plans

Sketches for two jobs got approved in principle today. Have to change the wall project (upper sketch) significantly as it is too expensive as imagined there, but I can begin the water features for the other garden next week. Happy Thanksgiving weekend! jc

Fall colors

The last of the fall colors. Bittersweet berries (a terrible invasive, but beautiful now), two Bloodgoods and a Seiryu Japanese maple. jc

November 1

Not too bad, but almost time to clean everything up. jc

Brilliant color

Another shot of the beautiful Seiryu maple. jc

Color

The Japanese maples at PBV are spectacular. These are not enhanced at all. The red-orange of the Seiryu vibrates against lime green of its normal leaf color. One of my favorite trees. jc

October 1

I moved some of the big hydrangeas that had failed to flower this year as I had pruned them late to try and keep them short, and replaced them with shorter varieties. (penny mac in the front, and glowing ember in the back.)
There should be one more month of flowering, and then suddenly all brown. jc

Fall in Wellfleet

I have posted these before, but I went up today to close up the fountain (which is turned off), and it was so pretty and elegant I had to take some shots. I didn't do anything to it. This is how it looked when I got there.
The owner of this writes me the nicest emails about how much pleasure this space gives her. It is feels good to be appreciated. jc

One year

A bit late this month as I was away on the 1st, and busy enough on the 31st that I forgot. Nice hibiscus by the front door. jc

sculpture

The sculpture in the shady corner of this garden is meant to stand for a mother and her two daughters. I try to make sort of a ring of fire around it with various coleus. jc

This is one of my favorite designs. The gravel driveway blends into the patio which ties into the front and side decks; and as I noted in an earlier post, I like the way the other house has become part of the composition. The waterfall is sort of a half a beehive so you can see it from both decks. The gardens are new here and still a bit spare. jc

Hibiscus

I took these two photos at the same time. The warmer one was with my antique (6 years old) 4.2 megapixel camera, the other with my new 3 megapixel iphone. I think I like the iphone one better, although at distance the iphone photos are sort of soft focus. jc

Jonah's Falls, August

Jonah's Falls with my iphone. The image is not all that great. Sort of soft focus. Better on close-ups. Love the sunlight reflected in the sheet of water, and I feel the stone patio works as a continuation of the waterfall. jc

A giant dahlia (about 8 inches across) taken with my new iphone. Pretty good picture. jc

Same place

More pretty flowers from the "one year" house. Crocosmia (I love these) and the traditional black-eyed susan. The rabbits devour them if they find them emerging, but apparently these were not an the bunny trail.
I had dance performances this week, and have gotten very little actual work done. Plus my blackberry is having problems. Think I will get an iphone, since I use a mac anyway. jc

One year

These are the lilies at the "one year" house, with crocosmia in front. They are about a month late, but it worked out well because the people who own them are just getting here now. I know I just posted a version of the second shot, but I love the composition of the impatiens under the bloodgood maple, and the light was really good today. jc

August 1

Finally the flowers have appeared. The oriental lilies are not out yet, so I will just have to put them into separate posts. The petunias in the front gardens are climbing right through the roses. The hydrangeas did not flower this year. I cut them back too far I guess. I may put in a shorter variety. jc

more flowers

Gaura, phlox, dahlias, canna and roses. The morning glories on the arbor are just starting to flower. Another casualty of the cool, wet June and the rabbits. jc

why shade?

Sun filtered through oaks and big mid-summer flowers. These spikes of astilbe and ligularia are four to five feet tall, and there is a meadow rue up left that is about seven feet tall. jc

red

I was thinking I would have a nice big project to photograph through the summer; a work in progress blog. But I don't, so I guess I will just post pretty pictures of my work. Can you see the fading of one colored impatiens into another? Warm pink into cool pink. It looks good live. jc

A detail of a Japanese snowbell, and a nice lavender walk on the same property. There are little tiny morning glories and moonflowers on the trellis. It was so cool in June that they have barely grown. Hope they take off soon. The red tree at right is a peach that has flowers the color of bubble gum. jc

Happy Fourth of July.
I know the weather can't be used as an excuse, but we had the fourth least amount of sun for one month on record. Not excessive rain; just cloudy. And four and a half degrees below average temp. There should be far more flowers. I guess it means all the more for later. Still pretty where the flowers appear, and the forms work. jc

Just a pretty garden

A garden and waterfall I haven't posted before. Taken from the back deck of one of the cottages at PBV. Looks like one of mine, but for some reason I didn't include a circle.
I'm off to Minnesota for a week. The "one year" photos will be a couple of days late. jc

Big courtyard

This is a courtyard style garden that runs off the back decks of seven rooms at PBV. It was particularly challenging as the decks were built above grade and I then had to fill up to, and under them, to make the paths and gardens. I did all the stone work and gardens. The whole space is designed to have a fence between it and the road to complete the enclosure, but it as not been built. There are two small water features. The one shown is in the center of the two larger scenes, but taken at an earlier date. jc

gravel is water

In the iconography of these gardens, gravel can be used to represent water. I often try to do that when I am designing the driveway and parking areas. I run a stone wall up to the edge of the drive, place stepping stones in the gravel and plant water-type plants at the edges as though they were growing at the water's edge. The bamboo fountain at the end of this driveway next to the garage door can be found under the label 'fountain'. jc

continuity

This is another good example of using the gravel drive and parking as part of the composition. I also designed the deck and ramp off the front door to tie right into the deck and gardens in the back. They can be seen in posts labeled wellfleet. jc