man's-land boundaries to keep this rabble
contained.
Already, after just a few years, we've seen the quilt do what we
expect of a hope-they're-evenly-matched mix. First, the Lamium took
over space the Ajuga gave up during a rough start. Then, once the
Ajuga took hold, the Liriope began to move toward the sweet
woodruff. We stay out of the melee as much as we can, playing the
game of "see-who-wins!"
The 45mph garden
Above: Young tree lilacs (Syringa reticulata). At left, with
maple tree. The tree liac wll eventually be 1/3 the size of this
young maple.
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