Category Archives: Garden Making Guidance

Best Evergreen Floor Plants

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2013/05/27

A Suitable Plant for Memorial Day : Vinca The word ‘Vinca’ can be derived from the Italian verb ‘Vincere’, which refers to success by winning or conquering, whether I, you, he or she. The Vincas are a seriously reliable and handsome Genus of plants, so it is easy to think of them being referred to [...]

Also posted in Plant Portraits, Things They Never Tell You, Your Reasoned Landscape | Tagged evergreen floor plants, Vinca minor alba 'Gertrude Jekyll', Vinca minor argenteovariegata, Vinca minor Ralph Shugert | Leave a comment

Recycling Christmas Greens

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2012/12/11

Wreathing the Beds Greens After Christmas A second harvest purpose for the branches of Christmas trees and other holiday greens is to use them as decorative wreathing for your otherwise somewhat bare perennial beds. …… One might choose to lay evergreen branches on some beds just to look wonderful through the winter, but these branches [...]

Also posted in Things They Never Tell You | Tagged greens after christmas, horticultural practices, insulating plants, joe eck, north hill, Pepsico, perennial bed, protect plants, protecting plants, recycled christmas greens, reuse christmas trees, reuse decorations, stone garden designs inc., tree-cycle, winter preparation, wreath | 3 Responses

Winter Preparation

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2012/11/07

Anticipating the End of the Year Some More Things They Never Tell You. Save the final blowing and cleaning of your diverse planted beds until after the ground is cold hardened. For the thorough cleaning of beds in which perennial and self sowing plants reside, it is safer for those inhabitants if you wait until [...]

Also posted in Things They Never Tell You, Your Reasoned Landscape | Tagged winter building, winter garden, winter preparation | 58 Responses

Shaping Your Landscape

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2012/10/07

Seeing the Shapes ………………………………………………………………R.S. A series of purposefully taken photographs can provide elevational views of your landscape and buildings for use as ‘working images’ to draw on or trace over. By enlarging such photos and sketching on them, you can begin to see how your ideas will look as you approach them in the 3 [...]

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Potatoes and Rocks on Long Island

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2012/07/31

The Rock who Tried to be a Potato When you hand harvest potatoes in Eastern Long Island you soon learn that the sandy earth coats the stones which also inhabit the earth there so thoroughly that, before washing, the two entities are often virtually indistinguishable. Their weight difference is the only clue sometimes. If you [...]

Also posted in Plant Portraits, Things They Never Tell You | Tagged Long Island, long island potato, Long island stone, potatoes | 1 Response

Thalictrum rochebruneanum and Other Fabulous Flower Fireworks

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2012/07/02

Thalictrum rochebruneanum is a Star for the Fourth of July. You can expect Lavender Flowered Fireworks, every year. … Sometimes called ‘Meadow Rue’, or ‘Lavender Mist’, this plant is elegantly vertical. When in bloom, each individual is like a 6’ magic wand, with delicate foliage and perfect lavender sparkles, which fluff out at the top [...]

Also posted in Long Blooming Plants, Plant Portraits | Tagged flower fireworks, fourth of july plant, fourth of July plants, hardy annuals, keeping self sowing plants, long blooming plants, miniature plants, self sowing plants, shade plant, shade tolerant plant, star plants, tall skinny plants, Thalictrum kiusianum, THALICTRUM ROCHEBRUNEANUM, Thalictrum rochebrunianum, Verbena bonariensis | 1 Response

Volunteer Vegetables : Edible, Ornamental…and they come back every year.

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2012/06/07

Red Leaf Shiso = Perilla frutescens crispa I first met the red leaf Japanese Perilla, also known as Shiso, at a supermarket in a plastic bag. A bouquet of 15 or so rooted, leafy stems of a plant I had never met were being sold with the herbs, next to the Basil, so I took [...]

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Long Blooming Hardy Perennial Plants : Prizewinning Series, May 2012

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2012/05/08

May 2012 Awards A First Prize in the category of Longest Blooming, Hardy Perennial Self – Sowers goes to: Corydalis lutea and to Corydalis lutea alba. …… Easy, long flowering friends can be found among the many perennial choices in the plant world. Among the handsomest of hardy, long blooming plants, these two enthusiastic Corydalines [...]

Also posted in Authorship, Long Blooming Plants, Most Popular Posts, Plant Portraits | Tagged a reasoned landscape, best friend plants, Corydalis lutea, Corydalis lutea alba, ellen cool, H. Lincoln Foster, hardy longblooming, Laura Louise Foster, long blooming, long blooming plants, Naturalising, prize winning plants, prizewinning plants, Rock Garden, Rock Gardening, self sowing plants, stone garden designs, street champions, street champs, street plants, tough plants | 1 Response

Hypertufa and Stone Container Gardens

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2012/03/07

The Smallest Gardens Miniature gardens can be very satisfying elements within the small personal landscapes that many of us inhabit. Hypertufa and stone troughs and pots are very versatile planting containers, remaining in place outdoors through all the seasons, and lasting for many years. After a while, when in touch with the earth’s surface and [...]

Also posted in Long Blooming Plants, Plant Portraits, Your Reasoned Landscape | Tagged container garden, Corydalis lutea, Corydalis lutea alba, Cymbalaria alba compacta, encrusted saxifrage, fine gardening magazine, Helen Dawson, Hieracium pilosella, hypertufa, Kenilworth Ivy, making planters, Mini Hostas, miniature garden, miniature hostas, north american rock garden society, planting troughs, rock garden society, saxifraga callosa, Saxifraga cuneifolia, saxifraga umbrosa, Saxifrage, shaping planters, silver saxifrage, small garden, stone sink, sustainability, Thalictrum kiusianum, trough, troughs, tufa | 50 Responses

Happy Valentine’s Day……. Love, Earth

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2012/02/09

A Heartful Potato Plants are not exactly friends, but they’re friendly. This potato was born in a heart shape. It was harvested last year in Newtown, Connecticut at the Sticks and Stones Farm. This farm of moss and stone is a living gallery of ideas and instruction on how to design, build and live with [...]

Also posted in Plant Portraits | Tagged potato, sticks and stones farm, valentine, valentine vegetable | Leave a comment

Halloween Orange

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2011/10/30

An organised colony of mini Pumpkins for You. … Pumpkins in Kindergarten, early 1800s.

Also posted in Plant Portraits | Tagged Halloween, orange, Pumpkins | Leave a comment

Long Blooming Hardy Plants : Prizewinning Series 2011

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2011/08/24

August Awards A First Prize in the category of Longest Blooming, Best Standing Self Sowers goes to: Linaria purpurea (purple) and to Linaria purpurea Canon J. Went (pink) Linaria purpurea Canon J. Went The pink form of this Linaria is named in honor of Canon J. Went (ecumenical), and was his horticultural ‘goal’ plant. This [...]

Also posted in Long Blooming Plants, Most Popular Posts, Plant Portraits | Tagged easy plants, Linaria Canon Went, linaria pink, linaria purpurea, linaria purpurea canon went, long blooming, long blooming plants, longest blooming, prize winning plants, reliable perennials, roadside plants, self sowing, self sowing plants, street champions, street plants, tough plants | 27 Responses

Long Blooming, Self Sowing, Comeback Plants

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2011/04/10

Prizewinning Naturalising Plants : Annuals and Perennials .Self Sowing Comeback Plants for Zone 5BIt is a good feeling to have some favorite plants that you know are So Happy in your place that they will be coming back of their own accord, year after year, through generations of new individuals. These are your Naturalisers. Some [...]

Also posted in Long Blooming Plants, Most Popular Posts, Plant Portraits | Tagged Alyssum snow crystals, annuals, annuals come back, California poppy, comeback plants, Corydalis lutea, Corydalis lutea alba, Delosperma cooperei, Eschscholzia californica, euphorbia cyparissias, Gypsophila muralis, Johnny Jumpups, Linaria Canon Went, Lobularia maritima snow crystals, long blooming plants, longblooming plants, longest blooming, Naturalisers, Naturalising, perennials, plants that self sow, prize winning plants, prizewinning plants, self sower, self sowing, self sowing plants, site sowing, subtractive gardening, viola koreana, Viola tricolor | 352 Responses

Snow, Brooms and Squirrels

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2011/01/21

The Old Worn Corn Broom A friendly old Corn broom is indispensable for sweeping snow off trees and shrubs in the winter and for freeing frisbees, balls and balloons in the other seasons. Its bristles softened and shortened by time, usually on an angle from all the corner work it has tried to do [...]

Also posted in Things They Never Tell You | Tagged broom history, brooms, corn broom, edible wreath, edible wreaths, feeding squirrels, Grace Jeffers, shaker design, snow, snow removal, sorghum bicolor, squirrel nest, squirrels, squirrels nest, The Statement | 40 Responses

Wreathing the Beds

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2010/12/19

Greens After Christmas A second harvest purpose for the branches of Christmas trees and other holiday greens is to use them as decorative wreathing for your otherwise somewhat bare perennial beds. …… One might choose to lay evergreen branches on some beds just to look wonderful through the winter, but these branches can also do [...]

Also posted in Things They Never Tell You, Your Reasoned Landscape | Tagged ecotome, greens after christmas, heaving, joe eck, north hill, plant protection, protect perennial, protect plants, protecting plants winter, recycle christmas tree, reuse christmas tree, second harvest, wayne winterrowd, winter preparation, winter protection | 10 Responses

Winter Arrangements, Indoors and Out

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2010/11/28

In my landscapes, evergreen branches that will need to be pruned anyway wait for that attention until I can use their lovely offcuts for decorative winter purposes. …………. You will see your tree and shrub elements alone in the winter, when there are fewer other plants around to distract you. It is a good time [...]

Also posted in Things They Never Tell You, Your Reasoned Landscape | Tagged evergreen branches, evergreen Hollies, Ilex decidua, Ilex sparkleberry, Ilex verticillata, local harvest, pieris japonica, pruning hollies, tree cuttings, Winter Arrangements | 20 Responses

Dear Readers

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2010/11/24

* In the Spirit of Thanksgiving I wanted to thank you all for your thoughtful comments. They do encourage the work. I don’t answer comments because if I did I would never have time to write my articles, but I do think about the things you say, and my writing will reflect your input. Please [...]

Also posted in Authorship, Things They Never Tell You, Your Reasoned Landscape | Tagged design with nature, Garden in the Woods, Ian Stewart, local Turkey, New England Wildflower, Thanksgiving, Thematic Ian Stewart | 7 Responses

Your Ecotome

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2010/11/22

ECOTOME This self describing noun is not much in current use, yet it would seem to me by its etymological origins that it could usefully be incorporated when referring to ones own local ecological context. The ‘local ecotome’ would refer to the surrounding area of which you are a part, the one whose ecological realities [...]

Also posted in Most Popular Posts, Things They Never Tell You, Your Reasoned Landscape | Tagged ecology, ecotome, habitat, landscape, local ecology, local ecotome, local habitat, your ecotome | 246 Responses

Fall Tending

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2010/11/22

Good Housekeeping Tending your gardens thoroughly in fall will help all the winter compositions to show at their best. There shold be nothing to detract from the pictures, even in this season. Most herbaceous plants are trimmed down close to the earth now, but any that still look nice, by flowering or being evergreen, perhaps [...]

Also posted in Plant Portraits, Things They Never Tell You, Your Reasoned Landscape | Tagged blowers, compost, December, decomposition, Good Housekeeping, mulch, topdressing, using compost | 5 Responses

November Nor’easter

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2010/11/14

………………………………………………………………. * The small grove of Maples I pass each late night Today were moon – lit Cross black blue and star white. …………… Nor’easter behind them, Their yellow leaf hands Waved wildly at me, Those last leaves of the stand. ……………… Soon to be fallen, tonight was so dear, “Till next year” we said [...]

Also posted in Long Blooming Plants, Plant Portraits, Things They Never Tell You, Your Reasoned Landscape | Tagged Corydalis lutea alba, John Novak, Laura Louise Foster, Lincoln Foster, maple poem, Racket Shreve, Rock Gardening, Timmy Foster | 10 Responses

Pumpkins and Other Long Island Characters

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2010/10/24

Harvest Holiday On 10/10/10 I drove slowly through the Orient Point Park and wildlife reserve, which lies like a ribbon stretched out alongside the Atlantic Ocean at the easternmost tip of Long Island, New York. I was on the lookout for my old friends, the box turtles, who live quietly there (with turtle crossing signs [...]

Also posted in Most Popular Posts, Plant Portraits, Things They Never Tell You | Tagged amagansett food institute, butterfly migration, Cucurbita maxima Jarradale, Cucurbita maxima Moschata, Glover perennials, halloween decorations, Hubbard squash, lavender farm, Long Island Cheese pumpkin, Long Island pumpkins, long island wheat, Marblehead squash, Monarch butterflies, Orient Point, pumpkin farms, pumpkin stories, unusual pumpkins | 178 Responses

Long Blooming Vines: Loniceras

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2010/10/06

Favorite Long Blooming Vines: Some Prizewinning Honeysuckles If you find a place in each view for one or more kinds of the longest blooming plants, and build your landscape pictures to complement their colors and character, your beds can nearly always be freshly beautiful. These Loniceras are tough and reliable and contribute substantially to a [...]

Also posted in Long Blooming Plants, Most Popular Posts, Plant Portraits | Tagged climbing plants, climbing structure, climbing vines, favorite vines, flowering vines, fourth of july plant, growing lonicera, growing vines, long blooming, long blooming honeysuckle, long blooming plants, Long Blooming vines, longest blooming, longest blooming vines, Lonicera dropmore scarlet, Lonicera periclymenum Graham Stuart Thomas, lonicera sempevirens dropmore scarlet, native vine, orange plants, orange problems, plant colors, prize winning vines, prizewinning vines, pruning lonicera | 60 Responses

Plant Names and Why They Matter

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2010/09/30

“Most of us are bored with gossip and photographs of people we do not know. The beginner feels the same way about plants”[1] … The plant scene becomes more interesting when you understand the cast of characters a bit. To develop relationships with the plant players, you will want to get to know them as [...]

Also posted in Long Blooming Plants, Most Popular Posts, Plant Portraits, Things They Never Tell You | Tagged A Nonsense Botany, beginning gardener, beginning landscape, Botanical names, Christopher Lloyd, Edward Lear, Fletcher Steele, gardenworthy, generic names, Geoffrey Grigson, identifying plants, landscape plant names, landscape plants, Latin names, Michael Dirr, naming plants, oxalis triangularis, plant information, plant names, Plant Names Explained, plant naming, plant varieties, Racket Shreve, species names, taxonomic names | 70 Responses

Plants as Beings

By Ellen Cool | Published: 2010/09/26

Plants are such dynamic living beings that ‘It’ just never seems to me to be the right pronoun to use in conversational and prose references. As one Horticulturally minded friend has said, “referring to a plant as ‘It’ is absolutely Rude” For fun, try referring to particular plants, shrubs and trees too, as ‘he or [...]

Also posted in Plant Portraits, Things They Never Tell You, Your Reasoned Landscape | Tagged Jennifer Pederson, papaver rupifragum, plant friends, plant names, plant pronouns | 35 Responses