Vic MacBournie 3/31/22 Vic MacBournie 3/31/22

Cornus Kousa: Outstanding tree and why you need to reconsider planting it

The Cornus Kousa is a spectacular accent or understory tree for the woodland garden. Although it is a spectacular tree in full bloom, it is native to China.

Consider starting with the native Cornus Florida

Without a doubt the most impressive understory tree in our woodland garden is the Cornus Kousa, but I urge gardeners thinking about planting one to reconsider.

It’s not that the Cornus Kousa isn’t spectacular in flower – it is.

It’s not that the fruit that follows is not impressive and a favourite of our local squirrels and chipmunks because they are.

And, it’s not because these elegant, horizontally branched trees are susceptible to disease and deer predation, because they are almost totally free of disease and other garden pests.

Sounds like the perfect tree, right?

Just one big problem – and it’s a problem many of our most visually pleasing and impressive plants and trees have in common, – it’s not native to North America. Its home is in China and other parts of Asia where, I am sure, it is a favourite food source for their native insects, caterpillars, birds and mammals. In fact, you will often find the plant referred to as the Chinese Dogwood.

Our mature Cornus Kousa in full bloom among the ferns. To the left is a Cornus Florida and the small mound in the centre is a variagated Cornus Mas.

The difference is, their local fauna has grown up and adapted to Cornus Kousa and, as a result, are able to use it as a host plant, a food source and provider of habitat.

With all that said, I have two massive Cornus Kousa trees growing in my yard and absolutely treasure them for their mid-summer display of large, cream-coloured flowers that bloom for months during the summer followed by bright red eatable raspberry fruit that eventually get picked off by red squirrels, grey squirrels and chipmunks.

Be sure to read my detailed look at the Six best Dogwoods in my garden.

How to grow Cornus Kousa

The Cornus Kousa grows in zones 4 through 9 and likes a rich, well-drained acidic soil and adequate precipitation to look its best.

Chinese Dogwood is a multi-stemmed deciduous tree with an expected growth of between 25-40 feet (8-12 m) tall at maturity, with a spread of about 25 feet. If left natural, it has a low canopy with a typical clearance of about 3 feet from the ground. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal growing conditions should live for 40 or more years.

Cornus Kousa’s best features

Cornus Kousa’s most prized feature is its horizontally-tiered branches along with its showy clusters of white flowers (actually bracts, the flowers are contained inside the four bracts) held upright atop the branches in late spring through summer depending on its location in the garden. The Cornus Kousa flowers are more pointed than the native Flowering dogwoods more rounded ones.

It has bluish-green deciduous foliage that turns an outstanding brick red in fall. It does best in full sun in cooler climates to partial shade and will not tolerate standing water. Cornus Kousa is also resistant to the dogwood anthracnose disease making it popular in areas that experience outbreaks of the fungus disease that can be fatal to the trees.

How to prune Cornus Kousa

This low-maintenance tree should be pruned sparingly after flowering to maintain its horizontal branching that looks at home in any Japanese-style garden as well as a traditional woodland. It’s also a good idea to mulch around the extensive root zone to protect the tree’s roots from drying out.

Hybrids offer best of both

The popularity of the Cornus trees have prompted Rutgers University to create a host of hybrids between Cornus Kousa and Cornus Florida, selected for their disease resistance and flower appearance.

Some of the popular cultivars include: Beni Fuji with deep red-pink bracts, Elizabeth Lustgarten and Lustgarden Weeping notable for its smaller size and weeping habit, Gold Star a slower growing tree with a broad gold band on its leaves and reddish stems, Satomi with deep pink bracts and leaves that turn purple to deep red in fall.

Vic MacBournie 3/23/22 Vic MacBournie 3/23/22

Cornelian Cherry: Elegant addition to woodland garden

Cornus Mas is the perfect replacement for the overly common Forsythia. It’s early spring yellow blooms flower at about the same time as Forsythia but the small tree offers much more architectural elegance in the landscape than the straggly-look of the Forsythia.

Consider replacing Forsythia with Cornus Mas or Spicebush for spring colour

It’s hard to imagine why homeowners choose to grow a Forsythia bush when a Cornelian-Cherry dogwood (Cornus Mas) is a much better choice in every way, shape and form.

In other words, when it comes to shape and form, Forsythias fall short in every way.

Imagine a small rounded tree with horizontal branches sporting elegant yellow bunches of flowers that eventually give way to bright red fruit or drupes. Now, compare that to a scraggly green bush that needs constant pruning, which is all homeowners are really left with after the forsythia blooms in early spring.

There is no competition.

While the over-used Forsythia has a straggly, vase shape that is not particularly pleasant after its brief early spring blooming period, for some reason it continues to dominate the suburban landscape over the inherent beauty of the Cornelian Cherry’s early-spring clusters of yellow flowers.

Right about the same time as the forsythias are blooming, the bare branches of the Cornelian Cherry (Cornus Mas) are covered with delicate yellow blooms giving the already elegant dogwood an even more beautiful look in the woodland landscape.

Native Spicebush is an even better replacement for Forsythia

An even better choice than Cornus Mas to replace forsythia is our native Spicebush – often referred to as the “Forsythia of the wilds.” Not only is it covered with soft umbel-like clusters of yellow flowers in early spring like Cornus Mas, Spicebush is an excellent plant for native wildlife, including pollinators and native mammals.

The flowers are followed by aromatic glossy red fruit, and its leaves turn a colourful golden yellow to light up our gardens and lowland woods where it likes to grow in the wild. It is a host plant for both the Spicebush swallowtail and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

It grows to between six and twelve feet tall in sun, part shade and full shade making it the perfect under story addition to our woodland. It is not particular about soil feeling at home in dry, moist or wet soil.

The flowers of the Cornus Mas are quite small (5-10 mm in diameter) with four yellow petals, that are produced in clusters of 10-25.

For more information and excellent photos of more mature specimens, check out the Seattle Japanese Garden website.

Be sure to check out my earlier post on Six Dogwoods for the Woodland Garden.

When does Cornelian Cherry flower?

In warmer areas, the Cornelian Cherry can bloom as early as February, but in colder climates (zones 5-6) you can expect yellow blooms in late March or more likely into April and May.

Where does Cornelian Cherry grow?

Growing in zones 5-8, in full sun to partial shade, Cornus Mas is native to Southern Europe and Southwestern Asia.

Can you eat the cherries?

The edible fruits or drupes (fleshy fruits, with a single hard stone, like cherries) are red berries that ripen in mid- to late summer, but are mostly hidden by the foliage. The fruit is edible, olive-shaped and about ½ inch long, they have relatively large stones when ripe and often described as a mix of cranberry and sour cherry. It is primarily used for making jam but also has a reputation in some parts of the world as a fruit used for distilling vodka.

Do birds eat the fruit?

Birds and mammals are also attracted to the bright red fruit that is very tart, but attractive to birds and squirrels as it ripens and falls to the ground.

How to propagate Cornelian Cherries?

Cornelian Cherries are easily propagated from cuttings, but can also be grown from seed.
Are there cultivars of the Cornelian Cherry/Cornus Mas

There are at least three different cultivar available including:

• Aurea that has yellow leaves and flowers with red fruit in late summer.

• Golden Glory which is grown for its abundance of yellow flowers, followed by shiny red berries.

• Variegata grown for its variegated leaves that help light up shady areas of the garden. It also sports the glossy red fruit in late summer.

Vic MacBournie 3/22/22 Vic MacBournie 3/22/22

Six Dogwoods for the Woodland Garden

Six Dogwood species that make their home in our Woodland garden. From the ground cover Bunchberry, to shrubs and small understory trees like the Pagoda Dogwood and Cornelian Mas. Dogwoods offer great alternatives and are a valuable addition to any wildlife, woodland garden.

Ground covers, small shrubs and trees for everyone’s taste

If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that I have a soft spot for Dogwoods – big and small.

I consider them to be the perfect genus providing everything from the perfect ground cover for shade, to shrubs and mid-size trees that create an anchor for the understory layer. Add to this, outstanding spring flowering followed by a profusion of berries that birds, butterflies, native bees, chipmunks, squirrels and a host of other mammals can’t get enough of, and you’ve got yourself the perfect group of plants for the woodland/shade garden.

Oh, and throw in some spectacular fall foliage just to round out the reasons every garden needs to have plenty of Dogwoods.
Buying plants from local nurseries is the common method of obtaining these plants, but be aware that many of Dogwoods have been cultivated and may not provide all the benefits that the straight species provide to our native wildlife.

*This flowering dogwood shows off its splendid fall colours in the back garden.*

This article should help provide readers with a better understanding of the various dogwoods available. Most of the links in the article will take you to more extensive posts I have written about the individual plants, trees and shrubs.

It’s always best to use a native variety which are more beneficial to local birds, insects and pollinators.

Our Woodland garden boast six varieties of Dogwood. Let’s start with the smallest.

This detailed native dogwood poster is best viewed on a tablet or desktop and was created by Justin Lewis

Cornus Canadensis: A native ground cover for a shady area

Often called Bunchberry (link to my story on this native ground cover) or creeping dogwood, this perennial creeping rhizomatous ground cover grows 3-6 inches high and is topped by a blossom that looks very much like a miniature version of the familiar Dogwood tree (Cornus Florida) blossom. The flower cluster, held on a short stalk just above the leaves, resembles a singe large flower.

Not unlike the tree form of Dogwood, the flower is followed in the fall by a cluster of bright red berries surrounded by wine-red foliage.

Cornus Alternifolia: Perfect small tree for the woodland/wildlife garden

This common under story species that is often called Pagoda Dogwood (Link to my full story) is the tree/shrub that got me started down the Dogwood trail. We planted one at our former home right outside the office window and I absolutely loved that small tree. It was also the first tree we bought when we moved to our current home 23 years ago. That tree has become known as our “Africa tree” because of its flat-topped appearance and the fact the deer have eaten it so perfectly from the bottom up.

The tree’s attractive horizontal branching habit creates a lovely tiered look as it ages. Large clusters of cream flowers appear in spring or early summer (very unlike the familiar Cornus Florida bracts) followed by dark blue-black berries by mid summer. What’s not to love?

It grows to about 20-30 ft tall high, preferring moist soils in partial shade. Unlike other native dogwoods, this species has alternate rather than opposite leaves, hence its name. They grow naturally in rich, deciduous and mixed woods, in zones 4-8 often found on forest edges, along streams and on swamp borders.

The bracts of the Cornus Florida Dogwood are beautiful even from below.

Cornus Florida: Crown jewel of the Carolinian forest

In my opinion, the Flowering Dogwood (link to my post on best Carolinian under story trees) is the queen of the under story trees in a Carolinian Woodland setting.

Here is a link to my full story on the Flowering Dogwood or Cornus Florida.

The horizontal branching of the Cornus Florida shows off its spring bracts above the blue jay.

When it comes to the perfect tree, it’s a tough one to beat. Its spectacular in spring flower but still stunning when not in flower. Cornus Florida grows to about 20-40 ft as a single or multi-trunked tree with outstanding showy, white and pink spring blooms, with a horizontal branching habit, red fruit and scarlet autumn foliage.

Flowering Dogwood in its fall colours. — *Flowering Dogwood beginning to take on its fall colours.*

The flowers, which are actually bracts, can grow to 3 inches wide and attract butterflies and bees. The fast-growing trees prefer partial shade but can tolerate full sun if they are kept moist. They are native to the eastern United States and the Carolinian Canada Forest in southern Ontario and throughout zones 5 through 9. Although they may seem like the perfect tree, they are subject to anthracnose – a fungal disease that causes leaf spotting and twig dieback. Diseased twigs and branches should be pruned off and disposed. Ensuring good air circulation to keep the foliage dry and maintaining moisture in the soil throughout the summer will help reduce exposure to the fungal disease.

The bright red fruit of the Cornus Kousa.

Cornus Kousa: Popular non-native with spectacular summer show

A close second to the native Cornus Florida is the Kousa dogwood, which also goes by the names of the Chinese, Korean and Japanese dogwood. One of the advantages this tree offers over Cornus Florida is the fact it is resistant to the common dogwood anthracnose disease. As a result, it is being used more and more as an ornamental tree in areas where the disease is common.

The Kousa dogwood is a plant native to East Asia but is widely available where the Florida Dogwoods grow. It’s upright habit, later-flowering (about a month later) and pointed rather than rounded flower bracts makes it an ideal companion to the Flowering Dogwood.

Be sure to check out my full story to get much more detailed information on the Cornus Kousa Dogwood.

Although it can be incredibly showy in its own right, the Kousa dogwood tends to flower after the leaves come out rather than the Florida Dogwood that blooms prior to the tree leafing out, Combine both trees in your understory and you have glorious Dogwood flowers from late spring well into summer. Both species have a number of cultivars that include variegated leaves that add to their showiness in the right situations.

Cornus Mas: Early yellow-flowering tree for the shade

Often referred to as the Cornelian-cherry dogwood, this family of dogwood is native to Southern Europe and Southwestern Asia. It can be grown as a small tree or medium to large deciduous shrub with small yellow flowers produced in clusters along the branches either in late winter or more likely early spring in North America.

Here is a link to my full story on Growing Cornus Mas in the woodland.

The fruit has many uses including as an herb and is used widely for jams and and in some European countries distilled to make vodka. In the Woodland, the large oblong red fruit is a favourite of many birds and mammals.

In my garden, the Cornus Mas is one of the earliest flowering trees that blooms alongside the forsythia. I suspect many people mistake the small tree for a forsythia bush.

In our garden, we have a variegated form that grows up through our large ostrich ferns, and provides a spot of colour is a sea of green. The Cornus Mas in our garden is a small tree/shrub and is one of the few variegated plants in our entire Woodland garden.

Cornus sericea: Popular red-twigged shrub ideal for winter interest

Commonly named the Red-osier Dogwood, it is probably one off the most common shrubs in garden landscapes providing much-needed winter interest for gardens, especially when planted in large clumps. Often mistaken for the popular Asian equivalent Cornus Alba, with its variegated leaves which is seen in gardens everywhere.

Cornus sericea is native throughout parts of North America from Alaska east to Newfoundland.

In the wild, it most often grows in dense thickets in very moist areas. Our native species have dark green leaves that turn bright red to purple in fall. The spring flowers are creamy clusters and the fruit are a cluster of small white berries.

These Dogwoods not only look good, the native varieties provide multiple sources of food for backyard birds. While I get great enjoyment from my bird feeding stations, providing natural food sources to our feathered friends is always the goal we should aspire to in our gardens.

I have written a comprehensive post on feeding birds naturally. You can read about it here.

If you are interested in exploring Dogwoods further, check out Dogwoods: The Genus Cornus. This is another outstanding gardening book from Timber press.

Now you can turn your yard into a Certified Firefly Habitat

Now homeowners, groups and organizations can get their properties certified as Firefly habitats and purchase a sign to announce their commitment to ensuring firefly habitat.

What you can do to save fireflies

Fireflies should not just be a childhood memory when we sat out on the porch and watched fireflies flicker all around us.

And they don’t have to be. Even if you live in the heart of an urban area you can take steps to make fireflies a part of your life again.

Or, maybe fireflies never stopped being a part of your life. Maybe you have been doing everything right and still enjoy plenty of the little insects lighting up your summer evenings.

Either way this is good news for you.

Firefly Conservation and Research, an organization committed to saving fireflies worldwide, has just announced a new program for homeowners and other groups such as schools to have their properties approved as “Certified Firefly Habitats.”

For homeowners who want to bring back fireflies to their properties, the program will guide you to create the right habitat to encourage fireflies and encourage you to reach the goal of creating a Certified Firefly Habitat.

And, for those homeowners or groups who have already been working hard to create these favourable habitats, they are more than welcome to share their hard work with neighbours in the form of a sign that can be displayed on your property.

Check out my earlier post on attracting fireflies to your backyard.

Image of the Certified Firefly habitat sign from the webite.

How to get your Certified Firefly Habitat

Make a firefly haven in your own yard and join the thousands of others who have done the same. Join individuals and organizations who have committed to providing the essential elements needed to create and sustain a healthy habitat for adult and larval fireflies.

Proudly display this sign to demonstrate your commitment to protecting firefly habitat. The sign is made of recycled aluminum, is easy to read and waterproof. The size is 9″ x 12′′. “Made in the USA.” Exclusive.

The organization behind the habitat certification

Firefly Conservation & Research is a nonprofit organization founded in 2009 by Ben Pfeiffer, a firefly researcher, and Texas-certified master naturalist with a degree in biology from Texas State University.

Ben points out that fireflies need protection now. “Across the United States and worldwide, rapid and large-scale changes to our lands and watersheds mean fireflies are losing the habitats they once knew. Every step we can take to protect land for the fireflies to thrive is a step towards a literally ‘brighter’ future for new generations to enjoy,” he writes on his website Firefly.org.

“Join us in our mission to help to certify habitats, backyards, and nature preserves to provide a permanent place for fireflies to exist,” he adds.

• If you are considering creating a meadow in your front or backyard, be sure to check out The Making of a Meadow post for a landscape designer’s take on making a meadow in her own front yard.

“The Certified Firefly Habitat program is a first of its kind certification program to address the issues leading to declining habitat for fireflies. Ben will teach participants how to curate their habitat so that it provides all of the elements needed for fireflies to establish an existing and growing population on their land.

Those wishing to start the certification program will be asked to provide the following elements on their land:

Providing undisturbed cover for adults and glowing larvae
Encouraging plant diversity to preserve soil moisture
Reducing Light Pollution
Restricting Pesticide Usage

A certification guide will be available for you to download to help guide you in this process. This checklist will help you meet all the requirements necessary to provide firefly habitat.The guide will also teach you about:

The Firefly Life Cycle
What kinds of fireflies you are protecting
How habitat degradation and loss affect fireflies
What invasive species do to firefly habitat
Methods to manage your habitat from surveying methods, documentation, putting up protective barriers to prevent trampling.
Other insightful and creative ways to protect fireflies beyond just your land.

Vic MacBournie 3/10/22 Vic MacBournie 3/10/22

Three great woodland gardens in Canada

Canada boasts its share of woodlands both in its National Park system as well as its extensive series of provincial parks and conservation areas, but it’s the public gardens that makes areas from east to west that makes it a tourist destination. Check out three of Canada’s finest woodland gardens and public gardens.

Canadian Travel Destinations: Put Hamilton and Toronto Botanical Gardens and Stanley Park on the list

The Royal Botanical Gardens is a gem in the heart of one of Canada’s most highly populated areas – less than an hour outside of Toronto and about the same distance to the Niagara region and the U.S. border.

The five cultivated garden areas, including the outstanding sunken rock garden and tea house, and its impressive rose and iris collections, get much of the publicity as the gardens come into bloom over the course of the summer. Although these more formal gardens are impressive, it’s the more wild, Woodlands and natural areas of the gardens that are slowly gaining recognition in social media circles.

Maybe it’s the bald eagles, ospreys and massive herons (both Great Blue and Great Whites) that have returned to the area after years of being absent. Maybe it’s the beavers that seem to pose for nature photographers, the coyotes, foxes or friendly chickadees that don’t miss a chance to land on visitors’ outstretched, seed-filled hands. Maybe it’s the massive boardwalks that take you through the heart of marshes, the spring ephemerals that brighten the woodlands in spring, or the spectacular colours of the woodland garden in the fall.

It’s probably a combination of all of these natural features that are getting the attention of nature lovers looking for an experience in the outdoors, away from the worries of Covid.

If you are looking for more travel destinations, check out my article on Five of the best Woodland Gardens to visit in the United States.

I’m lucky to live just 15 minutes from The Royal Botanical Gardens, or the RBG as locals call it.

A Cherry Tree in bloom at the Royal Botanical Gardens Arboretum, one of several gardens at the southern Ontario tourist destination.

The Royal Botanical Gardens is massive: 5 cultivated Garden areas, 27 kms of nature trails, 2,500 plant species, 2,400 acres of nature sanctuaries and 300 acres of cultivated garden.

Several years ago, I was part of a group of five photographers lucky enough to work with the RBG to create photo cards and posters of its outstanding gardens. In those days, the natural areas were less known but still offered nature photographers and lovers a taste of what was to come.

Today, the “Woodland gardens and nature trails feature more than 27 km of nature trails and include four main trailheads, as well as two canoe launch sites,” the gardens’ website states.

“The 1,100 hectares is dominated by 900 hectares of nature sanctuaries enveloping the western end of Lake Ontario. These lands form a Nodal Park within the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve (UNESCO) and the heart of the Cootes to Escarpment Ecopark System. With more than 750 native plant species, 277 types of migratory birds, 37 mammal species, 14 reptile species, 9 amphibian species and 68 species of Lake Ontario fish, the area is an important contributor to ecosystems that span international borders.”

Here are a few areas to focus on:

The graphic above shows the extensive trail system through the woodland and over marshes via an extensive boardwalk system.

Trail Destinations: Hendrie Valley is home to lots of interesting trails and lookouts! Here are 5 key destinations marked by number on the map above.

1) South pasture swamp: An oasis for endangered species, this spring-fed oxbow pond is home to beaver, muskrat, Virginia rail and wood duck. Work to restore this site began in 1994 as part of Project Paradise.

2) Grindstone Creek: With three pedestrian bridge crossings and a creek-side trail, the valley provides an intimate connection with the creek. Seasonal fish spawning runs include herring and spottail shiner in the spring and salmon in the fall.

3) Snowberry Island: Halfway along the Grindstone Marshes Boardwalk, Snowberry Island sits five metres high in the floodplain. Named after a species of plant that grows there, the island is a block of uneroded creek valley soil called a knoll.

Grindstone Creek Delta: Located at Valley Inn trailhead, it’s both the site of an ambitious restoration project and stop-over point for migratory waterfowl. More than 100,000 Christmas trees form the foundation for the restored river banks of Grindstone Creek — these protect the marsh areas by preventing carp from entering.

An example of the boardwalk through the trails of the Royal Botanical Gardens.

The Royal Botanical Gardens on the Hamilton/Burlington border is truly a weekend travel destination for anyone living within a few hours of the massive gardens. It is truly a family destination with a host of kid-friendly features and activities.

For garden lovers, the RBG is much more than a weekend travel destination. It’s actually an ideal base to explore all that the Niagara Region – featuring wine country, picturesque Niagara-On-The-Lake and the Falls (one-hour away) – and the metropolitan city of Toronto (an hour away in the other direction), has to offer travellers.

The Woodland Walk and Bird Habitat gardens that greet visitors to the Toronto Botanical Gardens and Edward’s Garden in the heart of Toronto.

Toronto Botanical Garden’s Woodland Walk and Bird Habitat

About an hour’s drive down the highway from Hamilton/Burlington’s RBG is Toronto’s own Botanical Gardens and Edward’s Garden, located in the heart of the city.

Here you will find a wonderful Woodland and bird garden introducing you to the much larger and more formal Edwards Gardens operated by the Toronto Botanical Gardens. Edwards Gardens, that sits adjacent to the Toronto Botanical Garden, is a former estate garden featuring perennials and roses on the uplands and wildflowers, rhododendrons and an extensive rockery in the valley. On the upper level of the valley there is also a lovely arboretum beside the children’s Teaching Garden.

The Woodland Garden design combines a native woodland and prairie garden, providing a year-round habitat for birds and other wildlife.

The garden’s roots go back to 2009, when staff together with numerous volunteers and members of the industry came together to begin working on the garden.

Many of the plants are native to the Canadian Carolinian Forest. (see my earlier article on the Carolinian Forest). The space is an evolving garden, being planted over several years, that will “serve as an outdoor classroom to educate, both passively and actively; to promote sustainability, conservation and biodiversity; and to showcase horticulture.”

A few highlights from the TBG website:

This garden invites and welcomes the public and members into the gardens of the Toronto Botanical Garden and Edwards Gardens. It is a reflection of the beauty and gardens that lie beyond the parking areas.
The garden helps beautify the typical urban landscape at the intersection at Lawrence and Leslie.
Native plants–where possible–have been carefully selected to reflect the Carolinian Forest, providing food and shelter for birds and other wildlife
A natural wood chip path leads the visitor from the busy intersection through the dappled shade of the open woodland to the masses of perennials, ornamental grasses and other seasonal plants in the Entry Garden.

Stanley Park is an impressive example of a natural woodland garden.

Stanley Park: Canada’s ultimate woodland garden

I have had the good fortune to spend a day at Vancouver’s spectacular Stanley Park several years ago. It was a misty morning adding to the mystery of this wonderful landscape.

We visited Stanley Park many years ago and I don’t remember much accept that it was one of the highlights of my life and probably, together with a visit to Butchart Gardens in Victoria, B.C., turned me into a woodland garden enthusiast. There is something about the landscapes of the pacific northwest that you just can’t help but fall in love with.

If you travel to Canada’s far west, try to take in Vancouver Island’s Butchart Gardens. A spectacular 55-acres of sunken gardens boasting 900 plant varieties, 26 greenhouses and 50 gardeners, Butchart has enjoyed more than 100 years as a must-see garden near Victoria, B.C.

Salisbury Woodland Gardens located within the massive Stanley Park is a an attractive green space, planted in the mid 1930’s to serve as a public recreation area as well as shelterbelt for Stanley Park Golf Course. The woodland contains many native and exotic trees and shrubs. Winding footpaths take visitors through the garden over brooks.

The woodland, which has been undergoing renovation since 2006, was designated as a County Biological Heritage Site in 1993 for its epiphytic flora. Wildlife includes birds such as kingfishers, treecreepers and woodpeckers. The site also supports colonies of pipistrelle bats, dragonflies and butterflies such as orange tip and peacock.

In conclusion

The public gardens, as well as the national and provincial parks, and conservation areas in Canada provide visitors with incredible experiences in nature. As Covid winds down and families look to escape either on quick weekend vacations or day visits, these gardens and natural areas offer some of the safest ways to plan a vacation.

Vic MacBournie 3/8/22 Vic MacBournie 3/8/22

Gardener’s Supply Company: Success grows out of passion to improve the world

Gardener’s Supply Company is a United States based garden nursery that operates a web based on-line store and printed catalogue. The company is employee owned and goes to great lengths to promote its mission to make the world a better place through gardening.

What makes Gardener’s Supply Co. so special?

Growing a garden takes time, patience and a love for what you are doing and trying to accomplish. For many, it’s a family affair where we work together for years to create the landscape of our dreams.

Over time and hard work, our gardens take shape and that dream becomes a reality.

I can’t help but think the same sense of accomplishment of creating that garden of our dreams is the same feeling staff of Gardener’s Supply Co. (Link to website) experiences with their genuine success. Since 2009, the Burlington, Vermont company, that has become synonymous with gardening at its finest in the United States, has been 100 per cent employee-owned.

Why should we care?

Like we gardeners in our own yards, staff are passionate about ensuring the commercial and mail-order garden nursery grows into a success. The company’s impressive website clearly illustrates both a love for everything gardening and a wish to share that enthusiasm and success with gardeners.

“Through employee ownership we remain passionately committed to our founding vision – to spread the joys and rewards of gardening, because gardening nourishes the body, elevates the spirit, builds community and makes the world a better place,” the website states.

A mail order and shopping website just for gardeners

Unlike other massive mail-order firms that offer everything you can think of including gardening accessories, Gardener’s Supply Co. (link to Website) is focused on one thing – gardeners.

Being co-owners means that staff:

care deeply about our customers and their successes in the garden;
sustain a vibrant focus on gardening;
support a strong social mission;
take care of our communities and one another;
and work hard to safeguard the increasingly fragile planet we’ve been entrusted with.

Okay, their hearts are in the right place, but how can they help us and our gardens?

Just one look at their website and I think most would agree that this is no ordinary commercial gardening on-line store and website.

For example, these five galvanized planting pots (above) combine rustic and modern, are the perfect addition to a patio or deck.

Offering everything from essential garden tools to unique garden implements, many that are designed and manufactured in their own facilities, Gardener’s Supply is a website that helps us take our gardens from the ordinary to the exquisite. And it’s not just the products being offered on the website or through the printed catalogue, the garden information on their website is a fount of knowledge for both new and seasoned gardeners.

Browsing the site is akin to wandering through your favourite mega garden store without the crowds.

You will find areas featuring garden supplies obviously, separate areas on Planters and Raised Beds, Yard and Outdoors, Indoor Gardening, your home and kitchen accessories as well areas that focus on seeds – everything from vegetable seeds to seed starting supplies, grow lights and stands.

There is also a separate area just for gift ideas.

Gardener’s Supply on a mission to improve the world

But it’s their focus on creating a better world that is hard to ignore

On their website they provide visitors with the causes the company believes in.

“We’re on a mission to improve the world through gardening. We stand up for our beliefs, give voice to those who can’t, and serve as an ally to gardeners everywhere.”

Just a few of the areas they focus on include: Pollinator protection, youth gardens, soil regeneration and fighting hunger.

Gardener’s Supply helps the hungry

A Garden To Give program, where the company encourages gardeners to grow extra vegetables to donate to the needy through Ample Harvest, is just one example of where the company takes action. Their garden nursery in Vermont also includes raised gardens where all the produce is donated to the needy.

Gardener’s Supply helps pollinators

The company’s extensive information about pollinator protection shows that they are not just paying lip service to the protection of pollinators and not just honey bees.

Gardener’s Supply helps children

When it comes to kids and gardening, Gardener’s Supply not only runs a Kids Club at three of their facilities but provide further information about the importance of gardening for Youth.

(If you are interested in getting your children or grandchildren involved in gardening, be sure to read my article on Why kids need more nature in their lives.)

Back to products, accessories and other fun stuff.

Woodland/wildlife gardeners will first want to go directly to the Yard & Outdoors tab and head over to the Backyard Habitat area of the website where they will find separate areas on Bee Bug & Butterfly Habitats, Beekeeping Supplies, Bird Baths, Bird Feeders, Bird Houses and Songbird Tweets.

The Acorn Bird Feeder alone is simply outstanding.

Much of what they offer is of the highest quality, especially the items they design and build right in their own workshops. They may not be the most inexpensive items you’ll be able to find, but the high quality turns many of the items into garden works of art, or, at least, items you will enjoy for years to come and possibly pass on to your children or family members.

For wildlife enthusiasts, Gardener’s Supply Co. offer a range of bird baths including ones made of copper, butterfly houses, a butterfly puddling stone, oriole feeders, elegant bat houses and hummingbird feeders just to name a few of the treats for woodland/wildlife gardeners.

The home decor tab features everything from boot trays to keep the mess outside, to furniture that helps to bring the outside in. There’s even a heart-shaped concrete table top planter ideal for a miniature succulent display.

I could tell you all about the site, but it’s best that you check it out for yourself.

Does Gardener’s Supply Co. deliver all over the United States?

Yes, Gardener’s Supply Co. delivers to all 48 states contiguous states. (For information, check out the specific information on their website.) Shipments to Alaska, Hawaii must travel by 2nd Day Air (select FedEx - AK, HI). Orders shipping to U.S. Territories travel by parcel post (select USPS-International) and will arrive in two to four weeks.

Note: At the present time, Gardener’s Supply does not ship to addresses outside of the U.S. and its territories including Canada and the United Kingdom.

Vic MacBournie 3/3/22 Vic MacBournie 3/3/22

Five of the best woodland gardens in the United States

Five of the best woodland public gardens in the United States you need to visit. It might be a mini vacation or just a drive down the road, but it’s the perfect time to plan a garden destination vacation. Here are five of the best.

Garden destination vacation is perfect for landscape design ideas

Now that we have hopefully seen the end of the worst Covid can send our way, more and more people are planning family vacations.

Many may hesitate to board a plane or cruise ship for a traditional vacation, but may be open to the idea of a driving or mini weekend vacation, especially one that involves being safely outdoors in nature.

Now is the perfect time to consider planning a garden destination vacation by visiting one or more of the many public gardens that offer a safe, outdoor experience where you can explore some of the best garden designs and take home a wealth of knowledge and ideas to use in your own gardens. Garden destination vacations can be as simple as a self-guided walk in the woods or as entertaining and informative as signing up to have a professional guide lead you through the garden experience.

I’ve put together a list of five of the best woodland gardens in the United States to get readers thinking about visiting a local or nearby garden, either as a weekend adventure or as a side excursion during a traditional week-long vacation. There are gardens stretching from New England to Texas and a few in between.

If you are looking to travel to Canada for vacation, be sure to check out Three of the Best Woodland gardens in Canada.

Native Plant Trust (New England Wildflower Society) owns and operates Garden in the Woods, an outstanding natural woodland garden that offers visitors both spiritual and educational experiences just 20 miles from Boston.

How close is Garden in the Woods to Boston?

Garden in the Woods is a 45-acre, magical woodland that showcases the natural beauty of both the New England landscape and, most importantly, its native wildflowers, plants and trees. It’s open to the public through October, if you want to explore the colours of fall while visiting Boston.

Located about 20 miles west of Boston, (in Zone 7A) the massive, naturalistic woodland sculpted by retreating glaciers into eskers, steep-sided valleys, and a kettle pond, is the result of an incredibly dedicated group of individuals who make up the New England Wildflower Society now called Native Plant Trust.

Why should families make Garden in the Woods a travel destination while in the Boston area?

That’s a question I asked Uli Lorimer, Director of Horticulture, at Garden in the Woods.

“Garden in the Woods offers visitors of all ages the opportunity to immerse themselves in the habitats and plants of New England. Exposure to nature, to insects, birds, and the diversity of plant life is crucially important for young children if we hope for them to become the next generation of environmental stewards,” he explains. “The displays include common plants as well as rare, threatened or unusual plants giving the visitor an in depth experience with the diversity of life found in New England.”

What makes Garden In The Woods and its facilities so special to visitors?

“A visitor will immediately sense that this garden is different from other botanical gardens. The way in which the plants are displayed and the experience of walking the trails, the seamless way in which visitors transition from one “garden room” to another is what adds to the unique character of Garden in the Woods,” explains Lorimer. “We offer a wealth of education classes alongside engaging interpretation, affording visitors a chance to learn and grow as they stroll the garden. At our gift shop and plant sale yard, visitors can take home a plant or two to introduce into their own gardens or a tasteful gift, book or memento of the day.”

How can woodland gardeners get the most out of a visit to Garden in the Woods?

“Woodland gardeners are our favorite!, Lorimer explains.

“In order to get the most out of visiting a garden in the Woods, a visitor would need to plan a trip in spring, summer and fall, as the displays and seasonal highlights change. Spending at least 3-4 hours will allow the visitor enough time to leisurely stroll the trails, take notes of the plants and planting combinations they see, to engage with one of the friendly horticulture staff and to feel relaxed and inspired. We strive to offer for sale most of the plants that can be seen in the gardens which helps visiting gardeners act on their new ideas,” he explains.
Uli Lorimer

Special Event: Garden in the Woods is home to a nationally accredited Trillium collection which we celebrate every spring with Trillium Week. This year Trillium Week will be from Monday May 9th through until Sunday May 15th. There will be special garden tours, drop in workshops as well as an evening event planned around the joy of growing Trilliums. Please check out our website https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/trillium-week-may-9-15/

Harvard Magazine describes the gardens perfectly: “This “living museum” offers refreshing excursions through New England’s diverse flora and landscapes: visitors may roam woodland paths; explore a lily pond alive with painted turtles, frogs, and dragonflies; or take the outer Hop Brook Trail.”

Garden in the Woods serves as New England Wild Flower Society headquarters

The sanctuary serves as the headquarters of the New England Wild Flower Society who also own the property along with six other botanical reserves in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. The Society is probably best know for the fact it produces more than 50,000 native plants annually, grown mostly from seeds found in the wild.

This incredible woodland is, as Harvary Magazine points out in an article: “proof of the Society’s mission to conserve and promote regional native plants to foster healthy, biologically diverse environments.”

In the garden visitors often describe as magical, you’ll find a naturalistic plant collection that showcases New England native plants with complementary specimens from across the country.

Finding inspiration in Garden in the Woods

If you garden in the Northeast part of the United States, this is the place to find inspiration for your own garden and a new appreciation for the varied plant life of the region.

Offering an extensive list of educational classes and field studies to go along with the information provided on its website on ecological gardening, the Woodland garden and website is a must for serious Woodland gardeners and native plant enthusiasts.

“Plants are the foundation of all life. No matter what you want to conserve, whether the interest is in birds, bats, or bugs—they all depend on plants,” executive director Debbi Edelstein told Harvard Magazine. “But people tend to overlook them. People see something green and think it’s good, but they don’t really see the roles that very special individual species play in making everything else healthy.”

Visitors can opt for guided tours through themed plantings including a rock garden, coastal, and meadow gardens as well as the extensive woodland garden.

Early spring (May 5-11) is definitely Trillium time at Garden in the Woods, where they can show off the 26 different trillium species to visitors.

The woodland garden’s peak bloom is in spring and early summer, with the meadow putting on its best show in mid-to-late summer with its abundance of bee balm, Culver’s root, lobelia, and black-eyed Susan, to name just a few of the native species, In the fall, native grasses take the spotlight in the meadow garden along with asters and goldenrods.

One need only look at the extensive trail system on the website to appreciate the vastness of this incredible jewel. If you are thinking about going, you can download a map showing Garden in the Woods’ extensive trail system to plan out your visit before you even leave your home.

If the seafood, Red Sox or tourist attractions in the Boston area are not enough to get you to make Bostonyour summer destination, surely Garden in the Woods will be the attraction to get garden tourists outside to experience nature and scoop some ideas for their own gardens.

For more on this spectacular garden destination, check out the article in Harvard Magazine on Garden in the Woods.

Garvan Woodland Gardens is a destination the entire family will enjoy from children who will be attracted to the Adventure garden, to adults enjoying the outstanding gardens and unique features.

Garvan Woodland Gardens: A must visit for the whole family

Garvan Woodland Gardens, the botanical garden of the University of Arkansas, ( zone 6B, 7A) has a mission to preserve and enhance a unique part of the picturesque Ouachita Mountains of Southwest Arkansas.

Its success stems from the perfect combination of beautiful gardens, elegant structures and landscaping details that celebrates the natural beauty of the Woodland Gardens: featuring a canopy of tall pines that provide protection for delicate flora and fauna, gentle lapping waves that unfold along the 4.5 miles of wooded shoreline, and rocky inclines.

Woodland gardeners will be particularly attracted to the Hixson Family Nature Preserve encompassing 45 acres of natural Ouachita woodland, nestled under a towering canopy of oak and cypress trees, while kids will want to spend time at the Evans Children’s Adventure Garden.

A garden for the kids

Families with children will undoubtedly gravitate toward the Evans Children’s Adventure Garden that offers 1.5 acres of fun tied into natural outdoor education at its finest.

(Here is a link to my article on why kids need more nature in their lives)

The interactive garden features more than 3,200 tons (or 6.4 million pounds) of boulders positioned to encourage exploration of the natural environment. Add to that a 12-foot waterfall that cascades over the entryway and an easily accessible, man-made cave, where children can discover “ancient” fossils. The garden also features a bridge constructed from wrought-iron “Cedar tree branches” and a maze of rocks that lead down to a series of wading pools.

Parents can enjoy a bird’s eye view of their children at play from a 450-foot long, 20-foot tall elevated walkway that also provides scenic vistas of Lake Hamilton and the surrounding woodlands.

Garden beginnings

The Garvan Woodland Gardens, a gift from local industrialist and philanthropist Verna Cook Garvan, also provides visitors with a location of learning, research, cultural enrichment, and serenity in addition to a place to develop and sustain gardens, landscapes, and structures of exceptional aesthetics.

From the dynamic architectural structures to the majestic botanical landscapes, Garvan Woodland Gardens offers breathtaking sights (and fantastic photo opportunities) at every turn.

Hixson Family Nature Preserve

The Hixson Family Nature Preserve encompasses 45 acres of natural Ouachita woodland where visitors can take in the more than 120 species of birds, including bad eagles, pileated woodpeckers and the diminutive tufted titmous along with the long list of fauna that call the woodland home. (Check out this link on attracting the Tufted Titmouse to your garden.)

The Birdsong Trail is a 1.9 mile Birdsong Trail offers resting benches for watching the birds feed at special stations and enjoying some of the best vistas of Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs.

Visitors to the preserve learn about the woodland environment from educational displays placed along the adjoining Lowland Forest Boardwalk – where visitors learn about the environmental benefits of trees and forest cover.
The woodland refuge, nestled under a towering canopy of oak and cypress trees, is also home to the Shannon Perry Hope Overlook, a secluded site for reflection.

Don’t miss out these features at Garvan Woodlands

Millsap Canopy Bridge: Stretching two stories above the forest floor and spanning 120 feet, the serpentine-shaped Millsap Canopy Bridge is one of the most exciting pedestrian structures in the region. Its gently curved walkway winds through a woodland paradise of pools, cascades, and verdant plantings nestled in a ravine christened Singing Springs Gorge. Seasonally, the site offers a showy display of cinnamon ferns, Tardiva and oak leaf hydrangeas, delicate dogwoods and a collection of heat-tolerant rhododendrons.

The Perry Wildflower Overlook: provides sweeping lake views on the 1,500 square-foot flagstone terrace overlooking a one-acre planting of more than 40 different varieties of wildflowers, with new ones added each spring.
Bob and Sunny Evans Tree House: The new centerpiece of the Children's Garden, The Tree House is suspended within a group of pines and oaks, bending easily between them. The theme is the study of trees and wooded plants, drives both the form and program of the structure. The tree house is part of an ambitious plan to bring children back into the woods, the tree house uses a rich visual and tactile environment to stimulate the mind and body, while accommodating the needs of all users.

The Garden of the Pine Wind is a four-acre, majestic rock and stream garden. Voted the 5th best Asian garden in North America in 2012 by the Journal of Japanese Gardening, it offers a quiet place for contemplation and meditation. Approximately 300 varieties of Asian ornamental plants can be viewed here – including 60 types of Japanese and other Asian maples and Oriental dogwoods. In springtime, more than 40 giant-flowered tree peonies and hundreds of azaleas complement the maple collection’s attractive foliage.

The Joy Manning Scott Bridge of the Full Moon is one of the most recognized and most photographed features of the gardens. Considered the focal point of the Garden of the Pine Wind, the spectacular 11-foot-high, self-supporting structure echoes the ancient stone bridges of western China, where native stone was laid by hand in rustic patterns.

Sugg Model Train Garden: is a popular feature with the young and the young at heart. A big draw with model train enthusiasts,
the layout consists of 389 feet of track and 259 trestles and encompasses three independent operating loops. A freight or passenger train runs on the lower outer loop while a train hauling cars operates on the lower inner loop.

Garvan Pavilion: is an architectural masterpiece that stands as the centerpiece of the 210-acre botanical garden. The stunning open-air redwood and sandstone structure features a one-of-a-kind, faceted steel and glass ceiling centered around a classical oculus. This traditional ‘window in the ceiling’ serves as the focal point of a flower-like composition unfolding overhead. A wonderful complement to its woodland surroundings.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and woodland garden in Texas is a must for gardeners looking to experience shade gardening at its best.

Lady Bird Johnson: A celebration of native wildflowers

Lady Bird Johnson Texas: Visitors to the Lady Bird Johnson gardens in Texas (zone 8) will marvel at the numerous examples of shade tolerant plants and other wildflowers in this peaceful, nature inspired garden that includes a stream compete with native fauna and flora.

But for Woodland gardeners, the garden offers a perfect place to ponder the subtleties of the woodland with its many shapes and textures among the wildflowers, vines, layers of trees and shrubs.

The garden is the ideal place for inspiration as well as specific ideas on what plant communities work well with one another. The garden’s website points out that the “Woodland Garden features Hill Country woody plants, many arranged based on the occurrence of plant communities in nature.”

It is also quick to point out that the garden “is also a great classroom for gardeners and homeowners to learn about shade gardening, or planting for low-light situations within a landscape.”

The gardens also feature an area of chalky limestone that supports sumacs, snowbells and the rare Texas madrone.

The garden hosts a number of activities throughout the year including seminars on birding in Texas, native orchids, ecology based landscaping, collecting and processing wild seed, botanical illustration and watercolour, wildflower research and even fitness, which we all know is an important aspect to gardening.

I highly recommend readers to check out the gardens informative website (see above), especially the area on wildflowers.

Spring is spectacular in the English Woodland Garden at the Missouri Botanical Gardens when 300 rhododendrons bloom alongside 100 flowering dogwoods.

Missouri Botanical Gardens: A St. Louis refuge

St. Louis Missouri Botanical Gardens and the woodland garden: Maybe it’s the natural sound of the babbling brook sparkling under a canopy of trees along the shaded pathway that stops you in your path as you stroll through the Cherbonnier English Woodland Garden (zone 6). If it’s spring, however, it’s more likely the more than 300 rhododendrons and azaleas, and 100 dogwoods in full bloom that will get your attention.

Even a single flowering dogwood is a stunning addition to any garden, but 100 dogwoods under planted with hundreds of blooming rhododendrons and azaleas is enough to stop anyone in their tracks. Stunning is an appropriate description of the garden in mid April when it is at its prime viewing.

And if that is not enough, add to the scene clusters of wildflowers, hydrangeas and perennials providing surprising splashes of color throughout the seasons. It’s not hard to see why this stunning garden is a favourite refuge during intense St. Louis summers.

Visitors can follow the meandering brook along a winding path of stepping stones, taking in the streamside plantings of primroses, ferns, cardinal flowers, and ground orchids, as it flows under several limestone bridges and into the Japanese Garden lake by way of a waterfall.

The English-style garden – with its informal display of botanical treasures from around the world – started as 1.5-acres but has expanded to the present-day size of nearly 3.25 acres.

The garden is intended to showcase plants from all over the world, rather than focus exclusively on native plants and features.

Rather than focus exclusively on native plants, the garden’s focus is to showcase – in its distinctive three vegetative layers making up the woodland canopy – plants from all over the world.

“First is an upper canopy provided by trees such as oaks (Quercus sp.), maples (Acer sp.), ashes (Fraxinus sp.) and tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera). Some of the most impressive specimens include Pumpkin Ash (Fraxinus profunda, formerly Fraxinus tomentosa), Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor) and Pin Oak (Quercus palustris). The middle layer contains smaller trees such as redbuds, fringetrees and witchhazels, as well as shrubs including hydrangeas, viburnums, beautyberries and camellias. The lower layer is filled with ferns, wildflowers, and herbaceous perennials, such as meadowrues, bishop’s hats, and foam flowers. The intent of horticulture staff is to “work in ‘garden rooms,’ with clusters of the same or similar plants to draw people from one room to the next,” according to Enkoji,” states the gardens website.

What to watch for in the woodland garden

• A second water feature is a bog display of plants that thrive in wet soils or aquatic habitats.

• A bronze sculpture of the Three Graces by Gerhard Marcks (1889-1981). In Greek mythology, the Three Graces were lesser gods of Olympus, daughters of Zeus and Eurynome.

•The garden also features the Mary Phelan Memorial Birdbath, created from a naturally concave piece of lava rock from the Seattle, Wash. area.

An impressive 100-acre woodland and natural area that has undergone a successful rewilding since 1988.

The Chicago Botanical Garden: A woodland rewilded

Chicago Botanical Garden is proving that a woodland cut up by development and highly fragmented, located in an urban area can be revived through careful management.

The impressive 100-acre woodland and natural area (zones 5b-6a) has undergone extensive ecological restoration since the efforts began in 1988, transforming a formerly degraded oak woodland remnant into a natural treasure. It is home to five community types and a startling amount of plant and animal diversity.

“Our ecologists, along with dedicated volunteers, have worked for decades on repairing and restoring this woodland habitat. In 2013, these efforts were recognized with a “Gold Accreditation” from the Chicago Wilderness Excellence in Environmental Restoration Program,” reads the gardens website.

Spring ephemerals kick of the wildflower display. Throughout the seasons visitors can enjoy the nature trail to experience fall color as well as explore the many birds and wildflowers that call the woodland home. The woodland garden has become important for school groups and adults to benefit from outdoor nature education, including school field trips, Nature Preschool and camp programs, as well as nature walk, birding, plant ID, nature study, and photography classes.

Keeping to the educational focus of the woodland garden, staff encourage visitors to consider restoring their own properties by showing them how they can create woodland gardens in suburban or even urban areas.

I encourage all readers to check out their website at McDonald Woods for invaluable information on establishing or rewilding their properties back to woodlands.

In addition to the Woodland garden, Chicago Botanical Garden offer a number of gardens areas featuring: native plant garden, prairie garden, naturalized garden, Japanese garden, sensory garden, heritage garden and many more.

This free garden offers visitors an opportunity to explore an eight-acre woodland garden and native plant habitat.

Morse family Woodland Garden, Georgia

Morse Family Woodland Garden - Georgia: Woodlands Garden is an eight-acre garden and native plant habitat near downtown Decatur in Atlanta, (zone 7b-8a) with a mission to preserve the woodland garden as an urban sanctuary for educating and engaging the community in the natural world.

It’s the result of a land donation in 2003, by the Morse family who donated 7 acres of greenspace to become a public garden. A one-acre parcel was added to the site and today the free garden is open to the public – at no charge – to explore the historical Morse garden and an educational native plant garden which envelope visitors into the appealing, diverse plant world of the Georgia Piedmont.

Visitors can explore a winding network of mulched trails meandering through the woods and explore the plants native to the Georgia Piedmont region. Here they will see some incredible Champion Trees like the Bigleaf and Cucumber Magnolias or the Devil’s Walking Stick.

“The core of the 8 acres surrounds the previous home site, which is now a grassy lawn where the Heritage Garden can be found. In the Heritage Garden, visitors will find Dr. Morse’s original camellia collection, ornamental Japanese maples, and the all ages Children’s Natural Play Area. The staff and volunteers provide educational opportunities to learn more about the importance of native plants through workshops and signage, while also maintaining a balance of focusing on the space as an urban sanctuary full of natural serenity.”

In conclusion: Garden destination vacations open up a new world of travel

Finding a family vacation that is relatively safe from the dangers of contracting Covid is becoming more and more difficult. It’s always a good choice to choose a destination that offers low density, primarily outdoor activity in a natural environment.

Garden tourism destination vacations offer a safe vacation experience for gardeners and some even offer specific activities for children. Woodland destinations give families an opportunity to explore outdoor education while breathing in fresh air and relaxing in the serenity only nature can provide.

You don’t have to go to public gardens to experience nature. A state park and conservation lands can offer many of the same benefits in a less organized and focused way.

Whatever you choose, it’s time to take a long walk in a woods, whether it’s a managed woodlot aimed at providing the best woodland garden experience in a defined space, or a more natural experience in a state park.

Vic MacBournie 12/17/21 Vic MacBournie 12/17/21

Seed to Dust: A gardener’s journey

Author Marc Hamer’s garden memoir Seed to Dust, Life, Nature and a Country Garden is an entertaining journey along a path of self discovery and garden tips. Along the way he shares his knowledge touching on important subjects ranging from the use of pesticides to allowing nature to weave its way into corners of the garden to help wildlife, birds and pollinators that inhabit it.

Finding solace in the art of gardening

Is it the gardener who breathes life into the landscape, or the garden that provides meaning and purpose to the person tending it?

It’s a question many of us have contemplated while we work our own gardens, and it’s the underlying question that author Marc Hamer explores throughout Seed to Dust, Life, Nature and a Country Garden, his latest novel detailing a year in his life as the lone gardener of a 12-acre private garden in the Welsh countryside.

Seed to Dust is another outstanding book from Canadian publishers Greystone Books, publishers of Peter Wohlleben’s NYT bestseller The Hidden Life of Trees and follow-up book The Heartbeat of Trees.

Seed to Dust follows Hamer’s successful book How to Catch a Mole, described in the Wall Street Journal as a “quirky and well-received 2019 memoir” and “account of how Mr. Hamer, a pacifist, came to retire from catching moles, since getting them out of a garden usually meant killing them.”

Hamer’s 400-page Seed to Dust memoir begins in January exploring – one month at a time in easy-to-digest chapters – a full year in the life of the professional gardener as he maintains the estate of his mysterious and wealthy employer, affectionately nicknamed Miss Cashmere.

“Anyone who loves the earth knows that a tidy-mindedness is death for nature. I am a wildflower, and untidy weed.”

— Marc Hamer

Over the course of the year, he reflects on his life and that of Miss Cashmere’s since he began working for her: her husband’s death, the departure of her children from the stately home where she now lives alone.

It’s the reflections, however, on the difficulties he has faced – homelessness, loneliness, hunger, extreme poverty – that gives the readers great insight into his approach to gardening and the natural world.

Much more than a monthly how-to garden calendar, Seed to Dust tells the story of a young man finding his way in a world that sees him as somewhat of an outcast, struggling through depression, thoughts of suicide, self-discovery and, finally, as an older man ready to retire from working the land, content with his lot in life and the world he has built for himself, his wife and grown children.

Let nature guide your way

This is a tale for all garden lovers. It’s particularly valuable for those gardeners who struggle to let nature guide them in their journey. It’s for the gardener who is looking to get closer to nature, and for the gardener struggling to find meaning in the trees, plants and wildlife.

It’s a book I found both inspiring and very personal. Hamer and I – being of a similar age – share many of the same garden and life views, and struggle with similar health ailments as we try to complete everyday garden chores.

The book, which has been shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing, is for those searching as much for gardening advice as they are searching for answers to some of life’s most complex questions.

His is, what he himself admits, a simple life; one that is reflected in his approach to life, nature and the art of gardening. In his garden there are no “special” plants, just common flowers, shrubs and trees that, when put together in just the right way, create a beautiful vignette or natural landscape.

““I do not spray the aphids on my roses, although in the past I have lost whole crops of broad beans to them. I am nurturing sparrows and ladybirds, beetles, ants and underground fungus instead.””

— Marc Hamer

He writes early in the memoir about the garden he maintains for his employer Miss Cashmere: “This is not my garden, but it’s not hers, either. Just paying for something doesn’t make it yours. Nothing is ever yours. People who work with the earth and the people who think they own bits of it see the world in totally different ways.”

We can all benefit from a garden’s healing powers

“Any garden belongs to people who see it – it is like a book, and everybody who visits it will find different things.”

This theme of self discovery in the garden guides his belief that we all benefit from the healing powers a garden brings.

Later, he writes about how his gardening style changed. Over time, the garden evolved from the formality that once dominated the 12-acre site. Flowers are allowed to wander to create their own natural drifts – some even creeping into the once manicured lawns – giving the garden a naturalistic feel and welcoming pollinators, wildlife and critters that inhabit the garden’s wild areas.

He speaks of the hidden corners where he feels more at home among the grasses and overgrown plants.

“The way I choose to shape this or that space; wild, or tight and neat, closed or open. … If it were left alone for a few months, nature’s fertile beast would take over and it would become something else entirely. There are places where I let that happen, hidden from the house, where things grow wild and nature thrives. Damp spots for ferns and rotting wood, fungus and beetles, and hideaways for hedgehogs.”

It’s not difficult to see his respect for living things in the garden, and there is little question that his life experiences have helped shape his garden style.

“We were all deliberately sown with seeds of fear and hatred, but I chose not to water mine. I leave those seeds in arid ground: the racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic beliefs that I grew up surrounded by. I will not give them my attention, will not allow them to take root in me.”

No room for chemicals in the garden

His life experiences also reflect his views about the use of chemicals in the garden.

“There are chemicals available to spray lawns with, so that it shouldn’t grow so quickly; others to kill the worms and beetles so there are no worm casts, no moles feeding on them. … These are for the people who are not gardeners, people who want to control nature.”

“To speak of controlling nature is like the waves wanting to control the sea, the song singing the thrush, the flower creating the earth. We are not the sea, we are not the thrush, we are not the earth. We are the wave, the song, the flower.”

Man’s maddening machines of destruction

Hamer has harsh words about the machinery of gardening.

“I work around the buildings with the brush-cutter. It screams and makes smoke, a senseless thing that slashes back the grasses and native wildflowers. A ‘weed’ is a word that tidy-minded use for plants they do not want.”

“Anyone who loves the earth knows that a tidy-mindedness is death for nature. I am a wildflower, and untidy weed,” he writes.

“The scent of petrol, engine fumes, hot oil and blended greenery fill the air, and behind me the meadow is flourishing. The machine is violent and stupid. The violent and stupid nearly always win; it’s why they are created: to fight and win for their owner’s gain.”

His message to all gardeners, but especially Woodland and Wildlife gardeners is straight forward and one we would do well to heed: “I do not spray the aphids on my roses, although in the past I have lost whole crops of broad beans to them. I am nurturing sparrows and ladybirds, beetles, ants and underground fungus instead.”

Seed to Dust: Life, Nature and a Country Garden is published by Greystone Books. I encourage readers to check out this Canadian publisher who has made publishing Naturally Great Books its focus. The impressive list of nature-inspired books including The Hidden Life of Trees and The Heartbeat of Trees puts them in a class all their own for nature lovers. You can check out their catalogue here.

Vic MacBournie 11/22/21 Vic MacBournie 11/22/21

Feeling the Heartbeat of (woodland) Trees

The importance of a single tree outside your door, to the increasing threat to our ancient forests and woodlands is explored in Peter Wohlleben’s newest book The Heartbeat of Trees, Embracing our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature. The followup to his award-winning book The Hidden Life of Trees is a must read for woodland gardeners and anyone who cares about the environment and the future.

Can a tree improve our health?

Can a single tree in your backyard or even a city-owned tree in the front yard make a difference in your life, in your health, in the health of your family?

Most of us tree lovers would say, ‘yes’. But do we really know, or are we simply using our belief systems to justify our desire for more trees?

Sleep easy my friends, there is evidence that a single tree in your front yard, even if it is a lonely “city tree” can make a difference – a big difference.

In his book, The Heartbeat of Trees, Embracing our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature, author Peter Wohlleben cites a large-scale study conducted in Toronto, Canada by scientists at the University of Chicago that showed a single tree planted by a front door improves health and well-being.

Scientists apparently gathered data from about 30,000 Toronto residents – and from about 530,000 trees the city had already mapped.

The results are certainly eye opening.

The Heartbeat of Trees follows up on the success of The Hidden Life of Trees.

The study found that “ten more trees in a residential neighbourhood improved the health of the residents as much as an increase of $10,000 in income a year ( including the improved medical care that comes with such an increase.)”

Wohlleben adds that this is not just about mental health.

If you are interested in this book or other gardening books be sure to check out the impressive selection at Alibris (link).

“The liklihood of heart and circulatory diseases, the leading cause of death in North America these days, dropped measurably. Eleven more trees in the neighbourhood was an improvement in cardio-metabolic health equivalent to an additional $20,000 a year or, measured another way, it reduced a person’s biological age by 1.4 years.”

This is just one of the gems found in this New York Times best-selling author’s follow-up to The Hidden Life of Trees, a book that not only revealed to the world the incredible importance of trees in our climate-threatened world, but was also made into a critically acclaimed movie by the same name. Go here, to check out my earlier article on this ground-breaking book.

(Dr. Nadina Galle has taken her inpspiration from The Hidden Life of Trees and The Heartbeat of Trees and used it as a building block in her groundbreaking work to use smart technology to monitor the health of the urban forest. Read about her outstanding work here in my recent article The Internet of Nature.)

Pocket Forests are an intriguing approach to creating miniature forests. Check out my post on creating a mini-forest.

A forest prospers as a family group

The author is quick to point out, however, that although a single tree is a great thing, a forest is much better.

The Hidden Life of Trees was clear about the benefits of forests over singular trees planted on a front yard surrounded by non-native grass and facing the world – the beating sun, the cold winds, freezing temperatures – on their own. He compares the “street trees” that are found in most urban environments, to “street kids.” These lone trees face difficult and almost always shortened lives compared to trees that share resources as a family group in a proper forest or woodland.

The new book places more of the human element into the equation.

Wohlleben is convinced that ancient ties linking humans to the forest remain alive and intact. The test so many of us face is whether we are able, in an era of cell phone addiction and ever-expanding cities, to allow ourselves to rediscover nature, to reconnect with the forest and feel its heartbeat once again.

Whether we feel this connection or not, he points out with scientific evidence how our blood pressure stabilizes near trees and how the colour green calms us, while, the forest, especially at night sharpens our senses.

The 264-page book published this past June by Greystone Books is the perfect follow up to The Hidden Life of Trees, a book that introduced the world to a form of communication between a family of trees in the forest and their connection to the “Mother Tree.”

His new work takes another step into the forest and introduces readers to a host of revelations about our relationship with trees, forests and especially those who are left to care for the earth’s remaining trees.

“The Heartbeat of Trees reveals the profound interactions humans can have with nature, exploring the language of the forest, the consciousness of plants, and the eroding boundary between flora and fauna,” the book’s promotional material states. "The author “shares how to see, feel, smell, hear, and even taste your journey into the woods.”

“Above all, he reveals a wondrous cosmos where humans are a part of nature, and where conservation is not just about saving trees – it’s about saving ourselves, too.”

Forest bathing: Is it a new trend?

Nowhere is this more evident than his chapter on “Forest bathing.”

I doubt this is a new term to readers, but if it is, the act of forest bathing involves submersing yourself into the quiet, soothing sounds, smells and spirit of a natural forest.

Today, in Japan, a doctor can write a prescription for their patient that includes a “walk in the woods – a sick note, as it were, that gives you permission to spend time in the forest.”

This trend in natural medicine is making its way to Western medicine in the form of forest bathing.

For my comprehensive post on Forest Bathing, please go here.

Wohlleben points out that “with the longing for natural spaces forest bathing has spilled out of Asia, Called shinrin-yoku in Japanese, the whole thing sounds like ancient wisdom. However, it isn’t at all. Quite the opposite is true, in fact. Japanese forest agencies came up with the idea and the name in 1982 as a way to make people more aware of the health benefits of the country’s forests.

According to Dr. Qing Li of the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, Japan, Forest Bathing is simple. In is 300-page book published on the subject, he explains how it works.

Turns out it is very simple. “Choose a forest you like (it could even be in a city park) and you go there to relax,” Wohlleben explains.

“Then you gather all your senses and dive into all the smells, sounds and sensations. According to Li, all you need to do is accept the forest’s invitation to slow down. Mother Nature takes care of the rest.”

Although he admits some skepticism over the whole “forest bathing” phenomena, he tells the story of a family walk in the forest. After some time resting and talking after a long walk in the wood he maanges, the author remembers how he and his family slowly began to relax as they enjoyed their company and the sights sounds and smells of the forest to the point where they were more relaxed than they ever could be at home.

It’s a relaxed state only the forest can help us achieve and one that takes us back to our ancient roots.

The Heartbeat of Trees is, by no means, all about natural remedies and how we can discover ourselves in the depths of ancient forests.

Ancient forests are under threat

In the final chapters Wohlleben warns readers about the threats our natural forest face and the efforts by small groups to save these critical remaining old-growth (or at least important) forests.

Unfortunately, these challenges are world wide.

He talks about his experience hiking up to a tiny ancient spruce tree names “Tjikko” that has lived for 9,550 years in a national park in Sweden. He talks about his fears for its future amid tourists trying to capture selfies with the highly threatened piece of natural history that for so many is nothing but an opportunity to stumble around it and its ancient roots for nothing more than a quick selfie for social media.

He tells the story of the Kwiakah First Nation in British Columbia, Canada that is fighting to save its forest in The Great Bear Rainforest from the timber industry. Clear cutting is threatening their traditional hunting and fishing grounds, not to mention the unique ecosystem that Mother Nature has created.

Of course, Canada is not alone. He tells of similar stories in Germany, throughout Europe where old-growth forests are non-existant and on the border of Poland and Belarus where an important forest (the Bialowieza) of oaks, lindens, hornbeams, maples and spruce is being threatened.

Wohlleben’s conclusion leaves plenty of room for optimism for our future and the future of our children.

He concludes: “… people have sown the seeds of hope across generations so that now a complete change in direction is being ushered in. A change that is taking place in not in our minds but in our hearts.”

Words well spoken, but I prefer to leave the last word with Richard Louv, author of “Our Wild Calling and The Last Child in the Woods. (See my earlier article on why children need more nature in their lives)

“As human beings, we’re desperate to feel that we’re not alone in the universe. And yet we are surrounded by an ongoing conversation that we can sense if, as Peter Wohlleben so movingly prescribes, we listen to the heartbeat of all life.”

Vic MacBournie 11/5/21 Vic MacBournie 11/5/21

Three of the best grasses for fall and winter interest

Three of the best ornamental grasses for fall and winter interest in the woodland garden include Miscanthus Sinensis, Northern Sea Oats, and Pennisetum alopecuroides or Fountain Grass. All three have excellent fall seed heads which remain on the plants throughout the winter. This article explores different ways the plants can be used either as a privacy screen in the landscape, or in containers and window boxes.

Ornamental grasses are often overlooked in the heat of the summer, but as fall approaches grasses emerge as the centrepiece of many gardens.

Ornamental grasses provide movement in the slightest wind, they’re drought tolerant and provide needed texture and height in the garden throughout summer and winter. They’re easy to grow, even easier to maintain, provide habitat for insects (bird food), and add an elegance to gardens that is difficult to obtain through traditional plantings.

In fall, their seed heads rise above the tallest of plants and often become the stars of our garden.

What’s not to love?

If you’re fussy, there’s an ornamental grass made just for you.

Be sure to check out my post on three of the best grasses for a shade or woodland garden. You might also like to read my post on Why we should leave ornamental grasses standing all winter.

Ranging in size from the massive Pampas grasses to the small and compact Caraxes; from colourful varieties like Japanese Blood grass to shades of variegated green best most evident in the popular forms of porcupine grass. There are also popular annual grasses, like the purple fountain grass, to add to the array of impressive perennial grasses.

Grasses are so adept, that they work in almost any garden style from shady woodland gardens, to sunny meadow gardens.

Miscanthus Sinensis Gracillimus or Chinese Silver Grass stands out beautifully in the fall garden with its silvery plumes. In the rear, a drift of Chasmanthium Latifolium or (Northern Sea Oats), complete with its interesting seed heads, spreads around the birch clump.

Best ornamental grasses for fall and winter

But let’s take a close look at three of the best ornamental grasses for fall.

My favourite ornamental grasses for fall and winter in my garden are Miscanthus Sinensis Gracillimus or Chinese Silver Grass, Pennisetum or fountain grass including Karley Rose, and Chasmanthium Latifolium (Northern Sea Oats).

All three are strong performers in the fall and even better in the winter when a dusting of snow creates a lovely vignette in the landscape.

This garden vignette on the edge of the Japanese garden benefits from three large Miscanthus plantings that help create a sense of privacy.

Chinese Silver Grass is perfect for privacy

Miscanthus Sinensis is an outstading ornamental grass that comes into its own in late summer when the purplish flower plumes rise up above the strapping green foliage and grows to heights of 5-6 ft, tall (150-180 cm) and in well-behaved clumps of 3-4 ft. wide (90-120 cm).

Give them plenty of sun in good to average well-drained soil and this stalwart of the late summer garden will perform admirably for years with nothing but an annual clipping.

Miscanthus is perfect as a natural privacy screen

Not only does this plant look great through summer and fall, it can be used to create an elegant natural privacy hedge. Plant it in groupings of three or five in strategic spots around your patio or fround-level deck to create a graceful, soft screen that does the same job as a static wood or metal panel, but has the added benefit of adding movement with a gentle breeze.

I use it in three places in our garden. Three large plants grow on the edge of our Japanese-inspired garden creating a lovely backdrop (see photograph above) for one of our large boulders and weeping Japanese Maple. But it’s real purpose is to act as a living privacy screen that looks as good from my neighbour’s side as our side where it creates a lovely garden vignette.

I have two other large clumps on the edges of our dry river bed to help create a natural look, and another close to the house to help hide a downspout.

Miscanthus as a plant for winter interest

As fall and winter approaches, the purplish flower plumes so prominent in the summer landscape take on a creamy wheat colour followed by a silvery luminance that creates a dramatic presence when backlit.

These plumes rise high above the narrow, green leaves with white midribs and last well into winter.

The leaves of the grasses slowly take on a wheat-coloured look of their own for the winter.

An added bonus is that the plant is both pest and disease free and for woodland/wildlife gardeners deer and rabbit resistant. Birds are attracted to the spent grasses in winter where plenty of insects use it to overwinter. Smaller birds will also use the strong plume stems as perches in winter, especially in more open areas devoid of natural perches. They also provide excellent photographic opportunities when they are perched on the stems.

The plant is native to Asia and can be invasive in parts of the United States and other warmer climates, so check before you plant this potentially invasive grass.

Alternatives to Miscanthus Sinensis Gracillimus in areas where it is considered invasive include natives: Andropogon gerardii (Big Bluestem), Chasmanthium Latifolium (Northern Sea Oats), Panicum virgatum (Switch Grass), or Elymus hystrix (Bottlebrush Grass).

The foliage can be cut back in early spring (4-6 inches up from the base) before the new shoots begin to show themselves. Don’t worry if you leave it a little late, just cut the spent stems a little higher so you don’t cut off the tips of the new growth. It won’t be long before new growth covers last year’s dried stems.

I use a hedge trimmer with great success to cut down my ornamental grasses. A cordless model like this from Gardener’s Supply Company is is an excellent choice and will make the task much easier.

The spent stems can get quite thick and difficult to cut in the spring.

(Be sure to read my story on best way to cut back ornamental grass.)

Fountain Grass showing off its fall seed heads in the morning sun. — One of our fountain grasses in full fall bloom (November) in morning sun.

Fountain grass: A compact ornamental grass

Pennisetum alopecuroides or Fountain grass has long been a favourite in the garden. These elegant grasses form the perfect, compact, mound making them a standout in both our front and back gardens.

The easy-care and natural look of Fountain grass (their are several hybrids including a dwarf variety which I use in our garden) makes it a must for any garden looking to add summer, fall and winter interest.

Like the name suggests, the growth habit creates a fountain-like appearance in late summer and fall when the pinkish seed heads emerge surrounding the entire densely clumped mound of fine grasses. Over time, the pinkish plumes turn a creamy tan colour where they remain into late winter providing delicate foliage displays well into the winter months.

The densely clumped growth provide ideal habitat for overwintering insects. Besides the insects and larvae that overwinter in the thick grass, I have seen goldfinches feeding on the seeds of the plumes late into winter when the grasses were the only vegetation still poking their heads out of the deep snow.

This perennial is easy to grow and maintain. Mine have self seeded in the garden, and I have also divided it in the spring after the plants’ centre died out.

Centre-die-out is common with many grasses after several years of growth. You will notice a circle of dead foliage forming in the centre of the plant. At this stage, simply dig out the clump of grass, divide it into several plants (usually 3 or four) compost the centre of dead grass and plant the three or four divisions. Within a short time, the divisions will recover and fit right in.

Fountain grass in full bloom with a smaller fountain grass to the left that doesn’t get the full sun and always struggle to bloom. Northern Sea Oats, with its coppery blooms, can be seen blooming in the top left corner.

Ideal container plants

These divisions are perfect to use in containers for a year or two where their compact growth makes them the perfect filler during the spring and summer months before graduating into thrillers during the fall. I have used it in our window boxes for a year, eventually transplanting it into a larger container for a couple of years before moving it back into the garden as a full-sized specimen.

There are several types of fountain grass you might want to explore including the popular annual – purple fountain grass – that can grow to 4 feet and put on quite the late-summer and show. Remember that it is an annual in all but the warmest growing zones and will have to be replanted in spring.

Another fountain grass to consider is the hybrid Karley Rose. Proven Winners has developed a beautiful specimen (PW Link here) that grows in zones 5-9 with upright clumps of graceful arching green foliage and impressive rose-purple plumes from early summer until frost. It grows up to 40 inches in height with a spread of between 24-36 inches.

In our garden, we have grown an earlier version of Karley Rose for about 10 years. While it performs admirably in both our front and back gardens, I find its growth habit is less compact than the less hybridized versions. Our dog, Holly, loves to role in it all summer keeping it untidy and not looking its best.

Northern Sea Oats takes centre stage in this window box planting. The grass has an almost bamboo look to it. Beside the Northern Sea Oats is a small clump of Little Blue Stem which also performed well in the window box before being moved to the back meadow garden.

Northern Sea Oats at home in the woodland garden

Chasmanthium Latifolium or (Northern Sea Oats) always reminds me of the seashore. I must have first seen the plant growing in the sand while I was at the beach. Now I get to relive that same experience almost daily in my own garden.

Northern Sea Oats is one of the most interesting of the fall grasses, with it’s hop-like seed heads that flutter in the breeze and turn a purple-bronze-brown in the fall. Leave the seed heads on for winter interest or cut them off to use in dried flower arrangements.

It’s a relatively low maintenance plant that likes full to part sun and grows down to zone 4a.

It works as an accent plant, in a mass planting, naturalized in a woodland garden or used as a border edging.

Northern Sea Oats will grow to about 4 feet with a spread of 30 inches. Its foliage, that stretches right to the ground, is elegant and grows in a loose clump.

Northern Sea Oats also work nicely in containers as a late-season thriller. In fact, I used them this year in our window box as the thriller and it worked well. (see photo above) The grasses are now in our back flower meadow spreading their seed heads around for next year.

Be careful with Sea Oats, the seed heads will sprout the following year where they fall. Last year, I cut some of the seed heads off to use as a backdrop for bird photography, and noticed that this year a number of new plants are growing up where the seed heads were left.

In conclusion

If you have not experimented with any ornamental grass yet, consider picking up the annual Purple Fountain Grass and use it in a garden location where you might want to plant some larger grasses. I’m almost certain you will be converted to the joy of ornamental grasses.

If you are trying to use only native grasses in the garden, you would do well to consider purchasing Little Bluestem or Big Bluestem as starting points. These clump-forming grasses are maintenance free, easy to grow and add a little blue to the garden scheme.

Another standout in the fall garden is Japanese Blood grass. It’s a stellar performer adding a pop or red to the late summer and fall garden. The green grass tips take on a pinkish red colour in late summer into fall adding a lovely pop of colour to the landscape. I use a little of it under a birch clump where it grows up through sedum and acts as the perfect backdrop to a school of Fish in the Garden. (You can see it in the attached video)

Vic MacBournie 11/1/21 Vic MacBournie 11/1/21

How to define shade in a woodland or shady garden

Trying to understand the different levels of shade in the woodland garden can be complicated. Here is a guide to learning the definition of full shade, part-shade and high-canopy shade compared to full-sun and part-sun situations.

Not all shade in the garden is created equal

A question often heard in gardening circles, especially woodland gardening, is what’s the difference between part sun and part shade? How do you define full shade, full sun?

Let’s face it, the distinctions between full shade, light shade and partial shade can get very confusing.

Even more confusing is trying to understand what will grow best in these conditions. A garden bed in the deep shade on the side of your home might be quite different than the same garden bed adjacent to a white clapboard home that reflects soft, beautiful light onto the garden bed throughout the day.

The garden bed in deep shade would be ideal for ferns and hostas, but the same bed enjoying the soft reflected light would enable the gardener to experiment with a much larger array of flowering plants and shrubs, at least until a new neighbour moves in and decides a hip black-sided home is much more chic.

Either way, paying attention to how the sun plays on the garden floor will go a long way to help guide you on what plants will do best in particular areas of the garden.

A cardinal sits among the beautiful blooms of our crabapple tree in late spring before the locust and other woodland trees have cast their shade over the garden.

What to plant in a full-sun area of the shade garden

In a woodland or shade garden, full sun is not something experienced very often, although there can be spots that are open to full day sun.

In the front of our property close to the street, we experience pretty much full sun for most of the day. We have a dry-river bed across the front that allows good drainage through what was once a deep drainage ditch that seemed to suck in cars turning in the cul-de-sac on a weekly basis.

Native Ornament grasses (including little bluestem), Blue Fescue, Black-eyed Susans and creeping phlox combines nicely in the hot, dry, very sunny site.

Other areas in the garden get varying amounts of sun but, let’s face it, the majority of time the garden is in a form of shade.

It’s important not to get too wrapped up in what plants to grow in the various locations throughout your garden. Obviously a sun-loving plant is not going to do well in deep shade, but it might perform well in partial or high shade.

Push the boundaries in part-sun, part-shady sites

A little experimenting will go a long way in helping to build your knowledge about plant growing conditions. Don’t be afraid to push the boundaries, testing various plants to see how they perform in different locations.

Shade-loving plants are adapted to lower levels of light and their foliage will often burn if they are planted in an area if the sun is too direct and falls on the plant too long. These plants not only suffer from too much sun, but what that sun may be doing to the soil around it.

Shady soils can be moist or dry but sunny soil is most often dry and needs a good quality mulch to keep it moist. It may also need supplemental watering during times of drought.

The same can be said for shady soil surrounded by heavy roots. By choosing plants that do well in dry shade, success will come much easier. Try fringed bleeding heart, bears breeches and American bellflower.

Finding the right growing conditions is key to success and the amount of shade plays a key role in finding this success.

Basic light level definitions will often point to the following chart as a simple example:

Full sun - 6 or more hours of direct sun per day
Part sun - 4 to 6 hours of direct sun per day, including some afternoon sun
Part shade - 4 to 6 hours of direct sun per day, mostly before midday
Full shade - less than 4 hours of direct sun per day

When it comes to shade, however, a more detailed explanation will help woodland gardeners better understand their unique situations.

If you are looking for garden gift ideas, Amazon has put together a a great package of ideas to help you out this holiday season. Click on the Gardening 101 link below.

Guide to shade levels in a woodland garden

• Full shade is deep, all-day shade often found beneath the canopies of large maples and oak trees or if you are planting in a conifer forest. In an urban environment, this is the type of deep shade found beneath skyscraper canyons with buildings that absorb light rather than reflect it.

• Light shade is a form of dappled shade that is probably the most common in most woodland gardens. It is often the shadows that fall on the woodland floor beneath fine-leaved trees such as the ferny leaves of locust trees or birch trees. In our garden we are blessed with mature Locust trees that provide a perfect soft light throughout the day. In this light, rays of sunlight are able to filter through the fine leaves creating shifting patterns of soft light and shadow throughout the day. This light is ideal for growing most woodland plants from hostas, to dogwoods.

•Partial shade can be described similarly to light shade (above). But it can also be described as having sun for part of the day and shade for the remainder of the day. Whether this sun is at its strongest in the morning, or in the heat of the afternoon will dictate the best growing conditions for particular plants, shrubs and trees. Morning sun is ideal for most traditional woodland plants that benefit from the less intense heat and sunshine. Afternoon sun and extreme heat that it can bring is probably better for meadow plants and grasses that can survive the intensity. If would provide an ideal spot for Black-Eyed Susans, coneflowers, and native ornamental grasses.

• High shade is often the result of a woodland tree canopy that is either very mature, or one that has been heavily limbed up and raised over time to create an almost bare trunk stretching high up into the tree canopy. It can also result in a sparsely planted woodland where few trees remain to cast shade. Trees that grow in a woodland environment have fewer lower branches than those that grow in the open. The lack of low branches means that sunlight can find its way down to the understory plants at various times of the day accept at high noon. This provides favourable lighting conditions for most woodland plants, eliminating the hottest and most intense time of day.

The white trillium begins to take on a pinky shade as spring falls to summer and the tree canopy begins to shade out the spring ephemerals.

What can I grow in deep shade?

It’s important to remember that not all shade is created equal.

The shade cast by spruce and fir trees is quite different from the softer shade cast by our native white pine trees. Only the deepest shade loving wild flowers will do well under the deep and never-ending shade of a spruce grove.

The same deep shade may be found under the canopy of a mature Norway maple, but there are large times during the year where the ground layer under the maples are fully exposed to sun – namely spring and later fall through winter.

In springtime, when the warming suns rays filter through the branches of maples, oaks and other heavily leaved trees, many of our favourite spring ephemerals are free to bloom. Hepatica, Trilliums, Dog-Tooth violets, bloodroot, wild geranium, Columbines and spring beauties bloom for a few short weeks before becoming dormant until the following year. Check out my article on Three of my favourite spring wildflowers.

If you are planning a shade garden, the most important factor to consider is ensuring that the garden will be out of the intense sun during the heat of the summer and between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

In the past, a shady garden was not all that desirable. Gardeners, especially those new to the hobby, craved for a mass of vibrant colour associated with full sun. The dream of a cottage garden meandering through the white picket fence was just too much for many of us not to crave.

Are shade and woodland gardens becoming more popular?

Over time – either by choice or simply because our gardens matured in time and those small trees we planted 30 years ago grew into lovely mature specimens spreading their cooling shade onto our garden beds – we became woodland or shade gardeners to some degree.

Now, with climate change and everything we know about the benefits of staying out of the sun and heat, the woodland/wildlife garden has become the garden of choice for more and more environmental aware gardeners.

Embrace it. Find the joy in simple textures, the subtle shades of green and a little pop of colour provided sparingly throughout the woodland garden.

Add colourful annuals in containers in sunny spots

That’s not to say there is not room for colour. I like to find spots in the garden that get lots of sun and use containers with annuals to add a little colour to the woodland. The containers can even be easily moved around throughout the garden season to follow the changing sun patterns.

Partnering annuals with light conditions is a whole different article and one that has been covered by so many others over the years.

Proven Winners, however, have done an excellent article partnering its impressive list of plants with sunny growing conditions on its website. For a closer look on how to get the most out of your containers when it comes to sun and part-sun situations, check out the Proven Winners site here.

Vic MacBournie 10/16/21 Vic MacBournie 10/16/21

Birch Grove comes to life in Woodland garden

Will a Birch grove attract wildlife in the garden

Why plant a single birch tree when you can plant ten or eleven and create a birch grove?

Technically, our birch grove is not ten separate trees but there are at least ten trunks rising up out of the ground to form the stand or birch grove.

When the birch clumps were first planted about five years ago, the trees were small and offered little support to one another or to local wildlife, but it wasn’t long before these fast-growing trees put on enough growth that their branches began to weave into one another and form an overhead canopy that through a light shade on the ground below including the water from the bubbling rock. I imagine what is going on above ground is also happening underground with the trees’ roots beginning to intermingle and work together to create a highly supportive environment that best supports their needs.

Now that the canopy is forming and the branch tips are beginning to touch one another about six feet up from the ground, it’s not hard to see the affect the grove is having on the trees and the area around them.

Birds are arriving to look for food and check out the trees as a potential nesting site. It’s probably too early for nesting, but the grove certainly offers many of the requirements birds need to set up a successful family, including hosting a number of caterpillars and other insects as well as providing seeds in the fall in the form of catkins.

Beneath the canopy, a small, solar-powered bubbling rock provides a host of birds and small mammals with moving water for both drinking and bathing. The canopy helps to shade the bubbling rock and below-ground water reservoir providing cooler water for birds, mammals and even insects to enjoy three seasons of the year.

More great ideas for under your Birch Grove

Maybe a dry river bed and bubbling rock is of little interest to you. Here are a few other ideas you could create under the canopy of your Birch Grove.

A beautiful bed of moss with a lovely natural bird bath made from granite or copper.
A quiet sitting area complete with a comfortable rustic chair or natural bench. A large single flat-topped boulder would be the perfect addition.
A quiet place with a lovely bird feeder and sitting area to escape to with the birds
A small pond and sitting area where you can relax with a good book

For more stories on the value of birch trees in our woodlands, check out the following stories.

• How long before my birch tree trunks turn white?

• Why are my birch tree leaves turning yellow prematurely?

• In the video that accompanies this article you will notice two schools of ceramic fish. Click on this link for my article on Fish In The Garden.

Why not use a single birch tree?

Would a single large birch tree be good enough?

As Peter Wohllenben explains in his New York Times best seller, The Hidden world of Trees: What They Feel, How they Communicate, a single tree is on its own, braving high winds, blistering heat and full sun. It’s like a “street kid” trying to survive in an extremely difficult world without the help of parents, friends and relatives.

Life is difficult and often short for these trees.

On the other hand, The three clump birches surrounding our bubbling rock and dry-river-bed work together to create their own environment both above and below ground.

They cast shade on one another and help to cool the soil around all of the trees while preserving vital moisture the birches need to thrive in the hot summer months.

The groupings of trees also work together to slow strong, gusting winds from damaging the trees, which can be devastating for birch trees that are particularly susceptible to disease and insect infestation.

The Hidden World of Trees is clear about the benefits of multiple trees working together as a team rather than as singular specimens. In a mature forest, for example, much of the benefit is provided by the “mother tree” that helps nearby related trees through its massive root system.

In his book, Wohlleben writes: “A tree is not a forest. On its own, a tree cannot establish a consistent local climate. It is at the mercy of wind and weather. But together, many trees create an ecosystem that moderates extremes of heat and cold, stores a great deal of water, and generates a great deal of humidity. And in this protected environment, trees can live to be very old. To get to this point, the community must remain intact no matter what. If every tree was looking out for only itself, then quite of few of them would never reach old age.”

How quickly do Birch trees grow?

Birch trees are considered relatively fast growers where they are happy. On a good year, expect anywhere from 13 inches to more than 24 inches (or two feet) a year for your average White Birch tree or clump. River birches have a similar growth habit but can be a much longer-lived tree due to its better resistance to birch tree borers. The paper birch grows to a height of between 50’-70’ with a spread of around 35’ when mature.

Up lighting adds an elegant touch to the look of birch tree clumps in the evening.

Can other trees be planted in groves?

Besides the benefits the actual trees derive from planting groves over a single tree, there is also the aesthetic value that should not be overlooked. Let’s face it, several groupings of the same tree not only looks natural in a woodland setting, it’s can be very impressive in the landscape.

And you don’t have to be limited to a birch grove.

Any time you are planning to create a new garden area, consider planting multiples of the same tree to create similar effects as the birch grove.

Other plantings that would work are a grouping of multi-stemmed serviceberries or pagoda dogwoods. Imagine a grouping of Flowering dogwoods in an area of the garden. These trees are all available in multi-stem forms and grow much smaller than birch trees.

The results would be stunning, small stands that would be invaluable to local wildlife both in spring when they flower and, more importantly, in late summer and fall when the berries create a smorgasbord for native wildlife from birds to mammals.

I remember a professional landscape design plan for a small side yard where the owners required a shaded area that provided quick privacy from neighbours. The design plan called for three, fast growing native single-stem Tulip trees in a relatively confined space. The result, a fast-growing tulip tree stand that, in just a few short years, created a shaded side yard that grew fast enough to provide quick privacy for the family.

The landscaper was quick to point out that the high growth rate of these trees would require regular pruning to keep them under control.

With more time, three single-stem serviceberry trees would create a similar effect, albeit on a smaller scale.

Large plantings make a strong garden statement

But back to our birch grove and why I love it.

The simple answer is that mass plantings look great and create a strong statement in the landscape.

Planting three large clumps to create a grove or stand, makes it clear to visitors that this is an important focal point in the garden.

The beginnings of our Birch Grove

Our birch grove began with a large swath of dead grass. (see images below)

The dying grass, undoubtedly caused by our dog urinating in the area all winter, only provided an opportunity to create something new and more useful than a patch of grass.

Nature’s own grove of trees stand out among maples in the fall on the edge of a natural woodland.

How to plant a birch grove

Planting the birch grove was part of a much larger project – the creation of a bubbling rock at the head of a dry river bed that flows a into a walkway of pea gravel combined with river rock and slate stepping stones.

The design concept was to bring it all together as one large dry-river walkway.

The concept behind the birch grove was to help tie it together vertically and soften the landscape design.

Three large planting holes were dug about 10-feet apart in a triangular form and backfilled with a moderate amount of high quality soil. (I tend not to change the soil makeup in the planting hole too much, preferring to allow the tree roots to grow primarily in the soil they will eventually live in for the majority of their lives.)

Unless you have clay soil, plant the clump so that the top of the root ball is level with the soil. Planting it higher will limit its ability to get water. If you have clay soil, consider digging out larger planting holes, adding gravel to the bottom of the hole and planting the top of the root ball a few inches higher to ensure the trees don’t drown from sitting in a bowl of water.

Birch trees require moist soil so mulching around the tree roots is vital.

In our case, the mulch ranges from organic mulch such as shredded bark applied directly around the newly-planted clumps, to living mulch (plants), and non-organic mulch made up primarily of different sized river rock.

The roots of all three clumps will eventually grow beneath the dry-river bed, and the light-coloured stones will reflect any harsh sunlight which will help to keep the tree roots cool.

In other areas surrounding the stand of birches, a thick layer of sedum and ornamental grasses provide an organic mulch that, while robbing the trees of some water, also help to shade the area.

Below is a series of pictures showing the construction of the Birch grove along with the dry river bed and small solar bubbling rock.

What are the best type of Birch trees to create a grove

There are several types of birch trees to consider if you are planning to create a birch grove, including Yellow Birch (Betula alleghaniensis), Sweet Birch (Betula lenta), River Birch (Betula nigra), Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera), Gray Birch (Betual populifolia)

Are some better than others? Absolutely, but it depends on the look you are after.

Birch trees grow in hardiness zones 2 through 7.

For outstanding beauty, the pure white bark of the Paper Birch is likely the best choice. It grows to about 18 meters or 60 ft. with a spread of 11 m or 35 ft. It can live to about 70 years but rarely gets to this age in an urban or even semi-urban environment.

White birches adapt to most types of soil as long as it is cool in summer preferring long winters and mild summers. They are also susceptible to a number of insects, including the highly destructive bronze birch borers. Regular fertilizing and mulching the tree roots helps the tree resist borers.

Cultivars are also available that are created to better resist borers.

Don’t underestimate, however, the more subtle beauty of the River Birch with its extensive amounts of exfoliating cinnamon-coloured bark with pink undertones. The River Birch is more borer resistant than white bark birches, which makes it a much longer-lived landscape tree.

River Birches grow to about the same height and width as White Birch, also likes full sun and is considered a fast grower.

In another area of our garden, I have used three weeping silver birches (Betula pendula) to create a small grove. The weeping birches are European species that require many of the same conditions as the native trees – primarily mild summer and cold winters together with moist soil and a sunny area.

What birds and other wildlife are attracted to birch trees?

Birds are attracted to all forms of Birch trees for the food they provide in the form of seeds (found in cone-shaped strobili), buds. Birds are especially attracted to Birch trees in spring for the wealth of insects (primarily caterpillars). Birch trees also have high sap content, which makes them a favorite of the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. Other birds that use Birch Trees as a food source include American Goldfinch, Black-Capped Chickadee, Blue Jays, Dark-Eyed Junco, Eastern Towhee, insect-eating Warblers, Northern Cardinals, Pine Siskin, Purple Finch, Tufted Titmouse and Nuthatches.

Vic MacBournie 10/13/21 Vic MacBournie 10/13/21

How long before Paperbark Birch trunks turn white?

Birch trees are among the most used trees in our landscapes because of their showy white bark that is a real standout in all seasons. How long does it take before the bark turns white? A typically-sized tree purchased at a local nursery can take between 3-5 years before it turns white. A more mature tree would take less time and a very young tree would take up to ten years to turn white.

One of the prettiest trees in our landscapes are undoubtedly White Birch. Their incredible white bark lights up the landscape throughout the seasons, especially if the trunks are uplighted at night to draw even more attention to their glowing white trunks.

But how long does it take the trunks of a typical Paper Bark White Birch tree Betula papyrifera to turn from the cinnamon brown colour present in immature trees into the outstanding white papery bark we are all so familiar with in the landscape?

The answer to that question may vary to some degree depending on the age of the tree purchased from the nursery, the location the tree is planted and the amount of water and, to a lesser degree, the soil conditions where it is growing.

In a typical, store-bought clump or single-stem White Birch tree that is small enough to carry home in the back of your hatchback wagon or truck, you can expect at least a 3- to 4-year wait before the trunks begin to turn white. If you purchase a more mature tree that is already beginning to show signs of whitish-orange bark, expect a year or maybe two before the reddish-brown bark with its horizontal slits (lenticels) gives way to a reddish orange bark and eventually is peeled off enough to reveal the white paper bark.

Very immature trees that are purchased as “whips” may take up to ten years before you are blessed with solid white birch bark.

The white birch bark of this clump shows how far along the three main trunks are in comparison to the much younger fourth trunk still in its reddish-brown phase. This fourth trunk is probably 2-3 years away from taking on its all-white trunk. The solar-powered uplighting on the white trunks creates a real mood in the evenings.

How quickly do Birch trees grow?

Birch trees are considered relatively fast growers where they are happy. On a good year, expect anywhere from 13 inches to more than 24 inches (or two feet) a year for your average White Birch tree or clump. The paper birch grows to a height of between 50’-70’ with a spread of around 35’ when mature. The River Birch enjoys a similar growth habit.

This image illustrates the peeling bark of another one of our clump birches that is just entering its pure white phase. The cinnamon bark on the left is just beginning to reveal the white bark. It’s noteworthy that this clump is just 9 or 10 feet from the clump shown above that is much further along in its transformation from reddish brown to white.

Should I plant a birch tree in my urban landscape?

The white birch is a medium-sized tree that is very common in urban landscapes despite its relatively short-lived existence under these more difficult conditions.

Birch trees are generally unable to handle excessive heat and humidity which are often exacerbated in urban landscapes where they are planted near asphalt driveways or close to homes where they are unable to get proper air flow to keep them cooler.

These urban trees and others living in zones 6 and up may live only about 30 years – even less if they are under extreme stress.

It’s a good idea to keep this in mind when planning a landscape in urban areas. Birch trees cannot be counted on to live long lives and may have to be removed leaving a large hole just when your landscape has matured nicely and is looking its best. On the other hand, if you have a very sunny area, say for example in a new subdivision, a fast-growing birch tree will bring relief from the hot sun and provide a beautiful specimen for years to come. A good idea might be to plant a small, slower-growing oak or maple tree nearby which will slowly take over once the birch tree begins to decline.

At some point, you could even cut down the birch tree to make room for the larger, more long-lived native oak or maple.

In the wild, or in a more rural location or woodland-type garden, the white birch is often able to survive longer and grow to heights of between 50 and 70 feet. A typical trunk measures about 1 to 2 feet wide. Trees in colder climates, however, can even live for more than 100 years.

The leaves of the white birch are ovate and the catkins (male and female flowers) can grow up to 4 inches long. The female catkins form cylindrical cones that disintegrate when ripe, spreading the seeds which are eaten by many birds and small mammals including chickadees, redpolls, voles and ruffed grouse.

By uplighting the Birch clumps, you can appreciate their white trunks both day and night.

For more on Birch Trees in the Woodland garden check out my other articles:

Planting the perfect Birch Grove

Why are my Birch leaves turning yellow prematurely

On our property, we have two areas with birch trees: a grouping of three narrow weeping purple birch in the front that were purchased as very young whips, and three clump birches planted in the back yard that together have at least ten main trunks combined.

Our final clump of birch trees planted at the same time as the other two clumps, is significantly behind the other clumps in growth and maturity despite being purchased and planted at the same time. This clump, although already in the ground for four years, is still a year or two away from obtaining their white trunks.

The three young whips (Betula pendula ‘Purpurea’ )planted in the front took several years to begin displaying their white trunks. After maybe ten years of growth they have matured into a lovely grouping of weeping birch trees. These trees are slow-growing and upright as young trees, that eventually begin to weep more with age, and sport bronze-purple leaves and silver-grey bark.

The clump birches in the backyard are further along after only about 3-4 years in the ground. To give you an idea about the original size of the clumps, they were all purchased from a big-box store and taken home in the back of our Subaru Outback wagon. Although the containers were quite large, I was able to get all three into the back of the wagon to transport them home. (This helps to give readers an idea of the trees’ original size.)

Our three clump birches in the back were all planted at the same time and within about six feet to 10 feet of one another to create a small birch grove. They are, however, taking on their magnificent white trunks at significantly different rates. This tells me that the amount of sun, water and quality of soil they receive have obviously also played a role in how quickly the trees take on their papery-white trunks.

Birch trees are early colonizers after a fire or natural disaster so they prefer to grow in open sunny areas and will not do well in shade. Our clump that is the slowest to mature is also the clump that gets the least amount of sun. The other two clumps block much of the sun from the third clump.

The trees also require plenty of water, so mulching around the tree roots to retain moisture is a good idea.

Recent hot, dry spells have stressed our birch trees in the backyard to the point where their leaves are beginning to turn yellow and dropping off a little earlier than I would like. Deep watering is required, especially prior to winter to keep the trees hydrated.

(Go here, for my article explaining early leaf drop of birch trees.)

A male cardinal sits in Birch Tree that is just beginning to get its white bark. — A male cardinal hanging out in a birch tree just beginning to get its white bark.

Why is the bark white?

Studies have shown that the white bark of birch trees serves it well when it comes to regulating the tree’s internal temperature, especially in the more northern climates where the trees tend to live much longer.

The white bark is known to reflect the sun’s heat away from the tree during cold spells, which helps to protect the tree’s vital cambium layer just beneath the bark.

If the Birch’s bark were the more typical dark colour found in other trees, the life-giving liquid that travels up and down the tree’s trunk through the cambium layer would be constantly fluctuating between freezing and thawing, which would eventually weaken and kill the tree. The reflective qualities of the white birch bark helps to regulate the temperature and allow the trees to survive during extreme weather conditions.

This trait is likely to play an important role in the tree’s survival as climate change continues to play havoc with our more northern growing zones.

Vic MacBournie 10/5/21 Vic MacBournie 10/5/21

How trees communicate in our woodland gardens: The Hidden Life of Trees

The Hidden Life of Trees is a New York Times bestseller every Woodland Gardener needs to read. Author Peter Wohlleben explores how trees communicate in nature and how they struggle in urban environments calling them “street kids” and explaining the difficulties they face in our woodland gardens and on urban environments.

Do trees work together to help one another?

If you love trees – and I know every woodland gardener does – then you need to get The Hidden Life of TREES. (Amazon Link)

Peter Wohlleben’s 288-page, New York Times best seller will open up a new world for Woodland gardeners looking for answers about what is really going on in their backyards, local woodlots and ancient forests.

There is a reason this book has sold more than 2 million copies. Canadian publisher Greystone Books unleashed the book in its 8th printing on September, 2016 in the First English Language Edition, and has never looked back. (A fully illustrated coffee-table version is also available, see below.)

Not convinced about the importance of this book, consider that it has also been made into a movie. Check out this YouTube link for a taste of The Hidden Life of Trees movie version. (It will be available on AppleTV starting the month of October.)

It should come as no surprise to any of us that several backyard trees work together to create their own environment – from cooling our yards with shade to creating their own fertilization and micro environments at ground level.

Sit back and relax with a good coffee and The Hidden Life of Trees. The New York Times best seller is a must for Woodland gardeners.

What will come as a surprise to most of us, however, is the incredible goings on under our feet – from just a few inches beneath the soil to the depths many of our mighty tree roots reach. Beneath the soil there’s a communication highway where battles are waged, where life and death struggles play out through the seasons, and where families of trees come together through the “Mother Tree” and work together, sometimes over centuries, to survive, and ensure the health and prosperity of the woodland.

If you are looking to purchase the Hidden Life of Trees, or any other gardening book for that matter, be sure to check out the outstanding selection and prices at alibris books.

Armed with this knowledge, woodland gardeners can begin to make sense of so many questions about our gardens; its forest canopies, why a variety of tree is not flourishing and how we can help our woodland thrive.

(Dr. Nadina Galle has taken her inspiration from The Hidden Life of Trees and The Heartbeat of Trees and used it as a building block in her groundbreaking work to use smart technology to monitor the health of the urban forest. Read about her outstanding work here in my recent article The Internet of Nature.)

But this is not a how-to book. There are no pictures of trees. There are no outright tips for how to plant trees, where to plant them or when to plant them.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate is a book that explores the often mysterious lives of individual trees, of forests, of trees left alone to fend for themselves in urban areas, on our streets and in our backyards. This is a book, written by a German forester, about how trees have communicated with one another over decades and even centuries, how they work together to save their own against disease, natural disasters, man’s destructive habits and the invaders we have brought that threaten the very existence of our native trees. Underlying it all, is the affect climate change is having and will continue to have on our woodlands, our urban forests and ancient rainforests.

“Life as a forester became exciting once again. Every day in the forest was a day of discovery. This led me to unusual ways of managing the forest. When you know that trees experience pain and have memories and that tree parents live together with their children, then you can no longer just chop them down and disrupt their lives with large machines.”

— Peter Wohlleben

Will a single tree thrive in my yard?

The author makes it clear from the beginning that the lone tree in the middle of our front and back yards surrounded by grass that is so prevalent in many urban homes, is not an ideal situation for a tree’s prosperity.

“A tree is not a forest. On its own, a tree cannot establish a consistent local climate. It is at the mercy of wind and weather. But together, many trees create an ecosystem that moderates extremes of heat and cold, stores a great deal of water, and generates a great deal of humidity. And in this protected environment, trees can live to be very old. To get to this point, the community must remain intact no matter what. If every tree was looking out for only itself, then quite of few of them would never reach old age.”

The above quote may well explain why our urban trees rarely reach maturity, let alone old age. Where I live, this is clearly evident in local birch trees. In the heart or our urban communities these trees rarely survive into maturity. In the older, more rural areas where trees are less crowded and are given more room to grow, Birch trees seem to do much better. In my yard, I have planted three clumps quite close to one another and they seem extremely happy, possibly beginning to communicate with one another.

As trees struggle on their own, some would die opening up the forest floor to sunlight, the author explains. “The heat of summer would reach the forest floor and dry it out. Every tree would suffer.”

Do trees help one another survive?

If we conclude that every tree is valuable to the forest community and worth keeping around, it should come as no surprise that, as Wohlleben writes, “…even sick individuals are supported and nourished until they recover.”

He compares them to a herd of elephants. “like the herd, they, too look after their own, and they help their sick and weak back up onto their feet. They are even reluctant to abandon their own.”

If you have never thought about trees in this way, you may be shocked about how deep Wohlleben goes to explain just how extensively trees communicate through primarily – but not limited to – underground networks.

For the doubters, let me just say that his arguments and scientific data are hard to ignore.

Five key takeaways from this book

• Trees are much more complicated than most of us realize and their means of communication are complex and sophisticated.

• The importance of planting a grouping (possibly an island or a grove if possible) of the same variety of native trees is much more beneficial than planting individual specimens, especially if they are non-native trees.

• Recognizing that a tree’s needs must be met not just after initial planting but long into their growth cycle is important, and reducing physical barriers can be critically important.

• Single trees planted in our yards are more on their own than we might realize, and it matters that they cannot communicate easily with other trees. Best to take extra care of these lone trees.

• A woodland garden thrives not only because it is more natural than say a cottage garden, but because trees work together to create a positive environment that helps to guarantee success even when they are threatened.

Can trees communicate?

Consider that four decades ago, scientists noticed an interesting phenomenon on the African savannah.

They noted that giraffes feeding on acacia trees moved on quickly to other trees. The same scientists discovered that mere minutes after the giraffes began feeding on the trees, the acacias began pumping toxic substances into their leaves to ward off the large herbivores. The giraffes moved on, walked past a number of nearby acacias, before resuming their feeding on a group of trees about 100 yards away.

“The reason for this behavior is astonishing. The acacia trees that were being eaten gave off a warning gas that signaled to neighbouring trees of the same species that a crisis was at hand. Right away, all the forewarned trees also pumped toxins into their leaves to prepare themselves…. The giraffes were wise to this game and therefore moved farther away … to a part of the savannah where they could find trees that were oblivious to what was going on.”

The entire book is filled with fascinating stories about how trees’ self defences are used to ward off fungal diseases, beetle attacks and even how they deal with woodpeckers and other potentially destructive mammals that depend on trees for their own survival.

This is just an example of the many ways trees may communicate in a natural environment. The book goes on to explain a myriad of ways trees communicate, but in doing so, it also explores the many ways communication between trees is cut off leaving orphaned trees alone and fending for themselves.

Communication between trees growing in managed forests and in many of our urban parks is often restricted and underdeveloped for a variety of reasons explored in the book.

How are single trees like “street kids”?

But it’s the chapters on street kids that many gardeners and homeowners will likely focus on the most.

A drive down a suburban street or through a large city reveals just how many trees are left alone to fend for themselves.

In his book, Wohlleben describes these orphaned trees as “street kids.”

“Urban trees are the street kids of the forest. And some are growing in locations that make the name an even better fit – right on the street. The first few decades of their lives are similar to their colleagues in the park. They are pampered and primped. Sometimes they even have their own personal irrigation lines and customized watering schedules.”

The problem comes when these trees decide it’s time to go out and establish themselves. They quickly meet with hard, unlivable soil and even concrete walkways, roads that don’t allow any water to penetrate down into the hard soil compacted by machinery

“When trees are planted in these restrictive spaces, conflicts are inevitable….The culprit is sentenced to death.”

It is cut down and another planted in its place, but the new one is planted in a built-in root cage to restrict its roots from ever causing damage to the surrounding hardscaping.

Sound familiar?

What problems does a single tree face?

The difficulties “street kids” face does not end there. In large urban areas, where the lights never go out, these trees never get a chance to rest. They need a period of rest to thrive. Often, the concrete traps heat and even winters, another time for the tree to rest, are non-existant.

The sun, too, heats the concrete and black asphalt to the point of killing any living organism in the soil beneath it, depriving the “street kids” of water and nourishment.

In large urban areas these problems are obvious, but take a look around at your own trees and consider if they are facing some of these same problems.

Are the roots of the tree in your front yard growing under the road? Would additional watering help it survive hot, dry periods?

Is your favourite dogwood struggling because it is now in bright sunlight most of the day after a neighbour cut down a large maple exposing it to harsh sunlight? Maybe we need to add a large shade tree nearby to reduce the amount of sunlight hitting the dogwood.

Is your concrete driveway cutting off all water to your favourite roadside maple tree? Maybe it’s time to do what I did and replace the old asphalt or concrete with stone or permeable brick to allow water to seep down into the roots of the tree. Not only will it help the tree, it also reduced the amount of toxic runoff from your driveway into the sewer systems by keeping more water on your property.

As I said earlier: this is not a how-to book, but it certainly provides food for thought about how we can help our own little forest survive and thrive in our woodland garden.

About the Author: Peter Wohlleben spent over twenty years working for the forestry commission in Germany before leaving to put his ideas of ecology into practice. He now runs an environmentally-friendly woodland in Germany, where he is working for the return of primeval forests. He is the author of numerous books about the natural world including The Hidden Life of Trees, The Inner Lives of Animals, and The Secret Wisdom of Nature, which together make up his bestselling The Mysteries of Nature Series. He has also written numerous books for children including Can You Hear the Trees Talking? and Peter and the Tree Children.

If you like the Hidden Life of Trees, be sure to check out its sequel The Heartbeat of Trees recently published.

Vic MacBournie 9/9/21 Vic MacBournie 9/9/21

Unique gift ideas for gardeners

Finding unique garden gift ideas is always challenging. Here are three outstanding garden gifts made by artisans and craftsman. You won’t find these bird feeders, native bee houses or ceramic fish art in big box stores. Order these directly from the artisans.

This exquisite feeder of copper and cedar created and handmade by local artisans is just an example of the unique gift ideas to consider this holiday season.

Unique garden gifts are never easy to find around the holiday season.

By then, most of the interesting garden material is either sold out from the previous summer or stored away in the back waiting to be brought out in the spring.

Fortunately, over the past couple of years, I have come across, and wrote about, some of the finest and unique garden gift ideas possible.

Some are for the birds, some are for the bees, and some are just plain works of art that any gardener and nature lover would love to have in their gardens.

These gift ideas are not available at Big Box stores and few specialty stores even carry them. These unique garden gifts are purchased directly from the outstanding artisans and craftspeople toiling away in their workshops.

All of them ship to customers in the United States, Canada and around the world.

Here are three unique garden gift ideas that I use in my garden and consider to be not only exquisite pieces of craftmanship, but outstanding pieces of art. Two of the gift ideas – the bird houses and the native beehouses – are also hard-working utilitarian pieces for the garden.

The copper and cedar handmade bird feeder

It’s hard to put a price on great design and high quality craftmanship, but if you could the Q&A Ultimate bird feeders would fall under the priceless category.

These are not the heavy duty feeders you fill to the brim with sunflower seed and let the birds and squirrels have their way. We can pick up those feeders anywhere.

These are exquisite little teardrop, fly-through feeders meant to hang by your patio or deck where they’ll likely steal the show whether there is a cardinal or chickadee sitting on the perch or not.

The copper roof is the first indication of their fine craftmanship, but upon closer inspection, it doesn’t take long to recognize the attention to detail in the two perches at both ends of the fly through and how the seed is fed into the inside chamber of the bird feeder.

It’s all the work of French (from France) architects Coraline Allard and Pierre Quesnel, who came to Canada and eventually set up their design business in Toronto. The bird feeders were one of their first ventures and, since that successful launch, the couple have gone on to design a number of exciting creations, including an aluminum beer box – another perfect gift for the “beer drinking” woodland gardener.

In addition, Ferns & Feathers readers (by using the code provided here) will get a 15 per cent discount at the Q&A Etsy website when they make a purchase.

You can visit the Q&A website here.

The couple was featured earlier in this full-length Ferns&Feathers story that you can read here.

Joe Prytula with one of his WeeBee houses is his backyard workshop.

A native bee house that works

You can run out to your local store and pick up a bee house, complete with bamboo straws and holes drilled into wood. Some are okay, others were never meant to really be used more than one season and still other designs are likely more dangerous to our native bees than helpful.

That’s not the case with Joe Prytula’s WeeBee Houses. These things are seriously well-thought out, well made and fun to put up and watch as the native bees find the perfect spot to go to work.

The mason bees, the leaf cutters all finding a safe and happy home in these outstanding works of craftmanship. Joe doesn’t just sell you a native bee house. Included in every WeeBee house is a thorough explanation of how to use the bee house properly to ensure the bees hatch the following spring. Also included are tools to remove the larvae from their homes and store them until their spring release.

weebee house native bee home with crabapple in background.

Talk about the perfect educational gift for children, especially those with a particular interest in nature.

Joe hails from the Niagara region in Canada but ships his Weebee houses to the United States and worldwide.

If you are interested in purchasing one of Joe’s WeebeeHouses, you can either contact him through his instagram account @weebeehouse or by email at [email protected].

Joe offers a discount to Ferns & Feathers readers. Be sure to give him the discount code FernsFeathers10 to receive a 10 per cent discount.

Check out my full story on the Joe’s WeeBee houses here.

To complement Joe’s Weebee house, consider adding Our Native Bees book by Paige Embry. The two would be the perfect combination for gardeners discovering the joy of native plant gardening and attracting native pollinators.

For my compete story on Our Native Bees, take a moment to check out my full story here.

Fish In The Garden work their way through our garden and around a moss-covered boulder.

These ceramic Fish are at home in any garden

Brilliant works of art are often described as beautiful, moving … inspirational. Tyson Weiss’s ceramic Fish In The Garden are all of these things and more.

The “more” is the unique ability to take these works of art and use them to design your own art installations in the garden by moving them around and finding new inspiration in different areas of your garden, even inside your home.

By creating schools of three… five … seven fish swimming through your flower beds, fern garden or around a moss-covered rock in the Japanese garden, for example, you not only experience the art but have the opportunity to create your own installation.

The ceramic fish are made to stay out in extreme weather conditions (either extreme heat or cold) and can add a pop of colour to gardens when colour is at a premium – either in shade gardens or in today’s urban contemporary gardens where the focus is more on textural greens than colourful flowers.

I use two main schools of fish in our garden and a couple of smaller ones for our window boxes and patio container pond.

No other garden art comes close to providing a sense of movement in the garden while at the same time providing me with the opportunity to move the installations around to take advantage of the changing seasons, and highlight particular areas of the garden throughout the seasons.

Tyson works out of his impressive studio in Maine but regularly ships to clients around the world even as far away as Australia.

Fish in The Garden add some pop to a window box

If you are interested in more information on Tyson’s outstanding work, check out my full article here.

To go to Tyson’s informative Fish In The Garden website go here.

In conclusion

Ferns & Feathers makes a real effort to find artisans that offer unique garden gifts that are of the highest quality. These three suggestions are guaranteed to impress anyone lucky enough to receive them as gifts.

They are not just garden items that are thrown away in a few years. All of them are made to last and age gracefully in your garden. As a result, they are priced to reflect their high quality and unique attributes.

They are the type of garden items that can be enjoyed for years and then passed on to children or friends.

They are at home in the woodland garden, the urban garden and even small, balcony-style gardens or backyard patio gardens.

Supporting small artisans is critically important during these difficult times and what better time to tap into their incredible talent than this holiday season.

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Vic MacBournie 9/6/21 Vic MacBournie 9/6/21

Why birch tree leaves turn yellow and fall off prematurely

If the leaves of your birch tree are turning yellow and falling off prematurely, it is likely due to a lack of water. Birch trees are shallow rooted and unable to access water deep in the ground. The solution is to deep water the tree regularly.

If your birch trees are showing early signs of stress with yellowing leaves falling off the tree earlier than expected, you are likely not alone.

It’s been a difficult year for trees throughout North America and parts of Europe with extreme heat and periods of drought that can really tax our urban forests. One just has to look at the wildfires raging around the globe to recognize the difficulty many trees are facing this year.

In our case, the combination of extreme heat (hitting 42-43C or more than 105F), periods of very little rain and a sandy soil that struggles to hold a lot of water for any period of time, has caused some minor stress to our clump birches.

I’ve noticed other birches in the area struggling much in the same way.

One of our birch clumps losing its leaves a little prematurely following a hot, dry summer.

Why are my birch leaves yellowing and falling off

Birches may be feeling the heat more than many other trees because they have a very shallow root structure that fails to go deep enough into the ground to tap into the cooler and more moist soil below the surface. Severe heat and drought easily dries out the top foot or two of the soil and causes some stress to the trees.

Usually, the water from melting snow keeps the soil moist throughout the spring and into the early part of summer, but without significant rainfall during mid-summer combined with severe heat, the trees will show stress by late summer into the fall. Many gardeners may think the trees are exhibiting typical fall leaf drop as the leaves begin to yellow prematurely. But, be careful the leaf drop is not related to stress from lack of water.

The yellowing leaves could also be caused by chlorosis – a mineral difficiency caused by a lack of iron. This is usually the result of alkaline soil and the trees inability to absorb iron in the soil. You’ll know this problem by observing the leaves which turn yellow with green veins. Treatment is relatively simple.

In urban landscapes, Birch trees are often competing with turf grass for the available water, and because the grass absorbs more than its share of water, the trees often are forced to go without, even after a rainstorm.

Give your trees a deep watering

If your trees are surrounded by grass, be sure to take the time to deep-water them by leaving the hose on for several hours (4-6 hours) at a slow but steady trickle.

Do not use a sprinkler for this deep watering. The idea is to get water deep into the ground. Remember, you are not trying to water the lawn around the tree. Move the hose around the perimeter of the tree at or around the drip line (not the trunk of the tree).

It’s never a good idea to have grass coming right up to the trunk of your tree.

If possible, remove all the grass from beneath the tree in a wide berth that replicates the drip line of the tree branches. Obviously, a young tree would need much less grass removed than a more mature one. As the tree grows, consider removing more and more grass to reflect the expanding root structure.

Why do urban birch trees have a short lifespan

One of many reasons birch trees have a short lifespan in an urban environment is caused by turf grass that often surrounds the trees and robs them of both nutrients and water. If it’s not turf absorbing the water around the trees before it can get to the trees’ roots, the water is often blocked by hardscaping that is covering the tree’s roots.

Whether it’s a concrete driveway, walkway or patio, this hardscaping restricts water from getting to the root system, essentially starving the trees of essential moisture.

For more on Birch Trees in the Woodland garden check out my other articles:

Planting the perfect Birch Grove

How long before Birch tree trunks turn white

Planting and caring for a birch grove

In our garden, we have three clump birches about 10-12 feet apart forming a small birch grove of about ten tree trunks in total.

The problem is not grass running up to our clump birches, but they are surrounded by various plants, including ornamental grasses, sedum and a host of perennials. The birch clumps encircle a large dry-river bed that does not rob the roots of any water and provides a non-organic mulch helping to shade the soil above the trees’ roots.

The biggest problem for our clump birches is likely our sandy soil which does not hold water well at all. Knowing this, it is important to mulch the soil around the trees and ensure a deep watering during hot, dry spells every 7-10 days.

Since I have noticed the problem, I will ensure that the trees are well watered between now and the first snows of winter to ensure they are fully nourished and healthy for the long winter ahead.

Will losing leaves prematurely cause any long-term problems?

It’s a question every tree lover is going to be concerned about but, rest assured, it’s highly unlikely that a season of mild drought and resulting loss of leaves will cause a problem with the tree next season.

But prolonged drought, without any intervention from the homeowner could, in time, lead to the slow decline of the tree. Take action before it’s too late to ensure the tree gets several deep waterings prior to going into the winter months.

Why plant a birch grove

The decision to plant a mini birch grove was inspired by woodland walks where I came across large swaths of birch trees growing together and forming an impressive sight spring, summer, fall and winter. Creating a small grove of birch trees helps to recreate the same feelings I had during the woodland walks, but also creates a birch canopy that attracts birds looking for insects in spring. Birch are an excellent native tree, and one that attracts a host of insects that are crucial for birds in spring looking for protein to feed their hatchlings.

Can Trees communicate

I am also a firm believer that trees not only enjoy the company of their own kind, but benefit from sharing a space with other similar trees. The New York Times best selling book, The Hidden Life of Trees, certainly verifies these views and even suggests – complete with scientific evidence – that trees communicate with one another and even share resources when necessary.

If nothing else, the birch grove will create it’s own mini-environment by shading the ground beneath the canopy helping to preserve the ground water that is obviously important to their survival.

I look forward to the day – not far off – when all three tree canopies merge above ground and all the roots below ground are introduced to one another and begin working together as a single entity.

Meanwhile, I’ll be busy deep watering the trees so that next year they will look their best and weather whatever Mother Nature throws at them.

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Fish In The Garden: Style, movement and a touch of whimsy

Tyson Weiss's exquisite artistic ceramic Fish In The Garden add a sense of movement and life to any garden. The cobalt and orange koi add a splash of color to your garden, while the trout can be used to add a subtle, artistic and more natural touch to your woodland garden. The fish make the perfect gift and provide gardeners with an opportunity to experiment with placing them around the garden.

Unique garden gifts: Ceramic Fish add artistic touch to any space

There’s no reason not to have Fish In The Garden, thanks to ceramic artist extraordinaire Tyson M. Weiss.

Whether you have a pond stocked with koi or not, there’s always room for these impressive, artistic fish in a multitude of colours. I’ve admired this unique form of garden art since the first time I saw a picture of them and always wondered where they would look best in my garden.

The simple answer: Almost anywhere and everywhere.

These exquisite ceramic fish, in a multitude of colours and sizes, bring your garden to life as schools roam through ornamental grasses, ferns, mosses and flowers bringing a sense of movement to the garden. Groupings of three, five, nine … weave between moss-covered rocks in the Japanese-inspired garden and can remain there throughout the winter months bringing colour and style year round. They are at home in any garden – running up a dry river bed, rising just above a pond or even submerged to create the illusion of real Koi in a pond devoid of fish.

A school of fish wander through the garden over sedum around a birch clump and through the ornamental Japanese blood grasses creating movement and a sense of style in the garden.

This school of cobalt-coloured fish swim through the ferns and grasses of our Japanese-inspired garden creating a flow down a small hill and around a moss-covered boulder.

Tyson refers to the “flow” created by the schools of fish as a “fluid aesthetic” created by the curves of the swimming fish as they “move” as one through a garden.

“With the multiples, we can create these curves, and with those curves, (the fish) can curve in response to an element of the landscape,” he explained in a 2012 article in the Portland Press Herald. “Around a rock, and then curve back this way around a tree, so it fits. No garden gnome or concrete bunny rabbit will ever have context like that.”

In fact, by creating schools of fish, he explains in the article, it’s possible to “perfectly match the shapes of diverse landscapes and architectural elements. Channel the fish around a rock, through plantings and back out again. Our sculptures — brushes, if you will — bring out the artist in every gardener.”

“If that means making a bazillion fish to get it right, that’s what you have to do.”

— Tyson Weiss, Artist

Sharing this creative process with gardeners is, without a doubt, one of the greatest benefits of his inspirational garden art.

“Our sculptures are exquisitely crafted of a variety of high‐quality materials. They are moderately priced, somewhat above low‐end polymers and plasters, and well below expensive garden sculptures of stone and metals,” Tyson explains. “They’re even more affordable than some small shrubs and trees.”

Tyson explains that every component in the “school” reflects the hand of the artist.

“The sculptures are hand‐sculpted detail and hand‐painted. No two are exactly alike. Ten years of experience has evolved a proprietary process to meet high demand and yet preserve our founding vision. There is no mass production.”

How to place the Fish In The Garden

Unlike most garden art, where homeowners are left with only the decision of where best to place it, Tyson’s ceramic fish provide gardeners with a multitude of artistic decisions ranging from where to place the school, how many fish should be included and how to organize them for best aesthetic value. This process is, in itself, both artistic and immensely satisfying when done well.

But even when it doesn’t work as well as you hoped, it’s easily changed.

Did I say the entire experience is more fun and certainly easier than planting a new garden bed or large container. Take my word for it, whether you consider yourself creative or not, experimenting with these schools of fish might be the most fun you’ve had in the garden in years.

If you are unsure about how to place the fish in your garden creatively, Tyson’s informative website at Fish In The Garden includes several videos providing examples on how to best creatively place the fish in your garden.

The impressive site provides complete details on what styles of fish are available, how to order them, prices and other details about his artistic ceramic fish. (For details on his colourful Koi ceramic fish go here.)

The smaller ceramic fish are perfect for container plantings. Here, three work their way around Northern Sea Grass and petunias in one of our window boxes.

Can I give Fish In The Garden as a gift?

For those who might want to give the fish as unique gifts to gardening friends and family, there are even gift cards available to purchase on the site that can be sent directly to the recipient. (Information on the gift cards is available here on his website.)

The fish are the perfect gift for homeowners, especially those who appreciate the artistic whimsy that the fish can provide. These schools of art look just as much at home in a woodland garden as they would in a small, contemporary urban garden. In fact, the splash of colour that the more colourful koi provide, might just be the punch of colour to take the small urban garden to new heights.

And, by ordering the gifts from Tyson’s website, the fish can be delivered directly to you or the recipient of the gift wherever they choose to garden. The perfect gift for a friend or family member who lives in a different country, state/province or far off city.

Fish In The Garden can be shipped worldwide

Tyson is quick to point out that they can ship to virtually any address in the world, adding that that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.

The enjoyment homeowners get from having the fish in the garden, however, does not compare with the enjoyment Tyson gets from knowing his artwork is gracing gardens in his hometown of Falmouth, Maine and in gardens around the world.

“I love it. I invented something that makes people really happy that could last indefinitely,” he says. “If you read the reviews online there are SO many stories of people meeting their neighbors and making new friends over passersby seeing these fish and asking about them.” he explains in an email to Ferns & Feathers.

“There was a long stretch where most people didn’t get it at all because there was nothing like it out there,” Tyson explains.

“The early adopters were the landscape architects, interior designers, art gallery owners: People who were both intelligent and creative that had an eye for something new. Now that people have seen them in so many shops, botanical gardens, private homes, magazine articles, social media awareness of this new idea is spreading a lot faster.”

To say his fish have made an impact worldwide is an understatement.

“Last week we shipped four orders to Australia. I've shipped to Ireland, England, Germany, Switzerland… Singapore…. Lots of people from abroad have bought them in gift shops and carried or shipped them home,” Tyson explains.

And if that is not enough, his fish are even likely gracing the home of a former American president.

“Last year a gift shop owner in Florida told me (former president) George Bush Jr. and his wife, Laura, came in and bought a bunch of fish,” Tyson writes.

Now that’s something to get excited about.

To say his clients are impressed with his work, is an understatement.

He recalls one woman who purchased 90 of his fish to give as gifts to her family.

His website is full of clients proclaiming their love for the garden art and the joy the fish have brought to them. One of his clients writes about their experience on his website:

“I had recently expanded a patch of ornamental garden this year with a Japanese theme, using traditional plants, and was searching for the most perfect and unique ornaments to add other than the typical “Buddahs” and “pagodas,” water basins and fountains that you can find anywhere,” writes one gardener.

“These fish are perfect! It looks so magical to see my koi “swimming” through my garden and have gotten many compliments on how unique and “clever” they are. If you want that little “extra” that sets your landscaping apart from your neighbors and friends... you need these fish! I am completely happy when I see them and I will most definitely be purchasing more to increase my “school.”

A grouping of fish look as good on boulders as they do in garden greenery.

Fish placement in our garden

In my garden, different schools of fish move from the front to the back gardens depending on my mood.

In the Japanese-inspired garden, a school of fish swim around our elegant ghost fern, down a small hill heading for a moss-covered rock. By adding a few more fish, the school travels past the rock over the mossy ground creating a natural curve as they head for the safety of a massive boulder.

A few small changes and the school is off in a completely different direction.

Changing the design involves nothing more than pushing a metal stake (provided with each order) into the ground.

Not far from the Japanese garden, a school of three small fish swim through the colourful and lush planting of our window box providing a little whimsy for garden visitors and one that can be seen from both outside and inside our home.

Even a single fish in the widow box or in a small container works well to add a touch of colour. They would look as good in a container on a garden patio as they would on a balcony overlooking a skyline 20-storeys high.

In the backyard, a larger school of fish work their way up past the dry river bed, over the sedum, through the blood grass and around one of our birch tree clumps. Their presence contributes to the feeling of movement in the garden. Just down along the river’s bank, a small group of fish peek out from the tall stems of native obedient plant looking to join the larger school.

In another area, I move a group of three fish to see how they look hiding in the fountain grass and provide visitors with an unexpected surprise as they walk out into the woodland garden.

As the seasons change, so too do my artistic opportunities to move the schools of fish throughout the garden.

So much fun.

No amount of traditional garden art will provide so many creative possibilities and opportunities to play with natural design in our gardens.

Certainly none will provide the same natural movement that Tyson’s fish create. Nor will they work so seamlessly into the natural landscape quite the way the fish organically fit naturally in the garden.

A single fish adds a splash of colour as it swims above the plants in the patio container water garden. It would look just as good in a window box 20-storeys up overlooking a city skyline.

What makes this garden art so special?

• The fish can stay outdoors in any climate, including freezing Maine or Canadian winters.

• The fish are in gardens from Alaska to Arizona

• They will not break in the cold or fade in the sunlight

• All fish come complete with a rod for placing them at the proper height in the garden

• They come in a tail left and tail right design. Schools of the fish look best (natural) with both tail directions being used to create flow

• The fish can be submerged in water for stunningly realistic results or simply to add to an existing stock of real pond fish.

Fish bring Woodland garden to life

For woodland gardeners, the schools of fish provide a multitude of opportunities to not only add a natural artistic element to our gardens, they are so easy to move around the gardens that they create changing possibilities throughout the seasons

These fish form the perfect garden art that so many of us have been searching for to bring our gardens to life in a stylish, yet subtle and convincing natural way.

Display ideas for Fish In The Garden in your Home and Garden

In the Garden:

Use schools of fish swimming among ornamental grasses and allow the grasses to hide parts of the fish for a truly natural look. Let your visitors discover them as they stroll through and around your garden.

• Place the fish among your ground covers to add interest and create the illusion that the ground cover is the sea floor and the fish are floating just above it.

• Place the smaller fish in window boxes and patio planters for year-round interest

• Bring your dry river beds to life with a school of large trout or koi running up through it around driftwood and boulders.

• Use the fish on a stone wall, large boulders or fountains and even in bird baths and on patio tables

• Incorporate the fish in your man-made ponds either swimming above the water or submerged with real fish.

In the Home:

• The fish look just as good in the home as a splash of colour for shelves, sitting on a table, on a fireplace mantle or even used much as they would in the garden but in house plants such as ferns, string of pearls and other exotics.

Use the fish in the garden throughout the spring, summer and fall months, but get the most out of them by bringing them indoors for inspirational decorating throughout the winter months

A school of fish make their way through our Japanese-inspired garden.

Garden fish idea hatched out of economic downturn

Although the idea to create artistic ceramic fish was hatched out of necessity, their birth was never guaranteed.

In fact, their creation was a 10-year process of trial and error that started with simple sketches on a notebook and grew over time to what they are today.

It was a long, arduous journey for Tyson and his fish with many iterations of the art form.

The idea of Fish In The Garden actually had its roots in 1998 when Tyson took a pottery class at Unity College, America’s Environmental College.

The teacher encouraged students to keep a notebook of their ideas to use as a building block and reminder for potential projects. That notebook – which he still has – filled with scribbles and photos and sketches including rough initial illustrations of his fish, was eventually the catalyst that led to the development of his art work.

But before that, Tyson had to deal with the necessities of life and started a successful landscaping business.

In 2008, after operating the landscaping company for ten years, and with an economy on the downside, Tyson decided it was time to make changes in his life.

The years of working in landscaping and experiencing gardens either devoid of, or lacking appropriate garden art at reasonable prices, convinced him to go back to the drawing board to further refine his ceramic fish and work on them until he was able to get his creations to look the way he wanted.

Tyson returned to an earlier version of the fish in his studio – a smaller, thinner fish that gardeners could manoeuvre to angle up or down.

Unique garden art discovered at first show in 2008

Everything changed in January 2008, when Tyson did his first show at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.

Landscape architects, garden store owners, even interior designers took notice of his artistic creations that found a place both in the garden and in the home on fireplace mantels and coffee tables. By the end of the next year, orders poured in forcing Tyson to begin considering alternate ways to create the highly-sought after fish.

It was around that time that he also decided he needed a new work space to help make creating his artwork a little easier.

“Several years ago I bought a dairy farm because the “barn” was a heated and insulated 4,000-square-foot space with running water. It took 2 months of carpenters working 7 days a week and $70k to get it where it is today. My house is 50 feet away. Its a nice spot, 20 acres of pasture and no neighbors.”

Up until then, each fish was made by hand and demand was beginning to outstrip his ability to create the fish. Creating twenty fish during a 50-hour work week, wasn’t going to cut it.

Creating the ceramic fish, made from sturdy stoneware clay fired to around 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, can take up to two weeks. This process enables the ceramics to withstand extreme temperatures from severe heat to even the coldest climates.

But success was not guaranteed and the work needed to create the pieces of art was never easy.

“It is a very hands on process. Now we are casting them from molds made of my originals. It’s very labor intensive. The mold that makes the large fish weighs 90lbs. And 1 in 10 of all the fish breaks in the process, usually before the first firing when the clay is very brittle,” Tyson explains.

Looking back on his plan to create a successful company, Tyson told his former alma mater Unity College: “Business isn’t about being impulsive or emotional. It’s research and planning and bringing your idea to a place where it mirrors the vision in your head. If that means making a bazillion fish to get it right, that’s what you have to do.”

To see a YouTube video of Tyson in action check out this informative 2016 video from WMTW of Maine here.

The fish and the Pandemic

Like many companies, the pandemic hit the on-line sales of his artistic fish. Tyson is not one to dwell on negatives and says the pandemic has been difficult, but came with both a downside and upside for his business.

“I’d say it evened out” he explains. “Our Spring trade shows in Atlanta, Orlando, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston were a disaster. But then during the whole lockdown people were gardening and ordering things online, and using social media like never before so that offset the early losses.”

For instance, he explains in the email: “The Northwest flower Show opened on a Wednesday. On Thursday the fist case of Covid in the USA was announced… In Washington State. LOL! And I was happy about the lockdown and ‘compromised’ Trade show series.

“In April 2020, I remember working at ‘the farm’ on a granite retaining wall, listening to the peepers as the sunset light filtered through the pines to the west, sipping cheap box wine in 50F degree ‘hoodie’ weather, no bugs out yet, no iPhone to distract me. It was the happiest I’ve been in many Years.”

There is no denying the fall in sales, however.

“Pre pandemic we were at 1,000 fish per week,” he explains. “Now I think we are half that. Most likely 500 per week. Ninety per cent of this is to garden centers, art galleries, gift shop and botanical gardens that resell them.” he explains. “It’s basically a non-profit.”

But he is not letting this latest pitfall stop him from moving forward, and he hopes to use the slowdown as an opportunity to help others who are less fortunate or struggling in these difficult times.

“Soon I’ll go back to making one of a kind originals that are numbered and signed. I want to sell them for $1,000 a piece, but the client has to make a $1,000 donation to one of 5 charities I choose ( veterans, cancer research, conservation, feeding the homeless etc) and then I’ll make them a fish that comes with a letter of providence and everything. The goal is to make 1,000 fish and in doing so have raised $1,000,000 for good causes. I call it 1,000 for 1,000. There’s a wall in the studio where I plan to hang up all the receipts from the donations.”

What’s in store for the future?

I asked Tyson if he has plans for any new ideas for the future – new designs, colours and fish styles maybe?

“Oh yes,” he says enthusiastically. “There’s 10 other businesses I want to start, all of which offer new, colourful totally unique and creative items, but I need to stay focused on the fish for now. I’m already being copied many times over so I can’t say a lot about what lies ahead, but its going to be EPIC!!!!

Why the fish as garden art are so unique

• The schools of fish bring a fluid aesthetic to any garden space. Where there is no water they imply water.

• The more fish you have in a school the better it looks

• The fish can help to bring year-round colour to your garden space

• They provide the perfect focal point in the garden even when there are no colourful plants

• Consider creating a school that represents your family with large and smaller fish

Using Kintsugi to repair broken ceramic fish

Tyson is the first to point out his ceramic fish are tough. Leave them out in freezing temperatures, or let them bask in the Arizona sun. Either way these fish can stand up to a lot more than you might think.

But accidents do happen.

I was lucky enough to receive almost a dozen fish to create schools to photograph in my garden.

Only one of the fish that arrived via regular post in the large box was broken. I decided it was the perfect opportunity to experiment with the ancient art of Kintsugi to repair the broken ceramic.

First, let’s say this was my first attempt at Kintsugi and I am sure the masters are cringing at the result. For my purposes, however, I am more than satisfied with the results.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold — built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art.

I have to admit that the finished result looks totally appropriate in our Japanese-inspired garden.

Ceramic repair was simple

The break was clean so I knew the repair would be relatively easy
After researching the best glue for ceramics, I chose Gorilla Glue known to hold up well both indoors and outdoors in severe weather.
The glue calls for a clean damp surface for ceramic.
After applying a moist towel to the broken ceramic edge, I added a thin line of glue to both sides of the broken ceramic fish. (Directions state to use only a little glue to keep it from spilling out the sides and messing up the repair. I used a small amount but it still spilled out the sides a little. I was not concerned, however, knowing that I was going to use gold paint to cover the repair.)
The glue calls for clamping down the repaired object for up to two hours to allow for proper curing of the glue. Without the proper clamp, I decided to hold it for an hour until the glue dried.
With the fish repaired, I let it cure for a couple of days prior to painting the crack with a thin layer of gold-leaf paint purchased from a local arts and craft store.

The finished result adds a lovely artistic touch to an already beautifully finished piece of ceramic and allows the fish to once again take its place in our garden.

And example of Tyson’s metal Fish In The Garden adding an artistic element to a cedar shake wall.

Steel Fish In The Garden offer another option

In addition to the ceramic fish, Tyson offers a beautiful line of stainless steel fish on his website that are certainly worth checking out.

The metal fish can either be used in the garden much like the ceramic fish, or mounted to a wall as artwork. (Check out the website here to see them used in the garden.) They appeal to a different group of people and work well in the garden as well as in the home.

Tyson explains that the metal fish are made with heavy–gauge and hand–cut stainless steel that weathers the elements beautifully. In the summer, they shimmer with life and, in the winter, they form an organic partnership with the snow and ice.

“The steel people are drawn right to the steel fish,” Weiss said. “They don’t see the clay fish, and they don’t ask about them. And vice versa. So by doing the steel, I hit on this whole other customer, which tends to be more men.”

Vic MacBournie 8/10/21 Vic MacBournie 8/10/21

Adirondack chairs: Best choice for a woodland garden?

The classic Adirondack chair is the perfect addition to any woodland wildlife garden and signal to visitors that this is a casual place and one to relax in, rather than a stuffy, formal style of garden.

Resin, wood or steel they are all stylish additions to your garden

I don’t know when I fell in love with Adirondack chairs, but I’m sure it was on one of my early visits to Northern Ontario.

Those early recollections of sitting on a dock watching the sunset and listening to the loons are stamped in my memory. Adirondack chairs (also known as Muskoka Chairs here in Canada) are reminders of those long days camping and spending time at a lodge in the Algonquin Park area.

And then there were the days our young family spent in the Adirondacks on vacation in New York’s Finger Lakes, as well as memories of sitting back and enjoying the beautiful scenery during our week-long vacation at Lake Placid.

I’m sure similar memories are forever stamped in the minds of so many of us who have a certain fondness for these iconic chairs.

In our gardens, Adirondack chairs take centre stage in both the front- and backyard, helping to bring a little of the lake district back home. A pair of bright yellow chairs welcome visitors to our home and make a very clear statement that our gardens are clearly a place to relax.

Our yellow Adirondack chairs welcome visitors and let them know this is a casual, relaxed atmosphere rather than a stuffy, formal garden.

Adirondack chair: Perfect in a woodland setting

The casual atmosphere Adirondack chairs create make them the perfect addition to the woodland wildlife garden.

There’s a reason the iconic Adirondack is so popular.

The Adirondack chair’s rugged design belies its incredible comfort and uncanny ability to provide the perfect horizontal surface to rest your arm, let alone a glass of wine, beer bottle or can of cider. While its ability to hold a drink comfortably certainly plays a role in its popularity today, the design’s long history suggests that there’s more than convenience behind this North American wide love affair.

A short history of the Adirondack chair

The Adirondack chair traces its history back to the early 1900s in Westport, New York, where a fellow named Thomas Lee created the rudimentary beginnings of the “Westport” chair to provide his family with comfortable outdoor seating.

He passed his plans on to a friend and local carpenter, Harry Bunnell, who then ran with the basic design, added a few refinements and began manufacturing the “Westport” chair for all to enjoy. The Westport incorporated much of today’s modern Adirondack chair, but included a solid seating and back surface.

For more suggestions and some of my favourite garden things, be sure to check out my Favourite Things post.

In 1904, Bunnell submitted a patent for the chair and continued to produce the chair for 25 years.

Bunnell’s changes to Lee’s original design included a foot rest (a popular option with today’s Adirondack designs), sideboards to cover the underside of the chair and the use of Hemlock or Basswood instead of Maple.

The main difference between the original Westport Chair design and today’s Adirondack Chair is the incorporation of a slatted design both on the back and seating area of the chairs. The use of the slatted design allows for a more rounded and comfortable form that has translated well with those looking for the perfect place to rest and enjoy their favourite drink, whether that’s a morning coffee, afternoon glass of wine, or evening around the compfire with a favourite craft beer.

Polymer (resin) vs steel vs wood Adirondack chairs

There is no question that the newer, high quality moulded polymer or resin chairs are the best Adirondack chair designs available. Not the cheap plastic ones often available for less than $25 at big box stores (use them as garden accents or chairs that are rarely called on accept at large gatherings).

These high quality Adirondack chairs are seriously heavy and often made from recycled resins. Their colour is true, from the exterior that does not fade in prolonged sunlight throughout the entire piece. That means even a deep scratch is not going to show up. No need for painting – ever. They are virtually indestructible. I don’t know if they are all guaranteed for life, but the good ones might as well be.

Those two yellow Adirondacks that greet our guests are both examples of these indestructible chairs that spend the entire year in our front garden taking on all types of inclement weather. All these chairs ever need is an annual washing with a power washer. They are Canadian made by a Brantford, Ontario company Leisure Line and purchased at Costco several years ago. This company also has matching side tables and ottomans available. While you cannot order directly from the factory, they are sold at a number of locations besides Costco.

Our steel Adirondacks have stood the test of time and continue to perform at the highest level despite being left out throughout our punishing winters.

While our polymer chairs are outstanding in every way, we were also lucky enough to purchase four alloy Adirondack chairs at Costco more than 20 years ago that continue to perform flawlessly despite being left out on their own through our challenging Canadian winters.

They are finished in a lovely shade of brown sand-textured factory paint that has stood up extremely well over the years.

Again, these were high-quality chairs meant to last and have become an excellent investment over the years.

We do not have any wood Adirondack chairs in the garden.

Although wood Adirondack chairs are truly representative of the classic design, we have chosen to steer clear of them.

Our Canadian winters are just too harsh for these chairs to withstand. The wooden chairs demand too much maintenance between regular painting, tightening loose connections and dealing with the eventual rot of even the best wood products.

They are available as kits for a reasonable amount of money and with proper care can last a lifetime. I’m not interested, however, having to pack away between 6-10 chairs every fall only to have to pull them out again in the spring.

Like woodland gardening, the idea is to do as little as possible and enjoy the garden rather than become a slave to it.

What better than the comfort of a Adirondack chair to make that happen.

And did I tell you how good the bright yellow Adirondack chairs look in the middle of winter after a major snowstorm.

A reminder that summer is not too far off.

A few of the best chairs to consider

The following are just a few of the Adirondack-style chairs that come highly recommended.

The Keter Adirondack chair includes a built-in cup holder and comes in three colours: Teal, Black and White.

The Keter Adirondack chair, quality and style

If you follow this blog you know my feelings about the high quality of Keter products. I own a number of the company’s products from their impressive sheds (see complete story and review here) to their BBQ table (turned potting shed table) and storage boxes.

While I have not used their Adirondack chairs (Amazon link), I can assure buyers that Keter’s quality levels are of the highest quality.

These chairs are available in three colours: Teal, black and white. Their high-quality, rust-proof, all-weather polypropylene resin does not warp, rot or fade and even includes a convenient cup holder built into the armrest. The chairs are rated for 350 lbs. and, like all Keter products, are easy to assemble.

An Adirondack with all the options

This impressive combination will add style to any yard.

If you are looking for a nice polymer Adirondack complete with matching side tables and foot rests, the Highwood Classic Westport Adirondack chair (Amazon link) in a classic Nantucket Blue is another excellent choice.

This made in the USA chair can be left outside all year without cracking, peeling or rotting and, like all polymers, never needs sanding, staining or painting and is easy to assemble.

The optional chairs and side tables are a nice touch that are not necessarily available with other Adirondack chair manufacturers.

An exquisite lounger from Gardener’s Supply Co.

A beautiful lounger for any garden

While I’m not a huge fan of using wooden Adirondack chairs in the garden if you are leaving them out unprotected throughout the winter, there are certainly situations where nothing delivers the look of an expensive high-end lodge look like an exquisite wood lounger. These elegant hardwood Adirondack chairs with built-in ottoman (link to Gardener’s Supply Company) is the perfect addition to a covered porch, glass house or pergola.

Gardener’s Supply Company describes the chair as a plantation-grown Brazilian eucalyptus chair finished with a beautiful brown umber stain for long lasting outdoor use and exceptional durability in all climates.

“The Adirondack chair provides extra wide and curvy seat for incredible comfort! The built-in sliding ottoman can be used in multiple positions or stowed away completely under the seat.”

Will this require some upkeep, absolutely. It the upkeep worth it, absolutely.

• As an affiliate marketer with Amazon or other marketing companies, I earn money from qualifying purchases.

Vic MacBournie 7/31/21 Vic MacBournie 7/31/21

Foliage and texture in a woodland garden design

Woodland gardens are dependent on foliage texture for much of their subtle beauty. Three native plants, ….. Jack in the Pulpit, Solomon’s Seal and Mayapple are three plants that are standouts in the woodland garden for their foliage rather than their subtle flowers.

Jack in the Pulpit shown in lovely light in our front woodland garden.

Three native plants to consider: Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Solomon’s Seal and Mayapple

Woodland gardeners know that not all flowers need to be colourful, but all gardens benefit from incorporating highly textured foliage plants.

In fact, some of the most interesting woodland plants are very understated: flowers are often green and are even hidden beneath the plants’ own leaves.

Unlike the often bright colours found in many traditional perennial gardens, woodland gardeners have learned to appreciate the subtle beauty of these foliage-based plants. They know that it is the highly textured foliage of these plants, the different shades of green, leaf shape, fall colours and even the colourful berries, that make these understated plants extremely valuable in the woodland landscape.

When it comes to understated plants that rely on textures and foliage, three plants come to mind: Solomon’s Seal, Jack in the Pulpit, and Mayapple. But there are many others that add interest to our woodland floor that often go unnoticed.

Ferns, mosses, stonecrops, and so many other plants help to build the tapestry that make up a woodland garden.

In her book Foliage & Garden Design, garden writer Marjorie Harris turns her focus on the importance of using foliage as the star in garden design.

“The foliage garden is a restful place where beauty unfolds more slowly than in a perennial garden,” Harris writes. “It’s a place where the textures of leaves are far more important than the colours of flowers. Foliage plants can have blossoms and berries, lure butterflies and birds and provide a sanctuary and a shelter.”

She goes on to explain an important concept in a shaded woodland garden.

A fern glen in the woodland garden creates a large exapanse of texture in a sea of green.

“Establishing a foliage garden means entering a more sophisticated world both aesthetically and visually,” she explains.

Compared to the perennial garden that is often so dependent on great drifts of colour, gardens based on foliage are more muted and subtle. “Verticals and horizontals; distance and perspective; positive and negative spaces; mass and shape – these become your tools,” Harris explains.

If you are interested in pursing more about designing a garden with foliage, the Harris book is still available on the Amazon.com used market here.

Why are some plants’ flowers so understated?

In a world where colour plays an important role in attracting pollinators, birds and butterflies for a plant’s survival, the question needs to be asked: Why are some woodland wildflowers so understated? It’s possible that many plants in the woodland are understated for their own survival. By staying under the radar, they are able to escape many of the animals that might want to browse on them for dinner.

Whatever the reason, it’s important for gardeners to learn to appreciate their presence in the shady areas of our woodlands.

Three subtle plants that add interest through foliage

Jack-in-the-Pulpit stands above the crowd: Arisaema triphyllum, commonly named Jack In The Pulpit is a favourite in our garden as much for its unusual shape, as it is for its bright red berries that emerge in the fall.

The plant, which is found throughout the north-eastern United States and stretching into Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes, earned its name for its resemblance to a preacher standing in a pulpit.

Dominated by a large, cylindrical and hooded flower that grows almost unnoticeable at first from beneath two large, glossy leaves, this mostly green flower with brown stripes can grow to between 1-3 feet tall.

By late summer, the flower is replaced by a large cluster of bright red berries that is an attractive meal for many birds and mammals. (Note that the roots and berries of this plant can cause blisters on the skin and irritation in the mouth and throat if ingested.)

Each berry in the cluster contains 1-5 seeds that are attractive to wood thrushes and wild turkeys as well as squirrels and even box turtles.

A 1980 study found that fungus gnats may be the most effective pollinators of these unusual plants. Pollination is performed when the gnat or other small insect makes its way to the spadix or column often referred to as the “Jack.” The columnar ends with a sheath called a spathe. The spadix contains male or female flowers (or both). Pollinators crawl beneath the hooded spathe, down the spadix collecting pollen from the flowers.

According to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Jack-in-the-pulpit is being threatened in natural woodlands by invasive alien species such as garlic mustard and buckthorn.

Solomon’s seal is a favourite for shade gardeners

The arching stems of Solomon’s Seal rising above other plants in our front woodland garden is always a welcoming site in spring.

Polygonatum, also known as King Solomon’s-seal or just Solomon’s seal, is known for its zig-zag arching stalks that can grow up to 5 feet long and sport nodding, greenish-white, tubular flowers that hang in pairs below the stalks.

Their tubular whitish flowers, often among the earliest flowers to bloom in the woodland, droop down beneath the stalk and are attractive to hummingbirds.

Check out my complete article on Solomon’s seal.

Butterflies are also attracted to the delicate spring blooms of the Solomon seal flowers.

The green flowers eventually transform into large blue berries that are favoured by the Veery, American Robin, Wood Thrush and Bluebird

Solomon’s seal prefer a woodsy soil of moist, rich acidic soil but can also be found growing in more sandy or even clay loam.

If you are looking for a plant to grow at the base of a tree, consider growing a clump of them at the base of a tree.

Mayapple: An ideal shade-loving ground cover

The Mayapple earned its name from the large, apple-like fruit that grows under the umbrella of its large leaves where it often goes completely unnoticed by woodland gardeners.

The early spring wildflower, which can be highly poisonous provides much needed nectar for pollinators and the large, “apples” are eaten (only when competely ripe) by raccoons, skunks, opossums and even box turtles.

The mayapple can spread to incorporate large swaths of woodland where the conditions are right and are therefore excellent for use as a large, bold groundcover.

Mayapple is one of the first Carolinian zone wildlflowers to emerge in the spring in the woodlands of southern Ontario and the northeastern United States, so it became a magnet for many of us photographers just looking for something, anything, to focus on in the early spring woodlands.

So, you can imagine that it didn’t take long for me to start growing a clump in my yard. Turns out it was so successful that I was able to spread it around where it continues to thrive in swaths throughout the garden.

The Mayapple is actually in the Barberry family and grows naturally everywhere in the eastern half of the United States stretching as far north as Quebec and south to Florida and Texas.

For more on the Mayapple, go to my earlier post located here.

• As an affiliate marketer with Amazon or other marketing companies, I earn money from qualifying purchases.

Vic MacBournie 6/17/21 Vic MacBournie 6/17/21

DIY: Moss garden container (in a few simple steps)

Creating your own moss garden container is a fun and rewarding experience. This container was created in the Japanese style from a former copper fire pit combining moss, a Japanese Maple and a large stone.

The finished moss garden container in its copper former fire pit.

DIY moss garden at home in Woodland garden

I had been harvesting moss from our old fire pit for years, but it was now time to turn it from an eyesore into a DIY piece of garden art for the woodland garden

And, once the idea came to me, I was surprised how easy it was.

I like to think the finished result was years in the making, but it actually only took about an hour worth of work once the plan was put into motion.

The result of my work, and probably about $20 in costs, is the creation of a beautiful moss garden container and a natural piece of art that looks right at home in the woodland garden and imparts a touch of Japanese-style elegance along one of our shaded paths.

I set the moss container up in a spot in the garden where I can see it when I sit on the patio. In the morning, when I’m out with my coffee, the Japanese Maple is back lit and the moss lights up as if a small spotlight were on it.

Looking for more money-saving tips for your garden. Be sure to check out my in-depth article on building your garden on a budget.

It certainly steals the show in the morning.

Although I chose to use an old, weathered fire pit with a beautiful copper top, any large bowl could serve the same purpose.

Check out thrift stores, Craig’s list or Kijiji for old fire pots that would make appropriate containers for the moss garden.

You might already even have something in the shed that would work perfectly. A galvanized steel container would impart a similar old-world feeling.

What you will need:

• A large container of some sort. Preferably with drainage holes. If there are no drainage holes, you will need to drill a few holes in the bottom to allow for proper drainage. It’s good to keep the bowl damp but not full of water.

• A base to grow the moss on. While most of us will use soil (slightly acidic soil is an excellent base), this fire pit has always been full of wood that was mostly already burnt into a charcoal. I simply left the partially burnt wood in the fire pit, in a shady spot over the years, and the most beautiful moss grew on the charcoal. In fact, plenty of years I harvested a good amount of it for use in garden containers and, by the next spring or even later that fall, it had all grown back in.

• As an alternative to growing your own moss, you can now purchase it from on line sources or likely even at high quality nurseries that specialize in garden crafts and DIY projects. Just make sure it is commercially grown and not taken from the forest. Commercially grown sheet moss performs better and is more uniform. (Check out the Supermoss sheets available at Amazon. Similar moss sheets might be available at your local nursery.)

• If you are planning to use you moss bowl in a sunnier location, consider using one of the moss-like perennials such as Irish or Scotch moss. Even thyme will give you that moss-like look without the need for much, if any, upkeep. (see my earlier article on moss-like ground covers)

• I used a small Japanese Maple mostly because we had one growing from a seed in the garden that was the perfect size for the project. I was seriously considering using a maidenhair fern rather than the Japanese Maple, but I have another project in mind that would be better suited for the fern. A small, elegant fern like the Maidenhair would be perfect, but you could also use a store-bought orchid (which would obviously need to be brought in over the winter). The damp environment in the moss bowl would likely be the perfect medium for growing an orchid.

• If you want to keep it simple, consider using elegant twigs cut from your own garden, (corkscrew willow branches work beautifully and can be purchased at most garden shops). Strip the bark and let the sun bleach them to make them stand out against the moss. Other choices include an interesting stone, much like the one I used in this setting.

• In this case, I put the Japanese Maple into a small biodegradable pot packed with fresh soil which could be easily swapped out for another plant without disrupting the moss.

• A single large stone or an odd number grouping of say 3 stones helps to anchor the design and could become the focal point of the moss garden or an anchor point to balance off the plant material. In Japanese gardens, rocks have long been used as anchor points and used to show the strength and stability of the garden and the earth.

• In my design I actually went out and purchased a rock to use in the design. Although I have lots of rocks on the property, I was looking for a certain type of stone that would look appropriate in the design. I went looking for a stone with earth-tone colours that was unique and would stand tall in the moss, appearing to emerge out of the earth rather than sitting on top of it. A grouping of threee similar stones emerging from the moss at varying heights would be stunning and likely all you would need in the moss garden.

• Finally I added a little reindeer moss and supermoss bits (purchased from the same craft store as the rock) to give the design texture and a little more variety of moss.

Simple steps to put the creation together

• Once all the items for the design are ready, it is time to begin creating your moss masterpiece.

• In my case the moss was already in place and my first steps involved cleaning up the moss of small plants (we can call them weeds) that had made their way into the moss as well as dead branches etc. I carefully removed the weeds and tucked the moss back into the holes created by removing the plants.

• If you are using commercially bought sheet moss, you will simply lay that over your acid-based soil and tamp it down for a nice fit. It is probably a wise idea to create an undulating surface with the soil prior to laying the moss in, just to give the design a more natural look.

• Once the moss is in place, cut out areas to place your stone(s) and place them into the soil, before replacing the moss around the base of the stone(s). Make sure the stones are emerging out of the moss rather than sitting on top. In proper landscaping designs, it is not uncommon for three quarters of the rock to actually be buried in the earth. Depending on the stone(s) you choose, you may not have to bury the stone(s) that deep, but it is vital that the stone(s) appear rooted in the earth.

• The same procedure is more or less followed by planting the tree or orchid etc. Create a pocket in the soil for the plant to sit in. I put the tree in a small container and planted that into the moss but you could plant it directly into the soil. If you are using an orchid, you would either plant it in a container with the suitable orchid mix or ensure the proper mix is in the pocket you created. By using a container, it’s easy to change up your design throughout the season by simply changing the container.

• Now it’s time to gently water your moss garden with a fine mist.

Caring for your moss garden

If done properly and placed in a mostly shady location your moss garden should need little care over the summer, spring and fall. In winter, depending how cold it is where you garden, you might want to cover the container or move it to a shed or garage.

Any plants that are growing in the container can either be left where they are if they are cold hardy, protected from the cold if you are concerned, or removed and taken indoors. The moss itself should not need any special care accept to clear any fall leaves off it before winter.

Although you may think it needs to be in an area of deep shade, mosses actually benefit from a little indirect sun preferably in the morning. If you can put your moss container in an area that gets dappled shade in the morning it should do very well.

One of the beauties of creating a moss container is that it can be moved around the garden either during the day or more likely through the seasons to give it just the right amount of sun and shade.

Monitor the moss to keep it free of leaves and unwanted plant growth.

Water your moss daily if possible but ideally only with a light misting. Do not drown the moss in water, a light misting to keep it damp is ideal.

A once a week watering to keep the soil below the moss damp will help create moisture around the moss.

Fertilization is not needed. If you feel you need to fertilize a plant growing in the moss, just fertilize around the plant itself, preferably by removing a small amount of moss, fertilizing the plant, and returning the moss in its place.

Other than that, enjoy your moss container.

Gardening on a budget links

DIY moss garden

Proven Winners Idea Book

Ten money-saving tips for the weekend gardener

Window boxes on a budget

DIY Bark Butter feeder for Woodpeckers

DIY reflection pond for photography

Click & Grow is ideal for Native Plants from seed

Nature’s DIY garden art

DIY solar drip for bird bath

Remove your turf and save money

DIY succulent planter

Hiring students to get your garden in shape

As an affiliate marketer with Amazon or other marketing companies, I earn money from qualifying purchases.

Consider starting with the native Cornus Florida

More of my posts on Dogwoods

How to grow Cornus Kousa

Cornus Kousa’s best features

How to prune Cornus Kousa

Hybrids offer best of both

Consider replacing Forsythia with Cornus Mas or Spicebush for spring colour

Native Spicebush is an even better replacement for Forsythia

More of my posts on Dogwoods

When does Cornelian Cherry flower?

Where does Cornelian Cherry grow?

Can you eat the cherries?

Do birds eat the fruit?

How to propagate Cornelian Cherries?

Ground covers, small shrubs and trees for everyone’s taste

Cornus Canadensis: A native ground cover for a shady area

More of my posts on Dogwoods

Cornus Alternifolia: Perfect small tree for the woodland/wildlife garden

Cornus Florida: Crown jewel of the Carolinian forest

Cornus Kousa: Popular non-native with spectacular summer show

Cornus Mas: Early yellow-flowering tree for the shade

Cornus sericea: Popular red-twigged shrub ideal for winter interest

More links to my articles on native plants

What you can do to save fireflies

How to get your Certified Firefly Habitat

The organization behind the habitat certification

Canadian Travel Destinations: Put Hamilton and Toronto Botanical Gardens and Stanley Park on the list

Toronto Botanical Garden’s Woodland Walk and Bird Habitat

Stanley Park: Canada’s ultimate woodland garden

In conclusion

What makes Gardener’s Supply Co. so special?

A mail order and shopping website just for gardeners

Gardener’s Supply on a mission to improve the world

Gardener’s Supply helps the hungry

Gardener’s Supply helps pollinators

Gardener’s Supply helps children

Does Gardener’s Supply Co. deliver all over the United States?

Garden destination vacation is perfect for landscape design ideas

How close is Garden in the Woods to Boston?

Why should families make Garden in the Woods a travel destination while in the Boston area?

What makes Garden In The Woods and its facilities so special to visitors?

How can woodland gardeners get the most out of a visit to Garden in the Woods?

Garden in the Woods serves as New England Wild Flower Society headquarters

Finding inspiration in Garden in the Woods

Garvan Woodland Gardens: A must visit for the whole family

A garden for the kids

Garden beginnings

Hixson Family Nature Preserve

Don’t miss out these features at Garvan Woodlands

Lady Bird Johnson: A celebration of native wildflowers

Missouri Botanical Gardens: A St. Louis refuge

What to watch for in the woodland garden

The Chicago Botanical Garden: A woodland rewilded

Morse family Woodland Garden, Georgia

In conclusion: Garden destination vacations open up a new world of travel

Finding solace in the art of gardening

Let nature guide your way

We can all benefit from a garden’s healing powers

No room for chemicals in the garden

Man’s maddening machines of destruction

Can a tree improve our health?

A forest prospers as a family group

Forest bathing: Is it a new trend?

Ancient forests are under threat

Best ornamental grasses for fall and winter

Chinese Silver Grass is perfect for privacy

Miscanthus is perfect as a natural privacy screen

Miscanthus as a plant for winter interest

Fountain grass: A compact ornamental grass

Ideal container plants

Northern Sea Oats at home in the woodland garden

In conclusion

Not all shade in the garden is created equal

What to plant in a full-sun area of the shade garden

Push the boundaries in part-sun, part-shady sites

Guide to shade levels in a woodland garden

What can I grow in deep shade?

Are shade and woodland gardens becoming more popular?

Add colourful annuals in containers in sunny spots

Will a Birch grove attract wildlife in the garden