The stone patio is a wonderful sitting space to enjoy at the end of a day of gardening .
Renewing My Garden B y B a r b a r a B l o s s o m A s h m u n
In 1986 , I moved from a small city garden to a large suburban landscape . A handful of specimen trees , fruit trees and grape vines dotted the flat , sunny stretch of field grass . It was easy for me to envision painting this blank canvas with long borders and island beds filled with an array of trees , shrubs , perennials and ground covers . This dream drove me to create a colorful retreat with four seasons of interest . ( See “ Designing Colorful Island Beds in the Garden ,” Fall 2018 “ Arboretum Bulletin .”) I had the illusion that I ’ d complete this project within a few years .
Even though I planted most of the property in the first ten years , many conditions called for ongoing renewal of my original ideas . One of David Richo ’ s “ givens ” of human existence in his book “ The Five Things We Cannot Change ” ( Shambhala , 2005 ) is that things do not always go according to plan . I learned this concept repeatedly !
Natural Disasters and Processes Force Renewal If you ’ ve ever lost a tree to an ice storm , a windstorm , disease or old age , you know how its absence can alter a garden . My friend Doug and
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