public gardens Archives

Habitat Garden Planning: Starting with a Clean (or Messy) Slate

We’ve heard from a few people over the past couple of months who’ve moved into new homes with outdoor space, want to garden with the environment in mind, and aren’t quite sure how or where to start. We’re not professional landscape designers, but we are environmentalists with a modest budget and big dreams with experience doing exactly that. We’ve learned a lot — and are learning something new all the time — as we transform our own backyard of turf grass and invasives to a wildlife- and family-friendly habitat. Here are a few tips for getting started on your own gorgeous, peaceful, eco-friendly landscape: Seek inspiration from books (most of all!), Instagram, Pinterest, and websites. Grab a beer or a cup of coffee (or whatever drink you choose) and settle in with books that are both beautiful and informative, like American Woodland Garden, The American Meadow Garden, and Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes, or spend some time on Pinterest. (This activity isn’t just a great first step toward planning your garden; it’s good for the soul.) Learn what type of landscapes, designs, and plants you connect with most, bookmarking images and taking notes of plants and layouts you like. Is it the photos of dense meadows that make you happy? Do images of fern-heavy woodlands bring you a sense of calm? It might be something simple like a bench surrounded by shrubs, a patio bordered by sedges or a walkway bordered by a blend of grasses and flowers. Plants that work for a cottage in the English countryside won’t be appropriate here in Jersey, but that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve the same vibe with low-maintenance natives. See a non-native you love? Post a comment below and we can help suggest a similar native plant. Look for inspiration in the wild. Another great way to determine how you’d like to approach your own ecological garden is to learn more about the plant communities in natural areas you love. In the Pine Barrens, for example, you’ll notice a mix of ferns, blueberry bushes, and pines. The sad truth is that we’ve destroyed most truly natural spaces around here, so this isn’t always easy. That said, we highly recommend visiting Mt. Cuba Center and Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve and other managed natural areas that educate and inspire. Get to know your yard’s conditions: the light, the…

Spring Blooms at Mt. Cuba Center

Tim Ifill

When we last made the trip to Mt. Cuba Center, northern Delaware’s native plant showcase, fall bloomers were making their last stand, and trees were shedding their leaves. It looked pretty different this time around; their woodland-dominated landscape was still bright and sunny in the last weeks before the trees leafed out.? So while most plants were just breaking their winter dormancy, it was a great time to see the spring ephemerals put on a show.? These are the plants that take advantage of the brief window in woodland areas between when the weather and soil warm up and the trees fully leaf out and cast shade over the ground. Trilliums (a.k.a. wake-robins or toadshades) are the classic example.? They appear in early spring on the forest floor, rapidly complete their full flowering cycle, and enter dormancy as their leaves, stems, and flowers wither away, leaving no trace by early summer. Mt. Cuba has a great selection of ephemerals.? Virginia bluebells, Quaker ladies (houstonia), bloodroots, and other species carpet the forest floors. Other spring flowering plants, like the woodland phlox species, foamflowers, and celandine poppies which were blooming in abundance this weekend, stick around after flowering, and their foliage provides a nice groundcover throughout the summer. It was also a great time to see other parts of the landscape waking up.? Fern fiddleheads were unrolling everywhere you looked, trees and shrubs were beginning to flower, and leaf buds were opening up. Mt. Cuba Center‘s gardens are open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 am ? 4 pm, April-November 19. We recommend bringing a picnic lunch if you’re headed out on a nice day. Mt. Cuba also offers classes year-round in ecological gardening, conservation, art and more.

Whitesbog Village: Blueberries, Beauty and Feminism

Lindsay Ifill

It’s going to be a cold week with Christmas festivities at the tail end, so I wanted to get outside yesterday despite the rain. We drove about 50 minutes to Whitesbog Village, and it was well-worth the distance and eventual “OMG we’re missing our toddler’s nap window! Now she’s literally pulling her hair out!” moment on the way home. Whitesbog, a registered national and state historic site, is part of Brendan T. Byrne State Forest. It features a “village” of beautiful old buildings and 3,000 acres of cranberry bogs, blueberry fields, reservoirs, sandy roads, woodlands, streams and trails. Not only that, it’s a site on New Jersey’s Women Heritage Trail due to the work of “Blueberry Queen” Elizabeth Coleman White. She’s the one who brought Jersey blueberries to the masses after extensive research for growth habits, taste, scent and texture. According to the Whitebog website, White also focused her research on the American holly (ilex opaca). “She even founded her own nursery business?Holly Haven, Inc.?and is credited with having helped to rescue the American holly from obscurity. She was even one of the first members of the Holly Society of America, founded in 1947.” Volunteers have worked hard for decades to restore and preserve Whitesbog Village, including White’s old house. It’s a gorgeous place to stroll along paths lined with mountain laurel and other native plants, view cranberry bogs, check out White’s original test garden and experience the beauty of the Pines. The Whitesbog General Store was closed yesterday morning, which was a bit of a bummer, because I was looking forward to picking up a few last-minute Christmas gifts. It’s typically open Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 4pm February through December, and carries blueberry and cranberry preserves, honey, candy, books on the Pine Barrens, and items handcrafted by locals. The store and other buildings within the village date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. The largest building, which is basically rubble now, was the packing and storing facility that was damaged in two different fires. In the other adorable buildings, Whitesbog Preservation Trust tells the story of Whitesbog Village and holds events, such as art shows, festivals and a holiday craft fair. We knew we were in a good place when we walked up to find this awesome banner of a Jersey Devil playing banjo. Whitesbog regularly holds a Blueberry Music Jam, an acoustic jam…

A Fall Visit to Mt. Cuba Center

Tim Ifill

We’re lucky to have so many public gardens in our area, and even luckier that several of them focus on showcasing native plants.? We recently got a chance to take a trip to one of these: Mt. Cuba Center in the rolling hills of northern Delaware (no, the state’s not entirely flat – there’s a tiny strip of the piedmont running through the northern tip). With about 50 acres of woodland, meadow, and wetland gardens, plus a rare all-native formal garden, it’s a great place to appreciate the versatility and beauty of natives.? We visited on its last weekend of the season at the end of October (it will be closed through the spring), but even though the biggest blooms of the summer had past, there was still plenty to see. One of the cool things they’ve been running for a few years is their trial garden, where they test different species and cultivars to see which are most suitable for gardens in the mid-Atlantic.? So far they’ve released thorough reports on asters, coneflowers, baptisia, coreopsis, and heuchera (though not all of them seem to be currently up on their new website).? I’m looking forward to the upcoming monarda and phlox reports. As part of Mt. Cuba’s mission, they try to show the versatility of native plants.? To that end, they’ve tried to combat the notion many gardeners have that natives only really work for naturalistic gardens.? They recently re-did the formal gardens directly next to the house with all native plants.? Personally, I’m more drawn to the naturalistic look (hence our decision not to name this blog Highly Cultivated Roots), but I thought they did a great job.? We didn’t get great pictures of the formal garden, but you can see some photos here on their virtual tour, and read more about how they created them here. They also offer a wide variety of classes and even a certificate program. We’re excited about heading back next year – if we’re lucky we’ll be able to swing a spring, summer, and fall visit to catch all of the plants at their best. One Save