The Goodstone Gardener

Making Arrangments

2009-10-18T10:24:00.014-04:00

I love being able to bring the garden from the outside to the inside for all of our guests to enjoy! Flower arranging is one of the many garden related duties that I find to be most joyous!

Almost all of our arrangements are made from the abundance of beautiful supplies we have on property. In late summer/early fall I begin to collect things that dry well for those late fall/early winter arrangements such as grass plumes, corn tassels, seed heads and pods and flowering plants that dry well, such as Sedum and Sunflowers.

When Winter comes I begin to cut the evergreens, boxwood, pine and holly. All this is done with the intent to bring the outside experience and offerings inside for all to enjoy while resting and relaxing with in the sanctuary of our beautiful dwellings.

Above: A late winter arrangement made of cut flowers from an outside source

(Occasionally during the bleakest months of winter we supplement from outside sources to liven things up!!!)

Below: An early spring arrangement made of Helleborus, Daffodils and Crocus

Mid summer arrangement consisting of Artimesia, echanacia, bee balm, liatris and hyssop

All of the tables in our dining room are adorned with a silver mint julep cup filled with whatever bounty the property is offering at the time! Above is a bouquet of African Blue Basil. This is one of my favorite basils' EVER! It has an amazing subtle flavor that goes with anything. On the table it lends a striking color contrast to the white linens and fills the room with a fabulous aroma! During the growing season I try to always have these dining room arrangements consist of something edible. Some of my favorites are lemon and tangerine marigolds, pineapple sage, bronze fennel, African blue basil, oregano in it flowering state and hyssop, just to name a few!

Above: An arrangement combining Bronze Fennel, Annabelle Hydrangea, Hemerocallis 'Happy Returns' and Abelia

Below: This beauty is comprised of Hemerocallis 'Happy returns', Bronze Fennel and Viburnum 'Korean spice'

Above/Below: This is one of my favorite color combinations! This one is made of Purple Liatris, White Echinacea and flowering Abelia.

Above: Blue and white Hydrangea mixed with Abelia and Bee Balm is a stunning and long lasting combo!

Below: Mixing white Snowball Viburnums with blue Hydrangea really gives this small arrangement a large impact and a little more depth.

For a Wine dinner held at the Inn this past summer I decided to get creative and bring the vegetable garden inside to the diners in more than one fashion! While working in the veg garden I always admire the beauty of lettuce in all stages of its life cycle. From tiny baby greens, fresh with new life, to the stage of bolting, where they begin to rise up and flower to spread their seed. They always turn my head and inspire awe. I decided to make these bolting lettuces the star of the show!

Above: A beautiful loose leaf lettuce in a small vase adds a new twist to your standard flower arrangement!

Below: Lettuces Crisp Mint and A red Oak Leaf nest together perfectly in this low square vase, ready to inspire many a conversation!

Above: A perfect Romaine head that is a tad to bitter for a salad in the heat of the summer, makes a striking center piece for the evening!

Below: A perfect headed Lettuce 'Tennis Ball', ONLY 3'X4' Makes a cute little table top piece

Above: Late Summer brings on our amazing crop of sunflowers! So beautiful and so easy to make an outstanding arrangement with them for weeks on end !

Above:This large beauty is made up of Joe Pye weed, Green and Pink Hydrangea and Queen Anne's Lace

Below: A sweet little bouquet of spray roses for the dining room tables made last winter around Valentines Day when it was cold and grey! The sight of all those sweet little pink rose buds seems to immediately inspire thoughts of good old fashioned romance!

Below: An early spring bundle of Daffodils, Viburnum and spray roses is a good example of mixing fresh cut from the farm with a hint of supplementation!

Below: A beautiful bunch of Tulips cut fresh from the farm mixed with viburnum and Helleborus!

No matter what the season, there is always a steady supply of magical ingredients ready to be brought together to inspire the inside with the profusion of nature found outside!

Contained

2009-09-05T16:37:00.016-04:00

Container gardens will always have a special place in my heart! One of my favorite things to do is to create a garden where there was not one before! With the use of pots, planters, window boxes, hanging baskets or pretty much any kind of container one desires, this can be done in a heart beat! Using this technique a garden can be instantly created and any space can be completely transformed. At the Goodstone there are gardens a plenty so I use containers to add a bit of interest or to bring a garden to an area that is lacking in flora, such as the pool deck, the Hayloft balcony or the newly renovated spa area down by the barns!

Above: Rose Bud Impatiens in a classic concrete trough planter add just the right touch to the already gorgeous pool facade

Above/Below: A Pink Knock Out Rose coupled with variegated sweet potato vine instantly dress up this otherwise not so interesting drive way area.

Above/Below: Hanging baskets planted with Sedum, million bells petunias, blue plumbago and chartreuse sweet potato vine instantly brought life to the barn/spa area after renovations were complete

Below: A Yellow Million Bells Petunia fit right into this old sink next to the spa door adding a sense of whimsy and softening the entrance.

Below: Pots of Pink Petunias add a splash of color to the little white spring house on the farm

Above/Below: A simple Terra cotta pot adds interest to the pool gardens and fits perfectly on an existing stump!

And that brings us to 600 Cameron St. in Old Town Alexandria

The owner of the Goodstone Inn also owns this great spot in Old Town known as Cameron Street or Executive Suites. (if anyone needs office space in old town this place is great!) I began working on this site last year and it's now a great point of interest in the community! By simply hanging window boxes, 7 of them, and positioning large pots in between we turned a space with no previous space for a garden into a lush and magical street garden!

I chose black iron window boxes with copper inserts to match the existing elements on the street. All parking meters and trash facilities are black iron and the gutters on this building are copper, making the fixtures feel as if they have always been there.

Above: Black and chartreuse sweet potato vine mixed with a small variety of coleus and dark pink rose bud impatiens take over this window paying no mind to their 48" x 8" container!

Choosing the pots for this site was probably the most difficult part. I knew they needed to be big but I didn't want them to compete or clash with the brick. In a collaborated effort we decided to go with these simply rimmed plain concrete pots. I think they are perfect!

The Boxwood 'Green Tower' stands in as the "bones" of the "garden" adding height and structure in comparison with the wild and naturally flowing window boxes.

Last year I used a lot of Basil in the window boxes that got the most sun and the neighbors loved to walk by and collect a bit for their dinners. I received so many compliments on the Basil that I made sure to put plenty more in this summer!

The compliments didn't stop at the Basil! Everyone who passes by way of 600 Cameron St. can't help but to notice this beautiful street garden! The Sweet Potato Vine trails down to the sidewalk, the sweet allysum perfumes the air and the abundance of soft, flowery greenery takes center stage softening this large building full of hard lines and rectangles.

I am proud to say that most recently it has been noticed in a most honorable fashion! 600 Cameron St. has been awarded the Beautification Award and will be officially granted this award by the Mayor in early October! Quite an honor indeed! Oh and did I mention?? It's the first commercial property to have ever received the award!

Thanks and congrats to all involved in this amazing project!!!!

This just goes to show that with a little imagination and a few plants a garden can be grown anywhere! Even if it has to be contained!

Happy Fall Planting !!

The Carriage House Court Yard

2009-07-20T17:23:00.020-04:00

The Carriage House Court Yard

200?

The Carriage House Court Yard

May 2009

The Carriage House Court Yard

July 2009

This carriage house turned Inn is the heart of the Goodstone. The beautifully restored building houses 4 luxurious suites, a main "living room" where guests are received and tea is held every day at 3pm, the dining room and kitchen where the chefs turn our local bounty into an amazing adventure for the palate and finally our office~the brains of the operation. Although much is happening in this building at any point in time, it always appears to be serene.

The Carriage House Court Yard has had many looks through out the years. This spring we changed the water feature from a fountain to a pond. I was itching all spring to redo the gardens in the Court Yard but I didn't want to disrupt the Tulips so I had to wait !

These Korean boxwood had been looking sad for about a year and I felt they had over grown their spot. I have a vision of the court yard being a lush and fragrant English style tea garden. So this spring I ordered some new bones and waited for the perfect time to give the court yard a make over!

Diggs Loves the pond too!

The existing structure of the court yard garden is great! The shape is fun to work with, it's protected from the elements and from deer and it has a lot of natural charm! There are large clematis that are gorgeous all year around and a mature Crepe Myrtle in each corner that lend structure and shade. I love the bare shape of them in the winter too!

Finally the perfect day came! It was a rainy morning late in June and all the plant material was in so we went for it !

Out with the old!

Don't worry the old bushes were put to good use in empty other spots!

Above: Armando, my right arm, removes the old shrubs. The cool, rainy weather insured that we would have success in our planting and transplanting ventures.

Once our palette is clear, we lay out the plants and prep the area for planting. I use Espoma Greensand and Plant Tone when installing new plantings. A shovel full of each is worked into the soil before the hole is dug to make sure that the soil is fully amended. The Planting begins and it usually goes pretty fast!

Before we even realized it the transformation had occurred! Instantly the court yard had an entirely different feel! Out came 12 large Korean Boxwood and in went 8 Green Mountain Boxwood, 4 White Knock Out Roses, 4 Vardar valley Boxwood and 12 Sweet Box. All of the echinacea, primrose, ajuga, thyme and tulip bulbs were existing from last year's make over and were just rearranged to fit the new bones! I say bones because they are the structure of the garden. The bones are what is left to look at in the winter when all of the vegetation has vanished!

This is the first phase of the transformation from grass and stone court yard to lush and fragrant English style tea garden! The boxwood, knock out roses and sweet box delineate the boundaries of this garden and stay a beautiful dark evergreen all year around to create a lush feel even in the debt of winter.

Above: 6 Sweet Box ~Sarcocca confusa and 2 Buxus 'Green Mountain' line the path to the Stallion Suite

Above: White Knock Out Rose bedded with White Echinacea, Pink evening primrose

The evergreen shrubs anchor the stone work and create another dimension to the space.

After the change in vegetation the benches looked out of place to me and it took me a while to figure out why!

Finally I realized that they needed a make over too! Douglas our wonderfully handy maintenance man stained the benches and I gave them a little rearrange and viola' we have a whole new court yard !

The red grass plumes and the furthest crepe myrtle branches lend a small amount of badly needed shade to our little pond!

I love these glazed terra cotta bowl ponds. I came across this one at my sister Morgan's nursery, Gardens of Delight and I knew immediately that it was perfect for our Court Yard. This little pond houses 4 gold fish, 4 black snails, 3 tad poles, water lettuce, water hyacinth, anarchis and a Texas gold medal water lily that blooms yellow and smells amazing!

I love ponds, I feel they add the sense of a whole other living world to a space as opposed to a fountain which is just an eternal trickle.

Hopefully by spring we will be starting on the next phase!

The Garden is never finished !

Peonies as promised!

2009-06-24T18:28:00.010-04:00

The majestic Peony flower has a past deeper and greater than I had ever considered. Writings of the Peony date as far back as 1000 BC. Traditionally known in the far east for it's medicinal purposes, it is known in the west mostly for it's ornamental purposes. The Chinese have long coveted the Peony not only for it's beauty but for the healing powers held with in the roots, stems, flower petals and the bark of the woody varieties. It is said that there were not many ailments that the Peony was not thought to cure~ tooth pain, child birth, jaundice, convulsions....... the list goes on depending on who was doing the healing and when. Europeans used the Peony for healing and also protection from evil spirits in the middle ages and if you look hard enough some culinary purposes were to be found as well.

There are 2 species of peony that are native to the western United States, Peaonia californica being one of them. I would love to come across one of these! They are beautiful too! The Peonies we know and love today were brought to North America by European settlers and were then cultivated in pioneer gardens. In 1904 the American Peony Society was born. The mission of this society was to "clarify nomenclature". There was at the time over 2,600 named peonies and a lot of inconsistency in the cultivation and sale. The University of Cornell studied the collection and compiled a list of 500 distinct and worthy varieties of ornamental herbaceous flowering peonies. The Peony was once placed into the Ranunculaceae family with the Helleborus and the Anemone and now is the only genus in the flowering plant family Paeoniacea. Today there are about 30 herbaceous species and 8 woody species that survived the test of time in our area.

From their beautiful buds to their larger than your face flowers with a fragrance straight from heaven, it is no wonder that these incredible plants have been admired, studied, saved, cultivated, painted, trucked across the world and planted across the world for over 2,000 years.

All that said, I can't help but to look at the Peony and think about estate gardens. I guess it's because I have grown up in Virginia and I associate Peonies with home. Every beautiful estate garden that I have seen has an abundance of Peonies.

What a Peony brings to the garden is somewhat short lived but extremely worth the wait. They poke their curly beginnings up through the soil in mid march and before you know it they are almost 2 feet tall with tight stately buds. Waiting for those buds to open is one of the most anticipated events for me in the spring. Year after year I find myself thinking "when are they going to finally open?" then I have to remind myself that they will begin to open the last weekend in May. Memorial Day weekend you can be assured that in Virginia , the Peonies will open! And as promised, every year of my life, they have graced me with their presence on Memorial day weekend. Then before I know it they are finished! Then begins the slow decent back into the ground to hibernate for winter. It begins with the dead heading of the old blooms and continues on into the summer, as the heat and humidity come they retreat, only to reappear bigger and better than the year before!

There were only a few specimens when I arrived at the Goodstone, so one of my first orders of business was to correct that! This year was a great year on the farm for Peonies!

Not only are they magic in the garden but they last forever in a vase!

There are many myths surrounding the Peony. They say it's name came about after a student of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, named Paeon, was saved from the jealousy of his teacher by Zeus, who turned him into the Peony flower. It is also said that the Peony houses the soul of nature. Artists have spent life times trying to capture their likeness and I have yet to see a fragrance match the one that nature created.

The magic that is created in nature continues to go unmatched, though helped along and cultivated by mankind. It's not hard to understand why this flowering plant has been the center of attention for over 2000 years and continues to be adored to this day!

Thank you Peonies for returning as promised year after year for the past 2000 years!

Sunflowers

2009-06-09T00:00:00.008-04:00

There is something about Sunflowers that I just can not resist! I don't know if it's their height, strength, tolerance of drought or their sunny disposition but I just love them ! When I first arrived at the Goodstone and looked across the beautiful rolling green land bordered by old stone walls many things screamed out at me ! One was peonies (Which will be my next blog topic) and another was SUNFLOWERS!!!! I started in January '08 so it was the middle of winter and thankfully it turned out to be a mild one! By late February early March we were on our way to creating the sunflower patches !!!

We began by weed eating the areas we wanted down to almost bare ground. Next we took all the cardboard we had been saving from around the Inn and covered the soon to be garden spots with it. Lastly we piled on about 6 inches of good composted mulch and let the beds sit until May! We had great success with that technique, being as it was the middle of a hay field, the cardboard saved us from having to weed AT ALL last year. Amazing!!! The Sunflower seeds went in mid May and by July we had a stellar display of sunflowers ranging from 2 ft. to 12 ft. in all colors and styles.

This year we did have to do some weeding and re mulching to retain our patches but the work is well rewarded. The soil is amazing in those spots and our beds are established nicely. Our seeds went in a little late this year, which is fine with me as it will just extend our season a bit. With all the rain this spring and into the summer I am not worried a bit about this years crop! I was wondering if last years crop would re seed and save me from having to purchase new seeds this year but I didn't want to risk it ! And I am glad I didn't. We barley had any come up this spring in our field patches while a ton had sprouted in the veggie garden. While trying to figure this out I realized that we left the sunflowers in the field beds all winter for the birds to eat and eat they did!!! They were really thorough!

Above/Below:Creation of the Sunflower patches March 2008

Above/Below: Result of all that hard work !!!! Heaven on earth!

Above: Last year's Sunflowers in reds and yellows!

Below: This year's Sunflower crop newly sprouted!

Above/Below: These little babies sprouted in record time! Less than 2 weeks after sewing them I spotted the new mass of green sprouts showing after one good rain!

I can hardly wait until they are big and beautiful again! It feels like it will take forever when in reality I know they are going to come and go rather fast! I love to be around flowers that are bigger than me! Maybe that's the real reason I love Sunflowers so much! I often watch my little dog Diggs run throughout the gardens and think "Man, it would be so cool to be smaller than an Echinacea, I'd love to be able to stand inside a clump of Peonies or lay in the middle of a big soft catmint!" Lucky Diggs! Sunflowers enable me to feel like that in their presence! Thank You Sunflowers for that precious gift!!!! Among many others!

Above: Sunflower seedlings direct sewn in late May 2009

photographed June 9 2009

Below: Volunteer Sunflower in the veggie garden, sprouted in early may photographed June 10 2009

The other thing that has always amazed me is how much stronger plants are when they volunteer! Maybe it's the head start they had but I think it's more than that! I'll have to compare the final product when they are more comparable.... But I bet the volunteers win !

Above: Emily next to a volunteer sunflower in the Veggie garden!

Below: Up close to last year's crop! The bee's were really happy about them too!

Nature is magic for sure! It continuously blows me away that in less than six months the sunflower lives it's entire life cycle. From seeds to baby seedlings to strong mammoth flowers useful in so many ways and back to seeds !

And we are blessed to be able to witness it all!

OOO Veggie Garden How I DO love thee !!!!!

2009-05-26T12:31:00.019-04:00

AHHHH The Veggie garden! For me there are is no other garden that compares to a Vegetable Garden! The possibilities are endless in that little patch of earth. There is no right or wrong just creation! I mix flowers, herbs, veggies, and ornamental in my patches just for the fun of it! I always do the raised bed method with paths in between and I love this style because it's no till and easy to maintain. To me the layout sort of instills a feeling of being in a secret world. Here at the Goodstone we are blessed with beauty and abundance in all forms!

We have surrounded our garden with 6' no climb horse fencing to keep out deer and other unwanteds! Plus this gives us a whole new area to grow on vertically! I love to do gourds, sweet peas, yellow pear tomatoes, berries, espaliered fruit trees or anything else that will climb the fence or use the extra support! I am lucky because outside our garden sheep graze to keep the grass down and the piggies eat our scraps! Very symbiotic really! The Pigs eat our healthy garden waste and we will in turn eat them !! Plus Oliver~ our large pig ~ is the best rototiller I've ever met. I rescued him from The Middleburg Humane Foundation early this spring just for that reason, he will not be food. Although I don't till I do expand! The next expansion that we do on the garden, it will be Oliver's job to do the digging!

Pattie and Link on the other hand are being raised for food. I am OK with this because I know we are giving them an amazing life while they are with us and they will in turn bless us with amazing food!

Above: Oliver~ our resident rototiller!

Below: Pattie~ She is soo sweet!

Below: Link~ He is a funny guy! He fights pattie for every scrap of food! Therefore earning himself a trip to the butcher first as he is nice and fat already!!!

With all the rain this year and cool temperatures we have had a great crop of greens! Lettuce, chard, spinach, mustard, kale, collards, arugula, turnips, beets and the list goes on! Our winter was mild too, so I had a lot of things over winter. Our first batch of spinach was ready mid March and I actually had a crop of cilantro that over wintered which is really rare!

Above: Over wintered Cilantro mid May

Below: Over wintered Spinach and Kale

Below: Chard with Red Onions on the left and Garlic Chives on the right

Below: I had an Artichoke come back from the root for the first time too!

Below: A bed of Garlic put in last fall mixed with Alpine Strawberries and volunteer Sunflowers

Below: Flowering patch of Chamomile!

Below: A patch of french white strawberries! YUMMMMMMMMM

The sheep that graze here belong to Fields of Athenry. Elaine has been wonderful to work with and we love her meat! We are happy to have her sheep graze on our land and proud to serve her meat in our restaurant! Thanks Elaine!!

Above: A Lettuce bed ringed with chives!

Below: Bronze Fennel and Red Oak Leaf Lettuce

Below: Mustard Osaka Purple~ These guys are so good and spicy! Not to mention pretty!

Below: Newly planted Horse Radish

Below: Beets! We have a great crop of Beets this year and all different kinds!

Below: Early spring garden

Below: Asparagus

Below: mid spring harvest on the way to the kitchen!

Below: Plum Purple Radish

Below: Radish french breakfast, Crimson Giant and Cherry Belle

Below: Chive Flowers

Below: A bed of direct sewn Gourmet Lettuce blend, YummmmI had great success with direct sewing lettuce this year!

Above/Below: This years Tomato crop looking lovely!!

Above: Tom Thumb Lettuce, One of my favorites!

Below: New Rhubarb planted this spring!!!

Below: Vollenteer Squash looking lovley. Our seeds are not doing as well as the volenteers. Between squash bugs, cucumber beetles and tons of rain we are struggeling to get ours to do aswell as these. Again ~ more support for my theory about volenteers, they always do so much better!

Below: Lettuce cimmaron

Below: A perfect romain head!

Above: Lettuce Lolla Rossa

Below: Lettuce Tennis Ball~ Named by Thomas Jefferson for it's perfect tennis ball apperance and size!!

Below: Left quarter of garden mid season

Above: Nasturtium mixed wth Bronze fennel and Curly loose leaf lettuce

Above: Our Peas are doing wonderful and can be found on our menu right now !

Below: Apparently the peas are doing so well that a little bird thought them a safe enough spot to build her nest!

Below: Paco~ a god send ! Paco worked in the veg garden all season last year and I am blessed to have him again this year! He keeps things under control! He is really good at straight lines and I am the oppisite! So we make a really good team !!! Thanks Paco for all you do !

Above: We expanded our garden this year doubling the size. You can see that this section is new, as it is empty looking and no volenteers showed up. It was all field until late this winter! This section will house our tomatos, squash, melons, corn, gourds, cucumbers, pumpkins and............who knows what else!

Above: Chard up close

Below: Borage alba~ a white borage. I planted some blue this year. They have beautiful, ediable flowers that last a long time !

Above: A bed of parsnips! Doing well. In the next month I will sew another bed in hopes to over winter another crop and have them ready for spring! I LOVE them. And they are really satisfying to grow! My mom always makes them for Thanksgiving instead of mashed potatos. She creams them and adds fresh Horserdish root! SOoo GOOD!!! They've replaced mashed potatos in my book for good!!

Above: A patch of Tom Thumb Lettuce I'm letting go to seed in hopes of a fall crop!

Below:Potatos, Black berries, Raspberries, Parsnips, Peas, Onions, Chard, Beets, Mint, Sweet Annie and cilantro. All that in 1/4 of or garden! It blows me away every day!

Below: Bolted Tom Thumbs up close. I think they are sooo pretty! I stuck a few in their entirity in some vases for last night's wine dinner. They were spectacular! And a welcome change in my flower arranging routine!!

Below: Expansion~ while it looks new now I'll bet you won't be able to tell in another 2 months!

Above: Emily helps harvest Peas!

Manor House Renovations

2009-05-25T20:50:00.006-04:00

This spring I began renovations of the Manor House gardens. This gorgeous old house is located down the lane from the heart of the farm giving it an even deeper sense of historic charm. This house was constructed by the Warburg Family after the original Manor House (Which is now our pool facade and it's awesome!) burned in the 1930's. I can tell that this house was special due to the little bits of old gardens that are left. This summer I will add some perennial beds along the back wall of the patio and this fall I'll be starting to renovate the front! I love these projects where the structure is mostly defined and all we have to do is tweak it a little and add the magic and the fluff!!! I'll update as we continue on!

There are a lot of Boxwood in the front of the house and a few larger ones at the back. I added quite a few more, 43 I think, to the back patio to tie it in with the rest. The larger Boxwood need a lot of rejuvenation, but I think as we tend to these old and long forgotten garden spots the life will spring right back into them! Our Boxwood came from Saunders Brothers Nursery which is a great place to get quality box. Their web site is full of info on the best varieties and cultivars!

Above: Old Lilacs with some pretty Peony, poppies, Daffodil and Iris that keep returning year after year!

Below:The beginnings of a new garden on the side entrance to the back patio. This little bed is full of Artimesia 'Wormwood' which I love for it's ability to take a space over and for cutting! It smells fabulous!

Below: The renovated Back Patio! This is such a sweet spot and I love the lay out. Redoing this was so much fun! I added lots of Boxwood so we have something to look at in the winter too!

Above/Below: Beds bordering patio wall. This wall looks out over the rolling green hills on the farm! It's relatively shady back here which is nice in the heat of the summer! Above: Buxus 'Jenson' Mixed with Astilbe, Salvia, Dianthus, Day Lily and Sage All staying relatively small.

Above: Buxus 'Jenson' a cute little box that I put in the beds along the patio wall. They will stay little as not to interrupt the amazing view.

Above: One of two matching beds on either side of the main staircase. The beds are lined with Buxus macrophyla 'Green Pillow' and a Beergarten sage at the corner. Buxus 'Dee Runk' on the left with Buxus 'Green Mountain' following. The lime green hosta add a pop of color. I have put little patches of creeping and woolly thyme in these beds hoping to create a tapestry around the perennials and box woods.

Above: Buxus 'Dee Runk' My favorite columnar boxwood

Below: Views of renovations

Below: This bed houses the A/C units but I love it just the same. Simple and pretty with Day lily, Creeping Jenny and those Lime Green Hosta. They were here when I arrived and I have enjoyed moving them around to show case them!

Below: The view from the Manor House back patio is breath taking !

Heavenly Hellebore

2009-04-22T01:27:00.013-04:00

Above:Hellebours foetidus naturalized in "woodsy" @ Goodstone

Above:Helleborus orientalis x hybrida 'Ivory Prince' @ Goodstone Carriage House

Helleborus orientalis is easily one of my all time favorite herbaceous perennials EVER! They are not really used in everyday landscapes which is sort of mind boggling considering they are extremely hardy (zones 4-7) will take part sun to full shade and are usually evergreen. Not to mention they are DEER PROOF-for real!!! They are also one of, if not The, first to bloom in the very early spring and continue to bloom prolifically until June, maybe later.

They make marvelous mounds of leaves and flowers growing 16"x 20" at maturity and need very little care or maintenance. The heavenly Helleborus is extremely tolerant of all conditions and I've seen it naturalize rather fast in good soil. It's exquisite habit and gossamer flowers will be admired and appreciated in any situation and the affection will grow as that plant is the gift that keeps on giving! From shady, woodland gardens to quaint cottage gardens or large perennial gardens the Helleborus is a must have!

Above:Helleborus nesteled between Tulip 'Green Village' and Nepeta 'Sweet Dreams' which is a really pretty upright catmint that flowers pink & white and Tulip 'Angelique'! (front of Dutch Cottage)

I've used the heavenly Hellebore in pots and planters for the spring season and then planted them out in the garden when its time to change the pots ! ( I love to use perennails in spring pots and planters it's a much better way to spend you hard earned dollars!!!) In cut flower arrangements they will last forever! The mighty Hellebore will leave you with it's strong, shiny, deep green leaves in that nice clump all throughout the hot and dry summer! Seriously it's impressive!!

There are many different types and varieties of Helleborus. Most of the helleborus found at the nurseries are hybrids and they are showing up in so many beautifel shades! You can find them ranging from a creamy green to a rosy green to spotted white to a dark eggplant to pink and all the while looking amazingly ethereal and just as tough as the day is long! Last year I put in tons of Helleborus and I'm going to keep on adding over the next 3 years ! I want them all over!

Hellebours foetidus is really cool too! It has a different growth habit and a finer foliage. This one only blooms in a white/green with a sight rose edge. An amazing creature for sure! The foetidus has the same hardiness and naturalizing ability and is just as durable in every way. It remindes me of a plant from the dinasour times. Its got a sharp and crazy texture but still has that certain something that makes a Hellebore so special! You can't grow wrong with a Hellebore!!!

Above:Hellebours foetidus in the 'Woodsy Garden" @ Goodstone

Above:Helleborus orientalis x hybrida 'Ivory Prince'

Below:Helleborus @ Goodstone in shades of white and pink

Varieties you can find in our gardens as of now !!!

*Helleborus orientalis 'Red Lady'

*Helleborus hybridus 'Ivory Prince'

Common Name: Lenten Rose

*Helleborus hybridus 'Pine Knot Strain'

*Helleborus foetidus

Common Name: Bearsfoot Hellebore

*Helleborus niger 'Maximus'

Common Name: Christmas Rose

*Helleborus orientalis 'Brandywine Series'

Common Name: Lenten Rose

Varieties I'll be adding...

Helleborus argutifolius

Corsican Hellebore

Delicate yellow-green flowers attractively striped with purple contrast with coarse, spiny evergreen foliage that resembles holly leaves. Tolerates some sun. Fall protection is needed north of zone 8. Blooms mid winter thru early spring.

Helleborus niger

Christmas Rose

An elegant perennial with delicate, single white flowers rising above lustrous, dark green leaves. Mass under trees or place in beds of mixed plantings. Also useful against spring-flowering evergreens.

Helleborus x 'Metallic Blue Lady'

Lenten Rose

Beautiful purplish-blue nodding flowers complement leathery evergreen leaves. Highlights the woodland garden or landscape. Long-lived plant.

Helleborus orientalis 'White Spotted Lady'

Lenten Rose

Beautiful, long-lasting nodding white flowers with maroon speckles complement leathery, evergreen leaves. Highlights the woodland garden or landscape. Long-lived plants.

Spring Greens

2009-04-21T23:51:00.011-04:00

There is nothing better or more beautiful than fresh baby spring greens! They are so fun and easy to grow. These babies are not only pretty but they are packed full of nutrients. Lettuce and greens require cool weather to germinate and do not typically do well in the heat of the summer. Once the soil temp reaches over 63 degrees, lettuce season is over! So it is important to stay on schedule with these guys to get the maximum yield for our growing season! We will have a second shot in the fall but I have my best success in the spring for sure!

I start in mid march and grow mostly in salad boxes as I don't have a greenhouse set up yet. The boxes work great and are very inexpensive to build. Mine were built last spring and are holding up well in their second year of production. The boxes are constructed of un-treated 1"x 6" pine lumber. The frame is tacked together with small nails. A sheet of hardware cloth and a sheet of window screen are tacked to the bottom of the frame with a staple gun. The window screen and hardware cloth provide drainage and air circulation. I also set these boxes up on pallets to avoid rot from ground moisture. I find this to be an excellent system for production!

Once germination has occurred and the babies have filled in and formed tiny versions of themselves at maturity, I begin to transplant them out. Some go to the garden to grow into full sized lettuces. Some are transplanted back into the boxes spaced evenly apart to grow into cut and come again baby greens. If they are not divided and transplanted with room to grow they will be stunted and remain too small to use. This step in the process is the most labor intensive and requires a lot of time but the results are well worth it !

Beyond lettuce I always do a few boxes of pea tendrils. They are great for salads and very high in vitamin C. This year I'm trying turnips in the boxes for baby turnips. I also grow mustard greens, kale and beet greens too! Almost any green will work in here if proper care and space is given.

Above:Baby lettuce at transplant stage. These little guys are easily separated and transplanted. If done so on a cool grey day they will take immediatly and thrive

Above: Box of baby Dandelion greens!

Below: Millions of baby lettuce awaiting transplanting!

I fertilize my baby greens with Neptune's Harvest liquid fish fertilizer. This is an organic product that will not burn the babies and gives them their healthy glow! I use this product of the veggie garden as well as a foliar feed. It really makes a difference!

These are Tom Thumb lettuces. This is a mini butter head lettuce that I grow every year! I just love it. When given room to mature they will form the most perfect little head perfect for an individual salad! I am currently growing 4 boxes of these for the kitchen and have some out in the garden as well! They will be featured on our menu very soon!!!!

Above: Tom Thumb lettuce spaced in salad boxes to grow out for the kitchen

Above: Baby bull's blood beet greens and baby kale next to three boxes of pea tendrils

Below: Thom Thumb babies maturing in the garden after being transplanted out of the boxes.

Below: Green Deer Tongue lettuce next to Red baby Oak Leaf loving the room to grow in the garden beds!

I do a lot of direct sewing in the garden as well. Below is a bed of baby spinach mixed with some kale that over wintered in the garden. We have had a great year for spinach. I had a large crop in late March that had over wintered and I also direct sewed 3 large beds of spinach, all different varieties. When the temps get hot the spinach is done. My crop of winter spinach bolted as soon as we had a week of hot weather in April, so it was good that I had the baby back ups growing! We have harvested a ton of spinach and have more coming! What the kitchen doesn't use we sell to whomever is interested in our over flow. Tarver is great at calling other local chef's to share the harvest and our over flow produce will also be available at the Fields of Athenry home market! We are also looking to get into the local farmer's market circuit! so look for us~ We're coming soon !!! If anyone is interested in produce and herbs feel free to give us a call!

Below: Beds of a Gourmet Lettuce Mix next to Arugula both direct sewn in March. These are treated as cut and come again! We go through and give them a massive hair cut and then just days later a new crop has shot up and are ready for cutting again! This continues until the hot weather comes!

Above: An Abundance of radishes!!! Direct sewn in the garden in mid march. Chef Tarver King will use them in all stages, from barely a sprout to the rotund radish we all know, you will find them featured on our menu throughout the spring!

Above: Direct sewn cut and come again lettuce used for baby greens

Below: Transplants from the boxes in the garden to grow to maturity

Below: Bags of Pea tendrils freshly harvested from the boxes on their way to the kitchen and Fields of Athenry

Above: Spring Bounty!!! Pea tendrils, lettuce, arugula, asparagus, radish and dandelion greens on their way to the kitchen!!!

Homage to Tulips

2009-04-21T23:47:00.025-04:00

I have never been one to plant a lot of Tulips. When I plant fall bulbs I want to make sure that all the effort is going to result in a spring show that will only get bigger and better as the years go by. Tulips have always given me the impression that they are more trouble than they are worth. I have always thought of them as wonderful as accents in a small and easily controlled garden and that's about it. I guess it's due to all of the creatures that love them in all of their forms. Chipmunks and squirrels LOVE the bulbs and deer Love every other part of them. That mixed with the fact that I have had many Tulips revert from their pretty color back to their parent color, usually a bright red or yellow, after only a year!!!

Last summer I poured over the bulb catalogs reading each one cover to cover, picking my tried and true favorites, learning about all the new stuff and comparing prices and reputation for a quality product. It took about a month to come up with my final order!!! While compiling my dream list I noticed that a lot of Tulips were showing up on that list and I questioned myself for a second. I'm soooo glad that I threw caution to the wind and got them ! (I also ordered a case of Deer Pharm and a case of Hot Pepper Wax ) This year they have proven themselves once again in a BIG way ! I can now understand Tulip Mania ! HAHA Sort of ! ( And I haven't even had to use the wax or Pharm which will come in handy in the Veggie garden soon!)

Above:Carriage House Courtyard @ Goodstone Inn

Below: The little pond is a new addition this spring and it's also the beginnings of a complete make over for our beloved courtyard! When I planted this fall I wondered if I should have used Cayenne pepper in the soil to keep the critters away. I stressed about the deer and planned on spritzing the new Tulips the second I saw life in the spring! I awaited anxiously for any sign of them as soon as spring officially showed up. I knew the ones in the courtyard would be safe from deer but I was not so sure about the others! To my complete surprise I haven't had to do a thing except sit back and watch the show! A few did get munched by deer on the woodsy side of the Dutch Cottage. A few others, really pretty creamy yeallow ones, got eaten by some frisky sheep that broke into the yard of the Bull Barn Cottage! But all in all I have to pay homage to the Tulip this year! Thank You for your stunning performance this spring Tulips !!! Looking forward to your next show !

These "Black and White" Tulips are breathtaking! I love this garden with the different textures. Cat Mint, grasses, nippon daisy, hydrangea, yellow twig dogwood, dark purple heuchera, lime light spirea, hosta and more. This garden is on the side of the Carriage house closest to the Dutch cottage and they are both bordered by the woods with a view to Goose Creek!

Above:Tulip 'Black Hero' and Tulip 'Mount Tacoma' looking fabulous together ! I love the sleek "black" with the voluptuous white !

Below: Tulip 'Black Hero' with Cat mint

Above: Tulip 'Green Village' Is a beautiful pink and green! Tulip 'Angelique' is a baby pink puff

Below: An arrangement of Tulip 'Green Village', Tulip 'Black Hero', Tulip 'Happy Family', Helleborus, Daffodil & Viburnum 'Korean Spice' fresh cut from the property! I love it !

Below: Boquet of fresh Tulips~'Green Village', 'Spring Green'

& 'Happy Family'

Tulip varities planted last fall

Tulip 'Greenland' ~ Tulip 'Green Village' ~ Tulip 'Spring Green' ~Tulip 'Happy Family' ~ Tulip 'Angeliuqe' ~ Tulip 'Black Hero'~ Tulip 'Mount Tacoma' ~ Tulip 'Yellow Mountian

Spring has arrived at the Goodstone Inn!

2009-04-20T15:05:00.009-04:00

Goodstone Inn and Estate ~ Spring

Goodstone Inn & Estate ~ Veggies Welcome to the Goodstone Gardens! I am so excited to be able to share with you my passion for gardening and all that it entails. I began my adventure at the Goodstone Inn last January and have just completed my first full year cycle on the farm. During that time much was created. We now have an amazing vegetable garden that allows us to bring our guests the most fresh and natural herbs and produce available! We have 55 chickens and collect our own fresh eggs every day. We have a very new little orchard planted with apples, pears, cherries, peaches, edible crab apples and persimmon and watercress is harvested from our small streams.

All of this fresh food is harvested and brought immediately to our kitchen where our Chef, Tarver King, in turn works his magic on these raw ingredients to create a dining experience unmatched by any other. Any food that can not be grown or raised on our farm is acquired from other local farmers and gardeners who share our passion for responsible farming/gardening and local food. Visit Tarver's blog www.goodstoneblog.blogspot.com to get a taste of his adventures and creations. Along with my passion for veggie and herb gardening is my love of perennial gardening!

The Goodstone Inn had a nice "woodsy" garden already started when I arrived. Immediately I began to build upon that location to include and develop the surrounding areas as "woodsy" or woodland gardens by adding all my woodland favorites! Ferns, Columbine, jack in the pulpit, native ginger, witch hazel, hellebore, Bird foot violets, bluebells, trillium, foam flower, blood root and sooooo much more! I will be building on this collection every spring and fall. The goal is to have all of these amazing specimens naturalize in our woods.

Last year every house on the farm, there are 5, along with the pool gardens and the hot tub garden began to get a horticultural make over! This process will continue on this year and many more ! The garden is never done ! I will be starting the "native plant trail" which involves reintroducing native plant species along our 3 1/2 mile hiking trail. This will not only result in adding beauty and wonder to our hiking trail but add a lot of diversity, food and habitat to all of the important species and creatures that reside on our land and the areas surrounding.

Every fall we will be planting thousands of Daffodils, snow drops, allium, ornithogalum, wood hyacinth, crocus and other bulbs. The evidence is abundant already!!! Our Daffodil display is amazing this year! I look forward to being able to catalogue and share our dreams, plans, practices, goals, achievements and adventures via this blog! Happy spring and Happy gardening !!!!

Airynee~The Goodstone Gardener