Garden Diary: The garden in between ...
I call this the Edgar Allan Poe season in my garden ...
... that time at the end of summer, before the colors of autumn begin. The fog brings an atmosphere of something like despair.
Do these Gordlinia blossoms suit the Poe atmosphere? Perhaps they are luscious enough to suggest some deeply illicit, carnal, certainly subconscious, sexual note.
A bud.
The canal pond.
The bank.
Sanguisorba canadensis and Miscanthus in flower.
See the gravel piles below? This is an experiment.
The old septic system that failed last spring was here. The area had to be cleared and heavy construction equipment brought in, further compacting the already heavy clay (and doing much more damage). I'm adding tangent circles of pea gravel (the hula hoop is the unit of measure) throughout this area. I got the idea visiting Derry Watkins' garden and nursery, Special Plants, near Bath, UK, in July. Derry, who gardens over wet clay, discovered that she can grow many plants that shouldn't do well if she plants into gravel of various depths. The gravel also promotes seeding. This article in The Telegraph tells that story.So I'm trying out the idea. Not such a new idea really. I've noticed that some of my plants clearly want to climb up from their clay dungeons onto the gravel paths, where they grow much more vigorously. Many garden plants also seed into the gravel paths in preference to clay. I'm simply creating opportunities in the garden for more of that to happen.Now back to the Poe garden.
