This is the story of how I planned and planted the grounds of my new home. Since my gardening is a personal activity, the story behind the development of the new place is, of necessity, somewhat autobiographical.
The New Home
My two specialties in gardening have been lilies and herbs in my garden in New York. I also had a reasonably large collection of rose species, lilac species and hybrids, evergreen and deciduous azaleas, and many other kinds of shrubs.
At one time, I grew many species of campanulas, foxgloves, fuchsias, fragrant-leaved geraniums, columbines, and phloxes. When the time came to move to a much smaller place, I could take along only the plants I was so fond of that I could not be without them.
The search for the new home took months. I had looked at 33 places without finding what I wanted until, at last on one mushy day in February, the real estate agent telephoned me and said, “I have just the place you want, it has only come into the market, and you must see it right away for it will be in great demand.”
I believe they generally say that, but he was so urgent I drove right over to Mt. Kisco, up route 172, and into a driveway leading through a tiny wood composed principally of large oaks and beeches and traversed by a little stream, then into an open graveled courtyard.
To one side of this was an alley flanked with standard trees (I found out later they were maples) that led to a garage, and on the other side stood the white wooden house, very simple in shape and in the regency style. I fell in love with the place and was lucky to get it.
Preparing The Garden
The first job was to make the house suit my needs and, next after this, get the ground ready for a garden. We quickly went to work on cleaning up, and we are still at it. The foundation planting had grown so big it could no longer be pruned, so the old shapeless firs (Chamaecyparis spp.) and tree boxes were first sawed off and then dug out, some of them with a bulldozer.
A bank where I wanted my garden was matted with poison ivy and honeysuckle, and a few very sick pines stood amid them. The oval space found on one side of the graveled entrance was a jungle of weedy shrubs.
After they were removed, a handsome stone wall built from cement and 6 feet high was revealed. The wall turns an angle and runs parallel to the house and closes in the courtyard-like approach, then it turns again and holds up the terrace garden.
Exactly opposite the entrance door and on axis with it, the wall is broken by a flight of steps leading up to this terrace garden.
After the walls were cleared of the debris growing on them, they were planted with hardy jasmines, where they faced the sun, and in the shaded parts with Japanese hydrangea-vine (Schizophragma hydrangeoides), and forms of ivy having oddly shaped leaves.
Considerably over to the other side was another jumble of wild shrubs, and when these were removed, the most beautiful gray, rose-tinted rocks were bared. Their hollows had been padded with topsoil, and here is where the rock garden is being planted.
Woodland Water And Flowers
In the woods behind the garage, to the north, was the source of the little stream. Namely, it was a mosquito-breeding swamp, which we dug out and made into a pond. It is entirely surrounded by trees and is like a lake in a fairy tale or on the stage. The woods are being cleaned and cleared.
Gradually, native wildflowers began to appear as if they had been waiting for enough space to come up and show themselves. There were only a few the first spring, and by the second year, they had already increased.
There are trout lilies (Erythronium spp.), bloodroots, violets, jack-in-the-pulpits, pyrola, Indian pipes, Canada mayflowers, Solomon’s seal, ferns of almost every kind native here, and also lovely mosses.
The critical trees were fed and pruned, and the second spring, an excellent collection of daffodils came up along the margin of the woods, also mertensias and tulips. The tulips had been planted at the foot of the high stone wall, but they were healthy despite being in the shade.
There were patches of lily-of-the-valley, scillas, tradescantias in all colors, muscaris, and chionodoxas. Additionally, there were hostas, daylilies, and some rather poor specimens of iris and peonies.
In contrast with the flowers, there was an almost complete absence of shrubs. The better specimens of all plants I wanted to keep were dug up and put into a temporary nursery.
Early Plantings
Next, the ground was deeply dug in preparation for planting. Peat, which abounded in the swamp, was dug up and dried a little (there wasn’t enough time for a more thorough job) and was turned over and treated with lime. It then was spread over all the beds and worked into them.
I had known a full year ahead that I would be moving and had dug up my most precious plants and put them in a nursery at Foxden. They were brought over in trucks before I moved in, and as these trucks rumbled over the Westchester roads, I felt as if the forest of Dunsinane were on the march again – only this time without any sinister connotation.
Choice Trees
Broad-leaved, low-growing evergreen bushes were planted on either side of the entrance, well beneath the windows. They are principally hybrid azaleas, barberries, pieris, and low hollies – these last being forms of Ilex crenata.
To the west, where the wall is semicircular, is a big bed. This was also planted with evergreens or plants like cotoneasters that keep their fruits well into the winter. Here also were more ‘lollies, junipers, firs, and more evergreen bar-berries.
In among these shrubs, henryi and martagon lilies, as well as some late-blooming daylilies, were placed. At the very front were primroses and hellebores, and behind them, spring-flowering bulbs.
There was an elm growing out of the rocks in the future rock garden, and Mr. Everett said it ought to go, also some tall cherry trees, which I immediately removed. Mr. Morrison told me to take strings and fasten them from two distant points to two points at the base of the terrace in front of the house, fan-wise, and plant behind these to keep the vistas open.
The Path Garden
The foundation being in, the next problem was the herb garden. A set of steps in the wall opposite the entrance leads to a narrow walk-like garden 30′ feet across and about 120′ feet long. This was to be the herb and rose garden combined. Down the center, I made a path 6’ feet wide, the same width as the steps.
At the middle of this path, I made an opening to give the garden a broader look and framed this with a tiny parterre de broderie, that is, a pattern made of gray, green, and gold-flecked herbs.
At one side of this opening is a bench flanked by rose species, and on the other is a stairway leading up a bank and into the vegetable garden beyond. Herbs are planted on the bank.
The path up the hill is made of stepping stones. Between and around them are planted a collection of thymes, which have established themselves quickly. In the path garden, the herbs are interplanted with roses, hybrid teas, and old-fashioned varieties, the tallest making a background opposite the bank to the low plants in the bed.
The edging at the front of the herb and rose beds comprises thymes, Artemisia stellariana, santolinas, teucrium, and dwarf lavenders.
The vegetable garden is tiny because it has to supply only my friends and me and is kept very neat due to its proximity to the ornamental garden. It contains an asparagus bed and also one of strawberries, six rhubarb plants, a patch of raspberries, and off to one side are a few currant and gooseberry bushes.
At the very back of it is a white trellis to mark off the cultivated part of the garden from the wild, and on this trellis grow 12 grapevines.
The Terrace Wall And Rock Garden
In the back of the house and facing the view is a terrace held up by a 4’ foot high wall. A 3’ foot wide bed has been dug all along the top of this wall to provide a place for campanulas and platycodons in variety.
Among the blues are a few pink and white malvas and lavateras, as well as crocus species in spring. At the ends of the wall, clematis vines will spread out.
The ground slopes in front of this wall, where there is a 5’ foot wide bed. It’s a perfect place for sun-loving lilies, all the white trumpets, speciosums, philippinense fortnosanum, and so on. Pumilum, concolor, and pulchellum are over in the rocks.
The lilies need low companions at their feet, and these are furnished by heathers, sun roses (Helianthemum spp.), many kinds of low hypericums, and low veronicas. There are also a few clumps of iris, plus some peony species that bloom before the lilies but leave their foliage all Summer.
The shade-loving lilies are in a bed to one side of the rock garden amid some species of rhododendrons and more azaleas. Meanwhile, in the rocks, western penstemons are being tried out.
Phlox subulata and Aqiiilegia canadensis grew wild here, so good color forms of cultivated varieties have been put in, and several species of low-growing phlox such as nivalis and divaricata. In the pockets under the penstemons are species tulips.
The Shrubbery
Lastly, the shrubs must be mentioned for they furnish the background. They were planted on either side of my view facing south. A fine lot of magnolias were given to me, some flowering crabs, as well as two albizias, which came in pots and have already grown considerably
Other gifts included the lilacs, deutzias, philadelphus, shrubs, a Romainelis monis, Cornus nuts, chionanthus, elder, some of the vihurnums, and hydrangeas.
On the way to the rock garden are spring-blooming shrubs, Hamamelis moths, a Cornus mas, and a halesia. Elsewhere are corylopsis, Narcissus ‘Dateline’ daffodils, and some very handsome color forms of Carolina rhododendron (Rhododendron minus var. minus, AKA Rhododendron carolinianum), mountain laurel, and leucothoes.
Beyond the shrubbery and facing south, a few flowering trees have been planted.
Ongoing Efforts
Next, the woods will have to be filled with wildings, and the pond’s margins furnished with plants that like moisture. The pictures with plants are being painted slowly, but they promise to be highly satisfactory – to me, anyway – and I hope to my visitors as well.