Dainichido Garden at Nikko, Japan, by Kimbei Kusakabe, late 1800s, from the photography collection of The New York Public Library, via The Commons, flickr.
Have a very merry Christmas!
Category: garden design
Vintage landscape: Como Park
Ah, bedding out. . . . This is Como Park in St. Paul, Minnesota, ca. 1905. Photo by Detroit Publishing Co. via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The Sunday porch: Palo Alto, Louisiana
. . .lovely, dark and deep.
The old kitchen wing of Palo Alto Plantation House near Donaldsonville, Louisiana, in 1938, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
It’s almost too dark and deep to see very well in the above picture. However, this shaded, lattice-enclosed porch must have been the best possible place to sit and snap beans during Louisiana summers.
The kitchen building was originally free-standing, about 22′ from the house. Later, it was connected to the main house by a breezeway.
A 2003 Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) drawing of the property seems to indicate that the enormous Quercus Virginiana or live oak tree at the right in the top photo was still standing at that time. Over 15 live oaks are shown in the area immediately in front of the house.
The principal part of the house is described in the HABS as an “Anglo-Creole type Louisiana plantation cottage decorated in Greek Revival style.” It was built in the mid to late 1850s and faces Bayou La Fourche, off the Mississippi River.
Its porch, above,* is a “deeply undercut Acadian gallerie,” according to The Planter’s Prospect: Privilege and Slavery in Plantation Paintings.
In a c.1860 painting of Palo Alto shown and discussed in the book, the main porch originally had railings and double front steps.
The steps and railings were restored (and the lattice removed from the old kitchen porch) by the time of the HABS and this 2010 photo† above. The plantation (with 6,000 acres, according to one source) belongs to a family that has owned it for several generations. They now offer stays in a “Log Cabin” lodge and guided hunting trips on the property.
. . . the tree implies a quiet place
where pendulums might rest,
the heart decline to beat, a place
of time disclosing the lattice of time. . . .— John Beer, from “The Waste Land“
*Photo (cropped by me) from 1938, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress.
†Photo by cajunscrambler, via Panoramio.
Vintage landscape: Georgia Avenue gate
“Washington, D.C., gateway to an old house on Georgia Avenue, N.W.,” March 1942, by John Ferrell, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
That was some gate, although it was in pretty bad shape at the time of the photo (click the image to get a larger view). I think the style is gothic.
And some house too. Does anyone know if it’s still standing?
Foliage Follow Up: my rosemary hedge
I’m a bit late, but I did want to show off my 25 rosemary plants (on the left, below), which grew from cuttings that I took from a single big old plant that was in the garden when we arrived here.
(Especially since the gardener expressed grave doubts at the time that they would root and grow.)
The photo above shows the passage between the vegetable garden on the left and the cutting garden on the right, walking toward the south end of the upper lawn.
By the way, that huge, dark green tree in the upper left corner is what your potted weeping fig would look like over time — in the ground, in a constantly warm climate.
I started the cuttings about 18 months ago.* Now the plants are 2′ to 3′ tall,
except at the very end, on the left above. Those plants — which will finish out the row — are about 6 months old.
Above, on the left, is the mother plant. Just to the right of it is a little patch of alpine strawberries, which I grew from a packet of seeds.
I divided them recently, so they look a bit skimpy. The tiny fruit does have a more pronounced and almost perfume-y taste, compared with larger strawberries.
As I am giving you a couple of my success stories, I should also show you the flip side — above.
This is the one Rudbeckia hirta or black-eyed Susan to germinate out of an entire packet of seeds — a plant that has a reputation for generous self-seeding. I have big hopes for it, though. It’s a pretty showy native American plant.
Thanks to Pam at Digging, who hosts Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Follow Up on the 16th of every month. Click here and see what’s happening in other gardens.
*I cut pieces that were a little or not quite woody, stripped the ends of leaves, and stuck them in a slightly sunken, slightly shaded place. Then, I kept the ground there damp for a few months. After I transplanted them, I was also careful to water the new plants almost daily for a few weeks.
enclos*ure 