In my English Garden.
Darren Harwood
5 years ago
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Darren Harwood
5 years agoDarren Harwood
5 years agoRelated Discussions
anyone have a 'folly'?:treehouse/playhouse
Comments (4)A friend built a tree house in his small back yard some years ago. Great way to get away from the hemmed in yard and small house, yet still be at home in his own private space. It was in a tree in the back yard, above roof level. Another friend has a neighbor with a tree house built just above the ground but inside a dense broadleaf evergreen tree with low branches. It's right off the public sidewalk in a narrow strip between that and the house, yet quite fun. Walking around the garden you walk into the tree house to get through that part. I never knew it was there until I visited the property as part of a neighborhood garden tour. Even after being there it was hard to see the tree house inside the dense tree. Both of the above were attractively and solidly built, the kind of thing you might see in a magazine - an important part of the appeal....See MoreFlowering shrub ideas?
Comments (6)You hit one of my great passions - fragrant flowering shrubs! Deciduous: Viburnum burkwoodii or carlessii, also called Korean spice Viburnum, white clusters of spicy wafting fragrance in spring - rather like dianthus smell. Also deciduous are certain Exbury azaleas that are 4-5 feet tall, yellow-orange range and heavenly fragrance. Taking a bit more room is Wintersweet, which I think is Chaemonanthes praecox, and on the winterblooming theme, witchhazel or winter hazel which have elusive wafting scents. Evergreen and winterblooming is Sarcococca rusticifolia or ... there's a dwarf form I'm forgetting, but it's the more usual around here. Sweet and powerful and rank and wonderful - pretty glossy dark green leaves, it started blooming in early Feb in my garden and still going. A wafter. You've discovered daphne - the secret to her heart is drainage. If you can plant her on a slope she'll survive summer neglect and if you're kind to her, even thrive. And daphne odora has the most exquisite scent on earth. Not fragrant but very lovely in early spring is the Redbud, Cercis canadensis, a small tree really, but fits very well in a shrubbery. She blooms hot pink early in the spring so should not be behind evergreens, but planted with other bare twig plants she's lovely Clerodendrum ... I'm losing my species names tonight, the one called Harlequin Glory Bower. Blooms in Aug and Sept with a very fine rakish scent that wafts - also very small tree, good for mixed shrubbery. There's another Clerodendrum called Cashmere Bouquet that I covet, but I think it's a zone 9 plant... but a little more global warming and it may do well in the PNW There's Osmanthes fragrans, Clethra alnifolia, two others on the tip of my tongue... oh, oh! I need to go to bed. Find a book called The Fragrant Path by Louise Beebe Wilder. She has whole chapters on fragrant shrubs, or trees, or scents of orchard and meadow, etc. Study that book and your life will never be the same! Always lead with your nose......See MoreMy Apricot Tree
Comments (2)Jessaka, That poor little tree just seemed doomed almost from the beginning. I know you worked hard to figure out what was wrong and to try to save it. Sometimes, though, a tree is just too sick and there's nothing you can do to save it. I'm sorry you lost it after all the time and effort you put into it. Dawn...See Moreanyone have a 'folly'?:treehouse/playhouse
Comments (2)I've been thinking that some sort of meditation house would be nice. The garden is about 100 yards or so from the house, and it'd be nice to have some amenities closer. I've got plenty of room and no building codes, so... I'm imagining an octagonal structure, with each of the eight sides being 4' across and 6' tall. That makes the whole thing about 9'7" across. I have three nice salvaged windows for the NE, E, and SE sides, facing the garden, and I'd put a door in the NW, facing the path home. The roof would be an eight sided cone, 8' from eave to peak, therefore requiring 4 sheets of plywood. I'd add an overhang at a shallower pitch, maybe 12:12, supported with gingerbread brackets. There'd be a weathervane at the top of the roof point, maybe shaped like an octopus. The roof would be black asphalt shingles, the walls probably cedar shingles, with painted trim. Inside there would be a garden journal, a day bed, drinking water, a discrete bucket toilet, a few tools......See MoreDarren Harwood
5 years agoDarren Harwood
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5 years agolast modified: 5 years agomodestgoddess z6 OH
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5 years agoDarren Harwood thanked grow power (zone 10a, alameda ca)Darren Harwood
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Darren HarwoodOriginal Author