Garden Story

There is a row of apartment buildings in Hawkesbury that have only a strip of lawn and a row of honey locust trees in front of them. I asked the property manager whether he would object to my creating some perennial gardens.

He gave permission and I started in May by stripping a 12' by 9' area of the lawn and putting a 5" rubber edging around it to keep the grass out.

In June, I got some help to ram in 2 t-bars to hold up my trellis for the honeysuckle ("Lonicera"). In front of that, I planted a dappled willow ("Salix integra") and, in front of it, three Sedum. Behind the trellis, to one side, I sunk a perforated tin pan with two wild summac saplings. They have to stay in the pan to keep their pesky runners from invading the whole flowerbed. I love their foliage and brilliant crimson leaves in the fall. In the empty spaces, I added some campanula for next spring.

Later, in July, I put in lots of Cana lilies and snapdragons (the garden supply stores were throwing them away!). This project was so much fun that I went ahead and made two more flowerbeds.

Now it is time to say good-bye to my gardens for the season. The Canas have to be dug out and stored in peat moss, the salix cut back and the snapdragons composted. I will leave the sedum: they stay gorgeously maroon in the winter snow.