LIVE STAKES

Red–twig dogwood (Swida sericea) is a plant that can be propagated using live stakes. Live stakes are inexpensive and easy to install–they are a smart choice for larger buffer areas, soil stabilization and hedges. Other water–loving plants such as willows (Salix spp.) and elderberry (Sambucus spp.) can be propagated from stakes.

Live stakes (also called cuttings) can be collected and planted in the dormant season from about late fall to about early spring (before bud break). It is best to plant live stakes right after cutting them. If you can’t plant immediately, keep them fresh by storing them in a bucket of water. Each live stake cutting should be approximately 24" long with a diameter of 1/2" or so. At least two full nodes should be located in the ground (the stakes on average will be about ½ way in the ground). Roots will grow from the nodes that would have otherwise grown leaves. Come spring, leaves will appear from the nodes on the stakes. Live stakes are sold in bundles at some nurseries, including Pierson Nurseries in Dayton, Maine.

Red–twig dogwood is good for pollinators and wildlife. Clusters of white flowers appear in spring followed by white berries in summer. Red colored twigs bring vibrance and beauty to the winter. Shown below, we are using red–twig dogwood stakes for a riparian buffer planting project.

SEWING NATIVE SEEDS

Earlier this winter, my daughters and I began the process of plant propogation by sowing native seeds in our backyard. We decided on a couple berries — Flowering raspberry Rubus odoratus and Wild strawberry Fragaria virginiana — and a few woodland plants tolerant of some shade — Tall anemone Anemone virginiana, Large–leaved wood aster Eurybia macrophylla, and White wood aster Eurybia divaricate. From the Wild Seed Project organization, we received seed packets, basic instructions, and began. We filled plastic containers with organic planting soil, labelled the containers, dusted the surface with seeds, and covered the seeds with a thin layer of coarse sand to armor the seeds from rain. Protecting the seeds from foraging birds and rodents, we repurposed our rabbit’s second home, a wire cage, to house the containers (our rabbit is happily indoors in a wood hutch). We watered the containers and, fingers crossed, the seeds will germinate come spring or summer.

CAMDEN GARDEN CLUB / HORTICULTURE SERIES

The Camden Garden Club, Winter Horticulture Series, kicks off on Tuesday, January 31, 2017, at 10:00 AM in the Picker Room of the Camden Library. I am honored to be the inaugural speaker and will be sharing early Modernist design influences, a range of project scales and types, and a personal design philosophy from the perspective of a principal of a small Landscape Architecture practice here in Maine. Looking forward to gathering. Hope to see you at the end of the month!

THE CAMDEN AMPHITHEATRE: 1ST MODERN LANDSCAPE

In 2013, The Camden Amphitheatre and Public Library was rightfully among 13 new National Historic Landmarks designated by Secretary of the Interior and Director of the National Park Service. National historic landmarks are nationally significant historic places that possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States.

Fletcher Steele’s, the designer of the Amphitheatre, was one of America’s premier practitioners of 20th-century landscape design. His work was influential during the stylistic transition from Art Deco to Modernism and blazed the trail for the Modernists, most notably Dan Kiley, Garrett Eckbo, and James C. Rose. 

“Steele’s amphitheatre holds claim to the title of first modern landscape in the U.S.. The crisp geometry of arc, line and plane that characterizes this composition is a modernist palette…”  —Patricia O’Donnell, Library of American Landscape History 

THE BOBILI GARDENS / FLORENCE, ITALY

In 2015, our family somehow made it to Italy. Opting for more of a chill itinerary, most of our time was spent visiting smaller, countryside towns of the regions of Umbria and Tuscany. It was here that we indulged in life’s simple pleasures ­— red wine, bread, cheese, gelato. In repetition. Fully satisfied, we headed to Florence to embrace the renowned cultural and art institutions.

The Bobili Gardens are the first, and largest, formal 16th–century Italian Renaissance gardens. Situated on hilly terrain on the outskirts of Florence, they are characterized by an impressive collection of lavish statuaries, long axial avenues, and expansive views to the city.

A variety of spatial qualities, throughout the gardens, impressed and stirred the senses. Emerging from the Pitti Palace into daylight, we ascended the large amphitheater. A sculpted hillside of lawn terraces and paths yields dramatic panoramic views to the city and beyond. A long axial avenue, Viottolone, flanked by statuaries and cypress, is powerfully directional. Secondary paths, narrow in width and flanked with hedges, tightly enclose space on two sides. Statuaries, located at the terminus of paths, are focal points, drawing in the eye. Trained plantings, envelope the sides and overhead planes, amplifying the sense of enclosure along walkways. Mature London Plane trees, tightly spaced, strongly define edges of walkways. Throughout the gardens, views contract and expand as defined spatial edges give way to panoramic views of the city. The formal geometry of the gardens and lofted location lends itself to a theatrical spatial experience, moving the senses. Arrivederci.