How a toadstool-shaped stone transformed itself from utilitarian farm object to coveted garden ornament. A small hay rick with thatching at Bunratty Folk Park, Co. Limerick photo by Jessamyn via Flickr Before the advent of mechanized hay production and more modern storage systems for agricultural products, the use of ricks and granaries were the common methods of storing the annual harvest on the farm. A rick is simply a large stack of loose hay, corn or straw that has been compressed under its own weight and left to cure. On the farm, the rick was usually kept in the 'rick yard' and was often covered by a tarp or thatched roof to protect it from the weather. In addition, many hay and corn ricks were raised off the ground and supported by staddle stones. This served to protect them from the damp as well as from vermin. The granary at Weald & Downland Museum, Singleton, West Sussex. Photo courtesy Oast House Archive licensed for reuse. The same was true for small buildings that were used to store grain and other crops. Structures called "helms" that were supported by staddle stones and used for the storage of crops are mentioned on a number of occasions in 15th-century court rolls in England. Photo of hay barrack courtesy of Wikipedia.com Other structures, known as "barracks," had adjustable roofs that could be raised or lowered to accommodate the height of the hay stack. Photo courtesy of Bill Searle via Felbridge & District History Group Hay ricks could be small or enormous, requiring huge ladders to reach the top of the stack. The photo on the left shows thatcher, Bert Searle thatching a large hay rick in England in 1937. The thatch was used to keep the rick dry. Photo by Robin Tucker The cured hay in a rick could get very thick and hard and needed to be cut with a specialized tool called a hay knife. Slices, or flakes of hay were then fed to the animals over the course of the winter. Photo by Benjamin B. Turner courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum The above photo, taken at Compton, Surrey in England, shows a huge corn rick on the left. It has been raised on staddle stones to protect it from water and from rodents and has been thatched to further shield it from the weather until it could be threshed. There is a smaller rick of hay on the right, which would have been intended as winter feed for the livestock. Originally, staddles that were used to support buildings were made of wood. Over time, stone became the preferred material, both for its durability and its ability to support greater weight. Stone staddles are known to have been used as early as medieval times. Staddle stones are almost always made of two parts, a base and a top. The choice of material used was dictated by what stone was available in a certain area. They could be made of granite, sandstone or, in some cases, slate. The tops of staddle stones were usually rounded and curved-- giving them their mushroom appearance--in order to deter rodents from climbing into the hay or grain that was being stored above. Unlike simple square or rectangular foundation stones, rodents have a difficult time climbing up and around the mushroom shaped tops. Staddle stones were used throughout Europe but were especially popular in England. For a time, there was such a demand for staddle stones in England that their quarrying and production contributed significantly to local economies. The intricacies of the design of the base and top of staddles differed from region to region in England. Some had flat tops, others were more curved. The bases of some staddles were cylindrical, whereas others were more pyramidal. Some experts in antique staddle stones can look at the shape of an individual stone and tell you exactly what part of England it came from. Staddle stones line a drive at Rodmarton Manor, in England. Once newer methods for the production and storage of hay and grain were developed, the use of staddle stones fell out of favor and many of the existing ones were either discarded, once the storage buildings deteriorated, or they were used ornamentally around the farm. The many thousands of staddle stones that, in a manner of speaking, once "supported" England's agricultural economy were now scattered across the country being used as ornamentation to line driveways and fencerows, to mark entrances and walkways, as makeshift seats, and as features in the garden. I can recall not long ago on a visit to the Cotswolds in England, climbing the steep hillside that connects the lower garden to the house at Kiftsgate Court Gardens, where the entire path was paved using just the tops of staddle stones! A line of staddle stones decorate the top of a stone wall on this Cotswold farm. Although several manufacturers are now producing replicas of staddle stones, many that you see are centuries old and have developed a wonderful patina of lichens adhering to their surfaces. This, along with their whimsical mushroom shape, continue to make them appealing today as garden ornaments. So appealing, in fact, that the exporting of antique staddle stones from England has become a huge business. Prices for genuine antique staddles have skyrocketed in the last decade. The price here in the States for an antique staddle stone as of this writing, usually approaches $1K. Along with those price increases have also come an increase in the theft of staddle stones. Just a few years ago, there was such a rash of staddle stone theft in Wiltshire and South West England that it made all of the London papers and television news. Many of the country houses and farms in rural England have now resorted to either storing and displaying staddle stones out of the way of public view or securing them somehow to keep them from disappearing. A grouping of antique staddle stones offered for sale. Photo courtesy of English Garden Antiques. The word "staddle" is derived from the Old English "stathol" meaning a base or support. I have heard these stones referred to as mushroom stones, toadstool stones, and mispronounced as saddle stones and straddle stones. But whatever you choose to call it, if you're lucky enough to have an antique staddle stone in your garden, you can not only cherish it as an object of great beauty but also as an important link to Europe's agricultural past.

Image 4 of 25 from gallery of Juniper House / Murman Arkitekter. Photograph by Åke E-son Lindman

Make Your Garden Sing “A garden should make you feel you've entered privileged space -- a place not just set apart but reverberant -- and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer poetry.” - Michael Pollan Have you ever been to someone's garden and come home and said, “I wish my garden looked like that.” Well I suspect all gardeners, young and old, beginner and advanced, have felt this way. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what it is that we are drawn to in a garden, yet we have a sense it ‘feels right.’ Trying to implement what we see and sense isn’t always easy. The beauty and the mystery is that all gardens are unique. Ideas may be borrowed but how they are used becomes ours. In my years of gardening there are some threads that I’ve discovered that help a garden work and ‘feel right.’ How you make them unique to you is your job, but starting with a few basics is helpful. These are the ones that stand out for me: Soil It sounds basic and it is. But to have a healthy garden it’s imperative to start with good soil. Not even the perfect placement of plants will ever look nice or thrive if the soil is not healthy. The better the nourishment the better the survival. There are numerous fertilizers on the market that can be used but I personally prefer the organic route and choose to amend my soil with a healthy heaping, about three inches, of compost yearly or at least every other year, usually in the fall. The benefit of compost is that it breaks down slowly and amends the soil and the plants, where fertilizers mostly amend just the plants. Living in the country we are fortunate to have good sources available to us of great compost that has been properly heated so no weed seeds grow and thus the plants thrive. I learned the hard way by putting straight sheep and chicken manure on my gardens once which magically grew the best grass I ever had, everywhere, but not where I wanted it. Using compost, whether you buy it from a reputable source, or make it yourself, is worth the work. No matter which route you choose, the start to a healthy garden is good soil. In addition to compost putting down a layer of mulch (again about three inches) is also beneficial in suppressing weeds, retaining moisture and amending the soil even further. This is best done in the spring after the seedlings are visible and strong. Don’t scrimp on good soil. You will be grateful when you see the results as will your garden. Size One of the other mistakes I made when I first began gardening was making my beds too narrow. They were 30 to 40 feet long but only about four feet wide. Once I enlarged the depth of my beds, doors opened and I and my garden had room to breathe. Now there was space for layers of plants and the opportunity for greater interest. My enlarged beds were now 10 feet in depth in some places and close to 15 feet in others. Whether you choose to have tall plants in the back graduating to shorter ones in the front, or just an array of tall and short plants mingled together, doesn’t matter. What matters are the layers that now enhance the garden. Adding depth to any bed, even from two feet to five feet will add a vast difference in a small bed and create the ability to use more plants effectively. Initially it is a little more work, but in the end, worth every effort. Structure/Bones After visiting many gardens, reading garden journals and books, I noticed the gardens that spoke to me the most all held a common thread. They had great structure and bones. One of my wise gardening friends taught me that when you look at your garden, first look at it in winter, or visualize how it will look in winter. If it’s interesting in winter you have the beginning of a great garden. Snow glistens on tree branches, and highlights shrubs and evergreens as it does ornamental pieces or stone. The result is often breathtaking. The shapes and textures of tree limbs, especially ones with unusual bark add multiple interest in all seasons, but especially in winter. Shrubs soften the landscape adding a calming element and keep the garden from looking stark. Architectural shapes become strong and stunning. Look carefully at your garden in winter. A garden without structure has no bones and little interest. Texture, Shape and Colors Using interesting shapes and structure (mentioned above) along with a mixture of textures and colors will really make a garden sing. For me this is where the real joy and challenge begin. The part where you throw paint at your canvas. A garden with a variety of textures is a garden that does not need a lot of flowers, or flowers at all, because the textures are pleasing enough. Flowers can be added here and there but when they fade the garden is still compelling. When using textures and/or flowers, using a variation of color, height and shape next to one another is quite powerful. For instance placing a soft feathery plant such as an Amsonia ‘Hubricttii’ next to a larger-leaved or dense plant such as a Baptisia ‘Purple Smoke,’ will make each plant pop. Or a tightly trimmed boxwood placed in front of a tall grass that dances around it will make the other more noticeable. Using complimentary colors often works well too. If a big purple leafed Ajuga such as ‘Caitlin’s Giant’ or ‘Black Scallop’ is placed in front of yellow variegated grass they will each cause the other to glow. The list becomes endless: a purple eldberry (Sambuscus ‘Black Lace’) nestled over yellow wax bells (Kirengeshoma palmata), near purple asters, next to a yellow variegated shrub shadowed by a tall Meadow Rue (Thalictrum ‘Lavender Mist’), or hosta with purple flowers. Orange or red heleniums next to blue salvia or hyssop (Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’) behind a red coleus, next to a dark green boxwood. A red Japanese maple near a willowy grass with pink fluffy seed heads, next to a dark evergreen, etc. Colors and textures can play off of one another all the way around the garden creating a lovely cadence that pulls you along. In the end it is a carefully crafted painting of sorts that is not only pleasing to the eye but beautiful. That said, an all green garden can be also outstanding merely by using unusual shapes and textures together especially along with hardscape. Some of the loveliest and most stunning gardens use this palette. How they are placed and trimmed is the art here. A garden can be mostly pinks, blues and whites, or chartreuse, purple and reds. Or perhaps you are drawn to the soft flowing prairie look. It doesn’t matter as long as the textures, shapes and colors make the plant next to it sing. I confess this, too, can turn into an obsession and more work of forever moving plants around for better placement. Hardscape In New England we are blessed with stonewalls and an abundance of granite. Using granite in New England gardens echoes what we see in the surrounding fields and woods and helps unite the garden with the natural world around it. But the use of any stone, and other elements such as brick, iron, wood or metal adds a great deal to a garden. As mentioned above hardscape will become part of the “structure” of a garden. A stone or brick patio, walkway, cobbles lining beds, granite blocks strategically placed in the garden perhaps with pots sitting on top, plinths, benches, chairs, large pots, trellises, arbors, birdbaths, birdhouses, wooden posts, fences and gates, garden ornaments or art all add stability, interest and structure to a garden. The mood can be of your choosing: whimsical, stately, simple and stunning, artistic or a combination. Collecting and adding hardscape is great fun but be forewarned: also addictive. Maintenance and Appearance Maintenance is a tricky word. But a garden that is not taken care of shows it and thus creates a certain sense of unease. Yet there is a delicate balance between cleanliness and comfort. Sometimes the charm is the moss or plants that have set themselves between the pavers on a path or patio or the way other plants have found their way into the perfect spot, or the plants that overflow the edges so that you feel you are walking in the garden and not around it. Some of these acts of nature are the ones that create that “feel” we are initially drawn towards. Time has taught me that nature often does this best. But even a garden with time and age on its side still needs to show signs of care. We have all seen neglected gardens that weigh heavily upon us as if the owner is gone to never return. Again it’s all about balance. Some gardeners like more order than others and neither is right or wrong. The garden will always reflect aspects of yourself, like them or not. I would gather most gardeners have learned a great deal about themselves from working in their own gardens. When I first visited English gardens many years ago they had a huge impact on me for all the reasons listed above and for appearance. There was something comforting about the neatly edged beds of grass meeting dirt at a perfect right angle. How they maintain this is beyond comprehension but I knew it was something I liked and thus try to recreate in my own gardens (but not to the degree the English do). It adds to the list of obsessions, and I realize what it says about me, but I do it anyway because it makes me feel good. So that is part of the balance too. “Gardens are a form of autobiography.” – Sydney Eddison So have fun, continually observe, be courageous, make mistakes, do and undo, celebrate your successes, learn from your failures, keep your sense of humor and sanity (sometimes the hardest part), and enjoy making your garden unique to you, beautiful and healthy and singing its own song. You can even sing along! Maude's first encounters with gardening came in early childhood, when her mother gave her a small patch of earth to care for. As a result of that experience she has carried a passion for nurturing the earth into adulthood and has been gardening seriously for the past 30 years. She holds a Master Gardener's certificate from The University of New Hampshire and, for over 12 years, has served as a dedicated volunteer with the Peterborough, NH Town Gardens, assisting with both design and maintenance. With the eyes of an artist, and a commitment to create beautiful spaces, she also runs her own garden design business, The Artful Gardener, in Peterborough, New Hampshire. For more guest blog posts from Maude Odgers, click here. You can also visit Maude's website at www.maudeodgers.com. All photos of the Odgers garden above by Maude Odgers.

Image 12 of 25 from gallery of Juniper House / Murman Arkitekter. Courtesy of Hans Murman

Make Your Garden Sing “A garden should make you feel you've entered privileged space -- a place not just set apart but reverberant -- and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer poetry.” - Michael Pollan Have you ever been to someone's garden and come home and said, “I wish my garden looked like that.” Well I suspect all gardeners, young and old, beginner and advanced, have felt this way. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what it is that we are drawn to in a garden, yet we have a sense it ‘feels right.’ Trying to implement what we see and sense isn’t always easy. The beauty and the mystery is that all gardens are unique. Ideas may be borrowed but how they are used becomes ours. In my years of gardening there are some threads that I’ve discovered that help a garden work and ‘feel right.’ How you make them unique to you is your job, but starting with a few basics is helpful. These are the ones that stand out for me: Soil It sounds basic and it is. But to have a healthy garden it’s imperative to start with good soil. Not even the perfect placement of plants will ever look nice or thrive if the soil is not healthy. The better the nourishment the better the survival. There are numerous fertilizers on the market that can be used but I personally prefer the organic route and choose to amend my soil with a healthy heaping, about three inches, of compost yearly or at least every other year, usually in the fall. The benefit of compost is that it breaks down slowly and amends the soil and the plants, where fertilizers mostly amend just the plants. Living in the country we are fortunate to have good sources available to us of great compost that has been properly heated so no weed seeds grow and thus the plants thrive. I learned the hard way by putting straight sheep and chicken manure on my gardens once which magically grew the best grass I ever had, everywhere, but not where I wanted it. Using compost, whether you buy it from a reputable source, or make it yourself, is worth the work. No matter which route you choose, the start to a healthy garden is good soil. In addition to compost putting down a layer of mulch (again about three inches) is also beneficial in suppressing weeds, retaining moisture and amending the soil even further. This is best done in the spring after the seedlings are visible and strong. Don’t scrimp on good soil. You will be grateful when you see the results as will your garden. Size One of the other mistakes I made when I first began gardening was making my beds too narrow. They were 30 to 40 feet long but only about four feet wide. Once I enlarged the depth of my beds, doors opened and I and my garden had room to breathe. Now there was space for layers of plants and the opportunity for greater interest. My enlarged beds were now 10 feet in depth in some places and close to 15 feet in others. Whether you choose to have tall plants in the back graduating to shorter ones in the front, or just an array of tall and short plants mingled together, doesn’t matter. What matters are the layers that now enhance the garden. Adding depth to any bed, even from two feet to five feet will add a vast difference in a small bed and create the ability to use more plants effectively. Initially it is a little more work, but in the end, worth every effort. Structure/Bones After visiting many gardens, reading garden journals and books, I noticed the gardens that spoke to me the most all held a common thread. They had great structure and bones. One of my wise gardening friends taught me that when you look at your garden, first look at it in winter, or visualize how it will look in winter. If it’s interesting in winter you have the beginning of a great garden. Snow glistens on tree branches, and highlights shrubs and evergreens as it does ornamental pieces or stone. The result is often breathtaking. The shapes and textures of tree limbs, especially ones with unusual bark add multiple interest in all seasons, but especially in winter. Shrubs soften the landscape adding a calming element and keep the garden from looking stark. Architectural shapes become strong and stunning. Look carefully at your garden in winter. A garden without structure has no bones and little interest. Texture, Shape and Colors Using interesting shapes and structure (mentioned above) along with a mixture of textures and colors will really make a garden sing. For me this is where the real joy and challenge begin. The part where you throw paint at your canvas. A garden with a variety of textures is a garden that does not need a lot of flowers, or flowers at all, because the textures are pleasing enough. Flowers can be added here and there but when they fade the garden is still compelling. When using textures and/or flowers, using a variation of color, height and shape next to one another is quite powerful. For instance placing a soft feathery plant such as an Amsonia ‘Hubricttii’ next to a larger-leaved or dense plant such as a Baptisia ‘Purple Smoke,’ will make each plant pop. Or a tightly trimmed boxwood placed in front of a tall grass that dances around it will make the other more noticeable. Using complimentary colors often works well too. If a big purple leafed Ajuga such as ‘Caitlin’s Giant’ or ‘Black Scallop’ is placed in front of yellow variegated grass they will each cause the other to glow. The list becomes endless: a purple eldberry (Sambuscus ‘Black Lace’) nestled over yellow wax bells (Kirengeshoma palmata), near purple asters, next to a yellow variegated shrub shadowed by a tall Meadow Rue (Thalictrum ‘Lavender Mist’), or hosta with purple flowers. Orange or red heleniums next to blue salvia or hyssop (Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’) behind a red coleus, next to a dark green boxwood. A red Japanese maple near a willowy grass with pink fluffy seed heads, next to a dark evergreen, etc. Colors and textures can play off of one another all the way around the garden creating a lovely cadence that pulls you along. In the end it is a carefully crafted painting of sorts that is not only pleasing to the eye but beautiful. That said, an all green garden can be also outstanding merely by using unusual shapes and textures together especially along with hardscape. Some of the loveliest and most stunning gardens use this palette. How they are placed and trimmed is the art here. A garden can be mostly pinks, blues and whites, or chartreuse, purple and reds. Or perhaps you are drawn to the soft flowing prairie look. It doesn’t matter as long as the textures, shapes and colors make the plant next to it sing. I confess this, too, can turn into an obsession and more work of forever moving plants around for better placement. Hardscape In New England we are blessed with stonewalls and an abundance of granite. Using granite in New England gardens echoes what we see in the surrounding fields and woods and helps unite the garden with the natural world around it. But the use of any stone, and other elements such as brick, iron, wood or metal adds a great deal to a garden. As mentioned above hardscape will become part of the “structure” of a garden. A stone or brick patio, walkway, cobbles lining beds, granite blocks strategically placed in the garden perhaps with pots sitting on top, plinths, benches, chairs, large pots, trellises, arbors, birdbaths, birdhouses, wooden posts, fences and gates, garden ornaments or art all add stability, interest and structure to a garden. The mood can be of your choosing: whimsical, stately, simple and stunning, artistic or a combination. Collecting and adding hardscape is great fun but be forewarned: also addictive. Maintenance and Appearance Maintenance is a tricky word. But a garden that is not taken care of shows it and thus creates a certain sense of unease. Yet there is a delicate balance between cleanliness and comfort. Sometimes the charm is the moss or plants that have set themselves between the pavers on a path or patio or the way other plants have found their way into the perfect spot, or the plants that overflow the edges so that you feel you are walking in the garden and not around it. Some of these acts of nature are the ones that create that “feel” we are initially drawn towards. Time has taught me that nature often does this best. But even a garden with time and age on its side still needs to show signs of care. We have all seen neglected gardens that weigh heavily upon us as if the owner is gone to never return. Again it’s all about balance. Some gardeners like more order than others and neither is right or wrong. The garden will always reflect aspects of yourself, like them or not. I would gather most gardeners have learned a great deal about themselves from working in their own gardens. When I first visited English gardens many years ago they had a huge impact on me for all the reasons listed above and for appearance. There was something comforting about the neatly edged beds of grass meeting dirt at a perfect right angle. How they maintain this is beyond comprehension but I knew it was something I liked and thus try to recreate in my own gardens (but not to the degree the English do). It adds to the list of obsessions, and I realize what it says about me, but I do it anyway because it makes me feel good. So that is part of the balance too. “Gardens are a form of autobiography.” – Sydney Eddison So have fun, continually observe, be courageous, make mistakes, do and undo, celebrate your successes, learn from your failures, keep your sense of humor and sanity (sometimes the hardest part), and enjoy making your garden unique to you, beautiful and healthy and singing its own song. You can even sing along! Maude's first encounters with gardening came in early childhood, when her mother gave her a small patch of earth to care for. As a result of that experience she has carried a passion for nurturing the earth into adulthood and has been gardening seriously for the past 30 years. She holds a Master Gardener's certificate from The University of New Hampshire and, for over 12 years, has served as a dedicated volunteer with the Peterborough, NH Town Gardens, assisting with both design and maintenance. With the eyes of an artist, and a commitment to create beautiful spaces, she also runs her own garden design business, The Artful Gardener, in Peterborough, New Hampshire. For more guest blog posts from Maude Odgers, click here. You can also visit Maude's website at www.maudeodgers.com. All photos of the Odgers garden above by Maude Odgers.

An obsession with antiques led Juniper Tedhams to her interior design career, and her Manhattan home is a reflection of her innermost design sensibilities. Photographed by Alexandra Rowley.

The layers of color in Gordon and Mary Hayward's Vermont garden would lend themselves well to the artist's brush. Don't forget to join us on Facebook at Notes From Juniper Hill, where you'll find daily postings of what's going on here at the farm, as well as original photos of gardens and interiors, links to important events in the world of gardening, art, shares from other gardeners, new and unusual plants, and comments and interactions from friends near and far. You can find us on Facebook by clicking here. We would love to have you join us! Here's a sample of some postings from just the last 24 hours. Notes from Juniper Hill shared The Beth Chatto Gardens's album. Pimpinella major 'Rosea' - one of our favourite umbellifers. A close up of Pimpinella major 'Rosea' Photo by Claude Smekens: www.claudesmekens.be Just a sample of the incredible stonework of Dan Snow in the Berg garden, Walpole, New Hampshire. For more about Dan…www.dansnowstoneworks.com Here's another shot of that Netpeta 'Walkers Low' hedge from another angle. We like to layer hedges with different foliage textures and then shape them in slightly different forms. In addition to the low, flowering hedge of Nepeta, also visible in this photo are hedges of boxwood, (Buxus 'Winter Gem'), yew (Taxus 'Hicksii') and privet (Ligustrum amurense). Simplify, simplify. It's peony time at Juniper Hill as they line several paths, including this one that borders the Zen Garden. Ladybird poppies (Papaver commutatum) really light up a corner of Helen O'Donnell's Vermont garden. Papaver commutatum was originally developed by William Thompson in 1876 from a species introduced from Russia. William Thompson published his first plant catalog in 1855 and went on to launch the Thompson and Morgan seed company, which is still going strong today and still offering Ladybird Poppy seeds: http://bit.ly/18ci8Nb. Notes from Juniper Hill shared Restaurant "Le Temps Des Cerises" - Namur Belgium's photo. Notes from Juniper Hill shared Plantswise by Tovah Martin's photo. To make amends for being off the screen, I'm going to bring you along with me to LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, LI where I was this weekend. Prepare to be awed, because I certainly was transported. This is gardening at its best. Better still = go visit. You owe it to yourself. Where to begin? From The Department of The interior… Photo by Claude Smekens: www.claudesmekens.be A grand entrance backed by some gorgeous trees! Photo via Tumblr Things are really popping in Len and Meredeth Allen's New Hampshire garden. Notes from Juniper Hill shared Secret language of flower's photo. Heuchera 'Amethyst Mist' Notes from Juniper Hill shared France d'art et de lumière's photo. Les géraniums du Jardin du Luxembourg ! Notes from Juniper Hill shared Ecossistemas - Gardens Centers photo. Notes from Juniper Hill shared 武士〜Takeshi〜's photo. A few stone steps invite you to explore this path through a woodland garden in New Hampshire. The low hedge of Nepeta 'Walkers Low' is now in full flower at Juniper Hill. Peonies and Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) are blooming along a path at Juniper Hill.

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Maple-Juniper Roast Pheasant Serves 4 to 6 ...

Décor Inspiration | At Home With: Juniper Tedhams, Manhattan - a Chelsea townhouse in an Italianate-style building dating back to the 1850s

Growing loofah this year? Here are some practical tips for how to grow loofah successfully from trial and error in zone 7 and zone 8.

Do you wish for a special little hideaway in the garden where you can get away from it all? A place where you can put down the trowel for a while, forget about the weeding, and simply settle in with a good book and a cup of tea. If so, here are a few garden houses that perhaps will give you some inspiration to construct your very own. And, if you already have your own special getaway spot in the garden, or have a favorite that you'd like to replicate someday, I would love to see photos! Arbours, Benches, and Seats are very necessary, being present expedients for them that are weary, but that which Crowns the pleasures of a Garden is a place of repose, where neither Wind, Rain, Heat, nor cold can annoy you. This small edifice, usually term'd a Pleasure-house or Banqueting-house may be made at some remote Angle of your Garden: For the more remote it is from your house, the more private will you be from the frequent disturbances of your Family or Acquaintance... John Worlidge, Systema Horticulture, 1677 A secluded little garden house tucked away in the corner of the woodland at Sezincote, in England, that would make a great spot to do a little writing. The pergola and terrace attached to this potting shed in a Rhode Island garden offer a shady spot for a little afternoon nap. A rustic hideaway in an English garden, almost completely hidden by encroaching vines. A beautiful 'summer house' in this New Hampshire garden makes the perfect spot for a dinner by candlelight. A wonderful little office sits near the lower level of this terraced Connecticut garden. Our own little 'Hidcote hideaway' here at Juniper Hill. A uniquely styled garden house at Sezincote in England. A great roof sits atop this garden house in a corner of Sissinghurst in England. This screened, Asian inspired pool house in a Connecticut garden offers a wonderful spot to stretch out and read a book. The kind of ancient stone hideaway we all dream about at Snowshill garden in England. A private spot in the shade of this garden at Colonial Williamsburg. How much better does it get than this little vine covered garden house tucked in among an ancient hedge at Rodmarton Manor in England? Talk about a garden view! Looking through the little pavilion at the long axis at Hidcote Manor garden in England. This little red Asian pavilion in a Rhode Island garden can immediately transport you to a subtropical jungle world far away. The rustic pool house in this Connecticut garden makes a great spot to entertain or simply stretch out and get away from it all. Truly created for the wee ones, this little house in a New Hampshire garden is all set up with table and chairs, ready for an afternoon tea.

Happy indoor gardening! The weather's always fine.

Find Gold Star Juniper (Juniperus chinensis 'Bakaurea') in Davidsonville, Maryland (MD) at Homestead Gardens

Make Your Garden Sing “A garden should make you feel you've entered privileged space -- a place not just set apart but reverberant -- and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer poetry.” - Michael Pollan Have you ever been to someone's garden and come home and said, “I wish my garden looked like that.” Well I suspect all gardeners, young and old, beginner and advanced, have felt this way. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what it is that we are drawn to in a garden, yet we have a sense it ‘feels right.’ Trying to implement what we see and sense isn’t always easy. The beauty and the mystery is that all gardens are unique. Ideas may be borrowed but how they are used becomes ours. In my years of gardening there are some threads that I’ve discovered that help a garden work and ‘feel right.’ How you make them unique to you is your job, but starting with a few basics is helpful. These are the ones that stand out for me: Soil It sounds basic and it is. But to have a healthy garden it’s imperative to start with good soil. Not even the perfect placement of plants will ever look nice or thrive if the soil is not healthy. The better the nourishment the better the survival. There are numerous fertilizers on the market that can be used but I personally prefer the organic route and choose to amend my soil with a healthy heaping, about three inches, of compost yearly or at least every other year, usually in the fall. The benefit of compost is that it breaks down slowly and amends the soil and the plants, where fertilizers mostly amend just the plants. Living in the country we are fortunate to have good sources available to us of great compost that has been properly heated so no weed seeds grow and thus the plants thrive. I learned the hard way by putting straight sheep and chicken manure on my gardens once which magically grew the best grass I ever had, everywhere, but not where I wanted it. Using compost, whether you buy it from a reputable source, or make it yourself, is worth the work. No matter which route you choose, the start to a healthy garden is good soil. In addition to compost putting down a layer of mulch (again about three inches) is also beneficial in suppressing weeds, retaining moisture and amending the soil even further. This is best done in the spring after the seedlings are visible and strong. Don’t scrimp on good soil. You will be grateful when you see the results as will your garden. Size One of the other mistakes I made when I first began gardening was making my beds too narrow. They were 30 to 40 feet long but only about four feet wide. Once I enlarged the depth of my beds, doors opened and I and my garden had room to breathe. Now there was space for layers of plants and the opportunity for greater interest. My enlarged beds were now 10 feet in depth in some places and close to 15 feet in others. Whether you choose to have tall plants in the back graduating to shorter ones in the front, or just an array of tall and short plants mingled together, doesn’t matter. What matters are the layers that now enhance the garden. Adding depth to any bed, even from two feet to five feet will add a vast difference in a small bed and create the ability to use more plants effectively. Initially it is a little more work, but in the end, worth every effort. Structure/Bones After visiting many gardens, reading garden journals and books, I noticed the gardens that spoke to me the most all held a common thread. They had great structure and bones. One of my wise gardening friends taught me that when you look at your garden, first look at it in winter, or visualize how it will look in winter. If it’s interesting in winter you have the beginning of a great garden. Snow glistens on tree branches, and highlights shrubs and evergreens as it does ornamental pieces or stone. The result is often breathtaking. The shapes and textures of tree limbs, especially ones with unusual bark add multiple interest in all seasons, but especially in winter. Shrubs soften the landscape adding a calming element and keep the garden from looking stark. Architectural shapes become strong and stunning. Look carefully at your garden in winter. A garden without structure has no bones and little interest. Texture, Shape and Colors Using interesting shapes and structure (mentioned above) along with a mixture of textures and colors will really make a garden sing. For me this is where the real joy and challenge begin. The part where you throw paint at your canvas. A garden with a variety of textures is a garden that does not need a lot of flowers, or flowers at all, because the textures are pleasing enough. Flowers can be added here and there but when they fade the garden is still compelling. When using textures and/or flowers, using a variation of color, height and shape next to one another is quite powerful. For instance placing a soft feathery plant such as an Amsonia ‘Hubricttii’ next to a larger-leaved or dense plant such as a Baptisia ‘Purple Smoke,’ will make each plant pop. Or a tightly trimmed boxwood placed in front of a tall grass that dances around it will make the other more noticeable. Using complimentary colors often works well too. If a big purple leafed Ajuga such as ‘Caitlin’s Giant’ or ‘Black Scallop’ is placed in front of yellow variegated grass they will each cause the other to glow. The list becomes endless: a purple eldberry (Sambuscus ‘Black Lace’) nestled over yellow wax bells (Kirengeshoma palmata), near purple asters, next to a yellow variegated shrub shadowed by a tall Meadow Rue (Thalictrum ‘Lavender Mist’), or hosta with purple flowers. Orange or red heleniums next to blue salvia or hyssop (Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’) behind a red coleus, next to a dark green boxwood. A red Japanese maple near a willowy grass with pink fluffy seed heads, next to a dark evergreen, etc. Colors and textures can play off of one another all the way around the garden creating a lovely cadence that pulls you along. In the end it is a carefully crafted painting of sorts that is not only pleasing to the eye but beautiful. That said, an all green garden can be also outstanding merely by using unusual shapes and textures together especially along with hardscape. Some of the loveliest and most stunning gardens use this palette. How they are placed and trimmed is the art here. A garden can be mostly pinks, blues and whites, or chartreuse, purple and reds. Or perhaps you are drawn to the soft flowing prairie look. It doesn’t matter as long as the textures, shapes and colors make the plant next to it sing. I confess this, too, can turn into an obsession and more work of forever moving plants around for better placement. Hardscape In New England we are blessed with stonewalls and an abundance of granite. Using granite in New England gardens echoes what we see in the surrounding fields and woods and helps unite the garden with the natural world around it. But the use of any stone, and other elements such as brick, iron, wood or metal adds a great deal to a garden. As mentioned above hardscape will become part of the “structure” of a garden. A stone or brick patio, walkway, cobbles lining beds, granite blocks strategically placed in the garden perhaps with pots sitting on top, plinths, benches, chairs, large pots, trellises, arbors, birdbaths, birdhouses, wooden posts, fences and gates, garden ornaments or art all add stability, interest and structure to a garden. The mood can be of your choosing: whimsical, stately, simple and stunning, artistic or a combination. Collecting and adding hardscape is great fun but be forewarned: also addictive. Maintenance and Appearance Maintenance is a tricky word. But a garden that is not taken care of shows it and thus creates a certain sense of unease. Yet there is a delicate balance between cleanliness and comfort. Sometimes the charm is the moss or plants that have set themselves between the pavers on a path or patio or the way other plants have found their way into the perfect spot, or the plants that overflow the edges so that you feel you are walking in the garden and not around it. Some of these acts of nature are the ones that create that “feel” we are initially drawn towards. Time has taught me that nature often does this best. But even a garden with time and age on its side still needs to show signs of care. We have all seen neglected gardens that weigh heavily upon us as if the owner is gone to never return. Again it’s all about balance. Some gardeners like more order than others and neither is right or wrong. The garden will always reflect aspects of yourself, like them or not. I would gather most gardeners have learned a great deal about themselves from working in their own gardens. When I first visited English gardens many years ago they had a huge impact on me for all the reasons listed above and for appearance. There was something comforting about the neatly edged beds of grass meeting dirt at a perfect right angle. How they maintain this is beyond comprehension but I knew it was something I liked and thus try to recreate in my own gardens (but not to the degree the English do). It adds to the list of obsessions, and I realize what it says about me, but I do it anyway because it makes me feel good. So that is part of the balance too. “Gardens are a form of autobiography.” – Sydney Eddison So have fun, continually observe, be courageous, make mistakes, do and undo, celebrate your successes, learn from your failures, keep your sense of humor and sanity (sometimes the hardest part), and enjoy making your garden unique to you, beautiful and healthy and singing its own song. You can even sing along! Maude's first encounters with gardening came in early childhood, when her mother gave her a small patch of earth to care for. As a result of that experience she has carried a passion for nurturing the earth into adulthood and has been gardening seriously for the past 30 years. She holds a Master Gardener's certificate from The University of New Hampshire and, for over 12 years, has served as a dedicated volunteer with the Peterborough, NH Town Gardens, assisting with both design and maintenance. With the eyes of an artist, and a commitment to create beautiful spaces, she also runs her own garden design business, The Artful Gardener, in Peterborough, New Hampshire. For more guest blog posts from Maude Odgers, click here. You can also visit Maude's website at www.maudeodgers.com. All photos of the Odgers garden above by Maude Odgers.