Monthly Archives: January 2013

Garden Accents, CAPE COD HOME

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Hanging baskets, garden gates, terra-cotta urns are some of the many accoutrements you will find in Pat McLoud's garden. A hammock is strung between shade trees for a relaxing nap on a hot day. Spheres grace pedestals and all around beautiful plantings backed by arborvitae, conical white Hydrangea paniculata blossoms mix with deep purple tubular cones of a butterfly bush.

Hanging baskets, garden gates, terra-cotta urns are some of the many accoutrements you will find in Pat McLoud’s garden. A hammock is strung between shade trees for a relaxing nap on a hot day. Spheres grace pedestals and all around beautiful plantings backed by arborvitae, conical white Hydrangea paniculata blossoms mix with deep purple tubular cones of a butterfly bush.

To McLoud, accessorizing a garden is similar to accessorizing a home. it is accessories which delight the eye, with their repetition of structure and shape - even when the garden is in full bloom

To McLoud, accessorizing a garden is similar to accessorizing a home. it is accessories which delight the eye, with their repetition of structure and shape – even when the garden is in full bloom

With a few strong structural elements -- boxwood, arborvitae, and gravel -- McLoud has provided bones for her gardens to rest on and against.

With a few strong structural elements — boxwood, arborvitae, and gravel — McLoud has provided bones for her gardens to rest on and against.

CCH McLoud4

Growing to Extremes, GARDENS ILLUSTRATED

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Rice is nice, especially when grown in Vermont's cold climate! I was thoroughly captivated with every step of the process and was proud when I had a chance to step into the paddy and plant seedlings alongside Takeshi and Linda Akaogi.

Rice is nice, especially when grown in Vermont’s cold climate! I was thoroughly captivated with every step of the process and was proud when I had a chance to step into the paddy and plant seedlings alongside Takeshi and Linda Akaogi.

The Birds and the Bees, CAPE COD HOME

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The wild honey bees arrived and kept arriving. What a pleasure to be in the presence of their happy humming, little legs overloaded with masses of pale yellow pollen.

The wild honey bees arrived and kept arriving. What a pleasure to be in the presence of their happy humming, little legs overloaded with masses of pale yellow pollen.

Sunflowers of all shape, size, and color sprout up in the arugula bed and in borders outside the confines of our fence. Some are planted by us but others are volunteers dropped by sunny goldfinches who come looking for treats as soon as the flower heads mature.

Sunflowers of all shape, size, and color sprout up in the arugula bed and in borders outside the confines of our fence. Some are planted by us but others are volunteers dropped by sunny goldfinches who come looking for treats as soon as the flower heads mature.

 

Autumn’s Heirlooms

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Adventurous in my walking, I studied the growing wood near my home.  Not far from the cliff above Muddy Creek, I found an old cellar hole, nearby a settled pairing of scraggly lilac and apple tree.  A bit further on along the road running east and west of Crow’s Pond in North Chatham near Eastward Ho! I found a number of old timers with out-of reach apples, fruit miniaturized from lack of care.

NEG CCH Apples2

Heirloom apples are enjoying a resurgence!  Nantucket Historical Association’s Kathrina Pearl is designing an apple orchard of antique varieties–Rhode Island Greening, Roxbury Russet, Sops of Wine, and a French baking apple from the 1500s, Calville Blanc d’Hiver.  If the deer don’t get them she is looking forward to the day when they can ofter fresh squeezed cider and heirloom apple pies. Debbie and Eric Magnuson of Tiasquin Orchard in West Tisbury sell Macouns, McIntosh, and Liberty apples at Edgartown’s Morning Glory Farm.

Cape Cod Home Magazine

Of Bulbs and Boughs, CAPE COD HOME

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Winter is rough on the gardener's soul. Instead of getting gloomy, I bring the outside in.

Winter is rough on the gardener’s soul. Instead of getting gloomy, I bring the outside in.

Forcing bulbs is another must-do task to ease days of gray. Paperwhite narcissus are also easy to grow and well worth it.
Forcing bulbs is another must-do task to ease days of gray. Paperwhite narcissus are also easy to grow and well worth it.

 

Leslie Baker Island Palette, CAPE COD HOME

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Oxeye daisies, perennial sweet peas, and dogs dogs dogs greet me when I arrive at the West Tisbury home of artist, Leslie Baker and her husband, Dr. David Gorenberg.

Oxeye daisies, perennial sweet peas, and dogs dogs dogs greet me when I arrive at the West Tisbury home of artist, Leslie Baker and her husband, Dr. David Gorenberg.

Leslie and David have created ordered edges in the home landscape. At a friend’s suggestion they built a dry field stone wall. It slices through the meadow delineating wild places from kept spaces. Just as Leslie’s landscape paintings evolve around her placement of a horizon line, the wall allows for the same formal framework waiting for a painter’s palette to shape the kept spaces.

Leslie and David have created ordered edges in the home landscape. At a friend’s suggestion they built a dry field stone wall. It slices through the meadow delineating wild places from kept spaces. Just as Leslie’s landscape paintings evolve around her placement of a horizon line, the wall allows for the same formal framework waiting for a painter’s palette to shape the kept spaces.