Dead stuff

This is what I was talking about in the last post. This section of planting is 90% dead. The Crispii is girdled. A full six inches at the base of the trunk is eaten. The cotoneaster (the brown-but-supposed-to-be-green groundcover) is also largely girdled, and the big grass (a couple of tufts) was eaten at the ground. aargh. Voles must die. Or at least go away to be eaten by raptors and foxes. jc

Voles must die

There is a whole border of willowleaf cotoneasters at Brian's that is brown and dry. I was hoping it was just winter damage, but when Steve Clark was delivering mulch he thought it looked like vole damage. The plants are still rooted but they have been massively chewed near the ground. I don't think Brian likes them much anyway as they are a bit disorderly, but the damage is scary. I picked up a sonic deterrent for Mike's. Maybe I should get five more. Hope something works.
Did a lot of planting at Clyde's. Got a great deal on a dwarf gold Hinoki. jc

A Spring Day

Got off to a bit of a late start cause had to wait for the termite inspector at home, and when I got over to Brian's house Tim Kent's guys were already there. I thought they were coming in the afternoon. They knew what to do and only needed to occasionally ask for specifics. I told them what Brian told me Saturday morning about taking all the dead trees down as well as the stuff on the ground. Heavy equipment makes such a difference. Tears up the ground though. Clyde was also down so we talked about a few tree and shrub changes, and I dug up three old yews to be replaced with something a bit more interesting and taking up less space. Also will get some shade perennials and a nice specimen for where he had a spruce removed. Had lunch with him at the Squire. Did some pruning and raking at Brian's and Mike's, where I added some aluminum sulfate to some of the hydrangeas. Red hydrangeas going for purple. More touch-up pruning at Brian's and done for the day. Found a lot more vole damage at Brian's and Mike's, to go with what I had seen at Ange's. Perennial roots consumed, leaving dead sticks. Burrowing evident. Even two rose bushes. Gotta get some chemicals and attack. Brian emailed me at 3:00 to see if he was correct in thinking that Tim Kent and John Storey were going to finish up this week. I said correct. He was pleased. jc

What the...?

About a month ago I was asked to design the entrance gardens for the Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich, Ma. The woman who was sponsoring the work had seen some of my work on a house tour and asked for me specifically. I visited the site March 19th, did a first set of design sketches based, I thought, on the the general themes she spoke of, and sent them on April 3rd. It is the 40th anniversary of the Museum, and here guidelines were to do something that both referred to the past and looked to the future. Fairly broad. I chose to work with the image of the central iconic structure of the place, and make spaces that could be changed over the course of the season. Something she mentioned in passing. I did not hear anything until today. No comments, no questions. Today I was informed that she was looking elsewhere. A strange response, I thought, to one set of design sketches. Not a final design; essentially an initial thought on paper. I thought it a good idea, but if she wanted something very different, perhaps they would have best served to help her focus her specifications. I could have done something else with more information. I am hoping for some clarification. jc

More Ruins

These falls are meant to appear as the ruins of an old stone mill building, perhaps. I do as much of the work as I can by myself, or driving a skid steer of some kind, as I think of it as art that appears as I create it; but I needed some help placing the steps. jc

April 1

Aaah, spring on Cape Cod. There is a tiny bit of activity. The lilies are showing some green. The big changes start now. (The photos are a bit dull as I had to take them with my Blackberry. My luggage, with my camera, didn't join me when I got back from Charleston.) jc