Monthly Archives: January 2020

A Grand Garden Tour of Southeast England: Part One

January 30, 2020PERIPATETIC, POPULAR INTERESTSonia Feldman

Langshott Manor, Nymans

by Sonia Feldman

After many years of refusing to learn even the names of plants, I took a big step in the other direction by agreeing to plan and then actually go on a tour of England’s great gardens with my mother. The following series gives an account of the four particularly glorious days of that trip during which we traveled through Kent, a region aptly named the Garden of England. Our tour took place at the end of May, and the descriptions of the gardens reflect that time of year. This is the first installment in the series. See the end of each article for a condensed itinerary of the entire tour.

Day One: Leave London, lunch at Langshott Manor, visit Nymans, dinner at The Milk House, retire at Cloth Hall Oast Bed & Breakfast or Sissinghurst Castle Farmhouse.

Head south from London in your rental car. After an hour or so of driving—time dependent on whether or not you immediately crash your vehicle on the wrong side of the road—stop for lunch at Langshott Manor. This 16^th century Elizabethan hotel is conveniently located just off the M23, and you will likely have the pretty garden behind the restaurant to yourself. Walk slowly to admire the deep flowering borders set against old brick walls crawling with fragrant white wisteria (see: a single orange poppy standing in a clutch of purple allium).

Once you’re stout with flowers and tea, continue on to Nymans. This is the only West Sussex garden on our tour because, even though we are heading to Kent, it can’t be missed. Nymans estate became a garden destination in the late 19^th century thanks to its purchase by Leonard Messel, a German Jew who settled in England. Messel was anxious to make friends and very reasonably concluded that integration into the stiff English social scene would be easier if he had a place to throw parties. With the help of his head gardener, James Comber, Messel successfully transformed Nymans’ expansive property into an exuberant outdoor destination for society events and later, the eager public.

Nymans is a garden full of ideas and enough space to house them. Visitors can admire a dry weather bed, a Mediterranean bed, a bed of enormous pink, orange, yellow and white rhododendrons growing all mixed up with one another, a sunken garden, a rock garden, a rose garden (see: nepeta at the feet of blushing pink rose bushes), a spring border that blooms only in the spring situated on an X axis with a summer border that only blooms in the summer and a truly incredible wisteria walk. The wisteria plants, over 100 years old, have trunks like trees and flowering purple racemes two feet long—a heaven of scent.

This combination of formal and informal gardens wraps around the house, leading the visitor to sprawling views of the dramatic High Weald of Sussex. The house, now partially in ruins, makes a romantic backdrop for the garden. A devastating fire in the middle of the 20^th century reduced much of the upper stories to a single façade, and its vacant windows make picture frames for the blue sky behind. Flowering plants climb the remaining stone exterior.

Stay until the garden closes at 5:00pm and then head east to reach your lodgings for the evening. We stayed at the well located and very charming Cloth Hall Oast Bed & Breakfast. The B&B is in fact a converted oast house—a building designed for drying hops—and has its own beautiful garden, pool and pond. The nearby Sissinghurst Castle Farmhouse is another convenient option for garden visiting. Finish the day with dinner at The Milk House, elevated pub fare with local ingredients in a 16^th century hall house.

Condensed tour itinerary:

Day One: Leave London, lunch at Langshott Manor, visit Nymans, dinner at The Milk House, retire at Cloth Hall Oast Bed & Breakfast or Sissinghurst Castle Farmhouse.

Day Two: Visit Great Dixter House and Gardens, lunch at one of the gardens or return to The Milk House, visit Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, dinner at Three Chimneys, retire to same lodgings.

Day Three: Visit Pashley Manor Gardens, lunch at one of the gardens or Thackeray’s Restaurant, visit Penshurst Place, dinner at The Wheatsheaf, stay at Hever Castle Bed & Breakfast

Day Four: Visit Hever Castle Gardens, lunch at Beaverbrook, return to London.

Nearby gardens that could be added to this tour: Knole, RHS Wisley, Chartwell, Lullingstone Castle, Great Comp Garden, Scotney Castle, Wakehurst, Godinton.

Sonia Feldman is a writer living in Cleveland, Ohio. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Cultured Magazine, Pembroke Magazine and Juked. She operates an email newsletter, which sends one good poem a week. Find more of her work on Instagram.

May You Live In Interesting Times…

January 23, 2020PERTINENT, POLITICAL, PUNCHYElsa Johnson

by Elsa Johnson

….As Terry Pratchett has someone say, at some point, in nearly every one of his outrageously satirical, fantastical, ridiculous, compassionate, and funny novels. And we do; we surely do, I think, nearly every day, as I watch the foxes now in control of the chicken coop, the wolves now ‘guarding’ the herd, anticipatory saliva dripping from their ravening teeth.

It is not a new fight.

I am reminded of this by an essay/book review in the New York Review of Books: My Land, Your Land, by Bill McKibben (January 16^th issue # LXVII, number 1). The article is ostensibly a review of two books – John Taliaferro’s Grinnell: America’s Environmental Pioneer and His Restless Drive to Save the West; and John Clayton’s Natural Rivals: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and the Creation of America’s Public Lands. But as usual in the NYRB, the review stands by itself as an essay with an independent internal point of view that speaks in its own right, the subject of which is precisely this moment in time where the balance of the scale has tipped heavily away from the long term appreciation and preservation of public lands as treasured entities with their own intrinsic existential value, toward the valuing of public lands for their long term resource development potential by private interests, and their short term exploitation potential, both to be achieved by deregulation and privatization. This, of course, will take them, forever, out of the public trust.

The Great Dismantling, it is called.

In this telling Grinnell and Muir are the singers/story tellers, the lyrical archdruids of saving-nature, while Gifford Pinchot stands on the other side, of managed finite resources and extraction. But as McKibben points out, before there can be dispute over how to use public lands, there has to be public lands, and all these men played a role in convincing Congress, making that happen, and these books that he is reviewing are that story. But as public land accumulated – it eventually came to account for about 25% of our land — these differences of ‘emphasis’ became clearer. While the most scenic, best loved (and lucky) places became our treasured national parks and wildernesses, McKibben tells us, “the great bulk of the land was turned over to the Forest Service and The Bureau of Land Management, ….which tended to be captured ….by the industries (mining, grazing, logging) …..And even that did not go too badly until “this current regime (which has) given the fossil fuel industry carte blanche on our public lands …. at precisely the wrong time.”

Do I need to tell you McKibben favors Democratic candidates – most of whom favor a strong emphasis on protection of public lands? We need, says McKibben a renaissance of the spirit of the early pioneers; “their combination of idealism and realism delivered us a great gift.” …a gift that is being taken away…

He’s pretty sure where not to look for that.

A few after-words from me.

Grinnell spent much of his life defending both wildlife and Native Americans. He founded the Audubon Society, and played an important role in helping to protect Glacier National Park, where a mountain and its glacier are named after him (and which I hiked up to the edge of, the summer I was 18 years old, in a pair of no-sole soft leather moccasins, which, were I to try to do today, would cripple me for the rest of my life).

Muir was something of a wild-man and a euphoric writer of wilderness. Read his A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf; or Wilderness Essays, or the collection called The Wild Muir, with its beautiful wood block illustrations. The man was driven, fearless, and riveting. In The Wild Muir I am particularly fond of one of the two pieces not written by Muir but about him. It is titled The Rescue at Glenora Peak and much of it can be found at https://books.google.com The Wild Muir : Twenty Two of John Muir’s Greatest Adventures; The Rescue at Glenora Peak, page 145. Read this hair-raising rescue on line, and enjoy Fiona King’s art, one example of which we include here.

But most of all this MYRB review/essay reminded me of how much good nature writing I have read and loved over the years, (though not so much recently — who has the mind for it amid all this craziness?) – Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire; John McPhee’s Coming Into the Country; Annals of the Former World; Encounters with the Archdruid…. And I think, in these a-little-too-interesting times, in these darkest days of winter-but-not-very-winter (mixed thanks to global warming) it’s good to go back to and revisit the absorbing power of alchemical books.

I invite you to read.

From the hinterlands of Clover, South Carolina

January 16, 2020PERIPATETIC, PERTINENT, POPULAR INTEREST, PRESERVATIONElsa Johnson

Gardenopolis Cleveland visits the Botanical Gardens at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte

by Elsa Johnson

What do gardeners/garden designers/environmentalists do when we visit relatives in other climes?

Weather permitting, we get out and hike, or seek out public gardens. Or both. Over the holidays this December, after chalking up one day to non-stop cooking, and another to non-stop eating (g r o a n), we managed to stay pretty active three out of five days. There are good hiking sites just a little west of Charlotte, in a connected series of parks in South and North Carolina comprised of King’s Mountain (S.C.), The Pinnacle, and Crowder’s Mountain (both in N.C). On an unnaturally balmy (even for South Carolina – 70 degrees) December 26^th we dedicated our overeating penance to the climb up the Pinnacle, a metamorphic outcrop.

It seemed that half of Charlotte had the same idea. Not counting the small girl having a total meltdown on the way down after tripping on a tree root, it was delightful — and steep, and sweaty — for we found ourselves in the company of a friendly global community of every color and place of origin, which was delicious, and we felt right at home. Of course, we are getting older, and I am still recovering from my knee replacement and needed to stop and rest every couple hundred feet in the steepest places near the top, while the younger hikers politely breezed past. The next day, a bit sore, we stayed closer to Clover, and walked in the very flat city park, with its interesting naturally exposed bedrock.

On our final day, rather than revisiting Stowe Botanical Gardens, which we have been to many times, we drove to the Botanical Gardens at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. This is comprised of a greenhouse, which was not open, and two distinct gardens set within a hilly glen with a small stream flowing through.

The less interesting of these, at this time of year, was the entirely natural (in its aesthetic) Ralph Van Landingham Glen, located entirely within a gated exclosure. The Glen, we are told, contains a major collection of rhododendron and azalea shrubs, as well as 900 species of native trees, wildflowers, vines, and ferns, but, although pleasant, there was nothing in bloom – everything was dormant — so there wasn’t much to see.

The more interesting garden at this time of the year was the more “designed” (mostly in an architecturally Oriental theme) three acre Susie B Harwood Garden. There was a waterfall feature and a stream running through the valley, an Asian style gazebo, various other designed water channels, and a moon gate where we took each other’s pictures to send out as New Year greetings. Many foliage plants looked tropical and very green and thriving, though it is technically winter. The camellias were in bloom, and there were late season figs on a fig tree – imagine that!

Our last stop was Freedom Park, just south of downtown Charlotte, on the edge of an affluent neighborhood. Whoever was not hiking the Pinnacle and Crowder’s Mountain seemed to be there. Once again – a very cosmopolitan and global population. We were looking for demonstration community gardens I had read about, run by local Master Gardeners. Alas, we never found the gardens, but during our search we encountered some lovely examples of flowering humanity.

Here’s to 2020!

Heights Tree People — What You Need to Know

January 10, 2020PASSION, PERTINENT, POPULAR INTEREST, PRACTICEElsa Johnson

by Elsa Johnson

Two Things:

#1 – One of the most effective things we can do to combat climate change and the perils of a warming planet is plant trees. Lots and lots of trees.

#2 – Cleveland has lost 6% of its tree canopy, a recent regional study shows.

Enter the Heights Tree People.

It all began when several Heights residents, who had taken the 2018 Tree Stewards training program given by Holden Arboretum and The Western Reserve Land Conservancy, were looking to put their training to use in their own balliwicks, the inner-ring suburbs of Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights. Although both communities have significantly better tree canopy coverage than the City of Cleveland, still, the knowledge of canopy loss proved motivating. Furthermore, many of Heights trees (both Cleveland, Shaker, and University) are aging, especially in those areas earliest developed, now 100 years old. Aging trees hold more carbon, but are vulnerable — to insects, disease, and, as recently experienced, to wind damage from climate-change driven micro-bursts. Then too, some specific neighborhoods offer considerably less canopy than others.

A core group of Heights Tree People was quickly formed in the winter of 2019 and a mission established:

1.) To plant and care for trees in our neighborhoods, the Cities of Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, University Heights, and the upland areas of the Cities of Cleveland and East Cleveland.

2.) to share knowledge and advocate for an enduring tree culture; and

3.) increase the health, vitality, and happiness of our local habitat, and, through it, the planet.

All noble goals — and the Tree People let no moss grow under their toes – in the planting season the group planted 111 trees: 1 in East Cleveland, 3 in Shaker Heights, 12 in Cleveland, and 95 in Cleveland Heights. Not a shabby start for an all-volunteer organization.

Forty four different species of tree, both native and non-native species, were planted, but considerably more native species were planted than non-native species, and included diverse oaks and maples, as well as birch, blackgum, dogwood, redwood, redbud, hornbeam, locust, cypress, Kentucky coffeetree, sourwood, stewartia, larch, sassafras, and more.

How did it work?

Upon request the Tree People gifted people in the Heights and nearby Cleveland neighborhoods with a correctly planted tree on their property; trees were planted in the neighborhoods of Antisdale and Grosvenor, Potter Village, Fairfax between Lee and Coventry, and East 130^th Street, which organized itself and planted 11 trees on their street “changing the landscape of the entire street”. Requests for tree-lawn trees were relayed to the City Forester. In addition, the group planned, with City support, a Reconciliation Tree Planting at the Cleveland Heights Community Center after this fall’s divisive election, and one HTP member worked with Tree Stewards from the Western Reserve Land Conservancy to stake and cage (to protect from deer rub) young oak saplings in the Great Meadow area of Forest Hill Park in East Cleveland.

The Heights Tree People are taking requests for spring planting. To make a request for a tree on your property contact heightstreepeople@gmail.com.

Thinking big?– organize your street, like E. 130^th did.

Death Avenue: Then and Now

January 2, 2020PERIPATETIC, POPULAR INTEREST, PRESERVATIONLois Rose

by Lois Rose

In the 1880s, the High Line was constructed as a street level railroad delivering mostly food products to lower Manhattan. Tenth Avenue became known as Death Avenue due to the large number of fatalities at railroad crossings (540 by 1910!). In the 1920s, the West Side Cowboys on horseback helped pedestrians avoid collisions with the trains. The city took note of the hazardous conditions, and by 1924 called for the construction of an elevated line, which is what we now know as the High Line.

The elevated tracks were fully operational by 1934, and due to increased truck traffic were in disrepair by the 1980s. In 1999, CSX opened the area to proposals for reuse.

On a sub-freezing sunny Saturday morning in October, I finally had my first encounter with New York’s High Line. The former rail line was retrofitted as a public park starting in 2006 and mostly completed by 2014. This 30- foot elevated botanical masterpiece runs along 10^th Avenue for 1.45 miles. Camera in hand I documented everything in sight, with nary a person blocking my view. I took in many of the 400 plus types of trees, shrubs, perennials, vines and grasses (a lot of grasses) that despite the freeze and lateness of the season looked pretty good.

The designer of this showpiece was Piet Oudolf, best known in the US for the Lurie Gardens at Millennium Park in Chicago. He was required by the funders to reflect some of the natural environment in the plant community that existed on the High Line before renovation. The plants he chose perform a function and meet a specific visual outcome. They will contribute, according to Oudolf, to biodiversity by supporting habitats where insects, birds and other animals can survive.

Over fifty percent of the plant material is native. The volunteer organization that maintains the High Line Park, the Friends of the High Line, have plant lists and garden zones detailed on their website.

As a few more people arrived while I was there, I noticed that most of them did not seem to notice the plants at all. They took photos of the streets below, the architectural stand outs along the way, and each other. But not the plants.