My garden has grown as its plants grow — quietly, gradually, and unassumingly. It was started as most gardens are begun — by owners of newly acquired houses.
During the first two seasons, we planted tulips, daffodils, roses, pines, and spruces to have a little garden around the house.
Two Incidental Facts
At that time, we had no idea of subsequent changes in our little garden. However, two wholly incidental circumstances were largely responsible for its growth.
- First, the house had a picturesque background consisting of a hill and cliffs adjacent to the Middlesex Reservation. Familiar with endless forests, uncontaminated rivers, and peaceful life in northern Russia, I felt that our little garden did not do justice to this natural setting.
- Here, we thought, was a rare opportunity to clothe the hilt with a colorful raiment of riotous hues. The second incidental fact was an unusually good collection of azaleas and rhododendrons in our neighbor’s garden, John Wills. The azaleas answered our quest for the kind of plants we were seeking.
Azaleas Replace Brush
After the second year, we bought and planted azaleas, rhododendrons, lilacs, dogwoods, and wisterias. Each year a part of the hill was cleared, and azaleas and rhododendrons of different varieties took the place of underbrush.
Needless to say, our experience and knowledge concerning the varieties, including their hardiness and sources, have grown also.
The expansion program required a great deal of hard labor from both myself and my family. Almost every hole had to be “blasted” into the rocky ground. Then, all the loam, manure, and peat moss had to be carried up the hill.
Endless hours of watering and spraying the plants had to be spent so that the plants would survive. I did all of this work practically with the assistance of the family. Nevertheless, we have greatly enjoyed this “slave labor.”
Seeing the indescribable beauty with which the plants respond to our struggles and care is pure joy.
Azaleas Thrive In Difficult Conditions
Since the azaleas are planted on a rocky hillside, there is little soil for the roots, even after the soil is brought in. Yet my success proves that azaleas, which have fibrous roots close to the surface, will thrive under apparently difficult conditions.
To help build up the soil, I allow all the leaves from the oaks and other trees to remain where they fall. Thus the soil is improved each year, and the plants are kept moist with this natural mulch.
When I put in new plants, I dig peat into the soil. I also use old manure which is the only fertilizer used. It is applied to all the plants in the early spring, while the leaves from trees provide winter protection and Ieafmold.
How Hard Garden Labor Helped Us
Such hard labor around the garden has done unnecessary artificial physical exercise to keep our bodies in good shape. But, then, too, our close touch with mother earth has helped us immeasurably maintain the peace of mind necessary in this chaotic world.
It has proven to be valuably constructive and stimulating to our mental creativity. While our hands are busy with work, our minds are free to think over the problems which preoccupy them.
Several of the ideas I happened to develop in my humble theories (published in many volumes) were born during these hours in the garden.
Pleasure In Planting
All these joys have been multiplied by birds, bees, and other animals that have come and settled on the hillside. But, last but not least, of these joys is now the pleasure of planting gives thousands of visitors each season.
Together, these rewards compensate us for all the labor, expense, and some disillusionments involved in establishing and caring for our azalea hillside.
Accordingly, I firmly believe that in our megalopolitan and super-industrial civilization, gardening is one of the noblest and most efficient methods for moral and mental education, for keeping equanimity and peace of mind, and for curing most of the psychoneuroses of our fellow men.
I have never counted my azaleas, rhododendrons, or other plants I grow. But, roughly, there are about five or six hundred azaleas, between 60 and 80 rhododendrons, some 40 lilacs, not to mention roses, dogwoods, wisterias, forsythias, plus a considerable number of evergreens.
Checked for Hardiness
Here is a list of varieties of azaleas and rhododendrons that can be grown in our Winchester, Massachusetts, climate. All are hardy except when the temperature falls 15° or 20° degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
All azaleas are classified by botanists as rhododendrons. However, for the convenience of amateur gardeners like myself, I have listed them in separate groups.
Thus my list of azaleas, although far from complete, represents a wide range of brilliant colors among the different varieties, the earliest of which bloom at the end of March, during the latest flower into the end of June.
Inclusive Azaleas
My rhododendron collection is not as inclusive as that of the azaleas. Nevertheless, it contains practically all of the best varieties which are hardy in our climate. These plants and the mid- and late-season azaleas give color during late spring.
44659 by Dr. Pitirim A. Sorokin