With Weekly Snow and/or Ice to Contend with Recently, Isn’t It Time to…
get a gander at the coming season while still sane?
Last week “Baltimore Style” was delivered through the mail slot and, when coming upon Kate Hudson’s article “Garden Variety” and the lush images of photographer Kirsten Beckerman, I felt lit up.
Oh yeah, much about sustainable lifestyle and environment in Ms. Hudson’s piece. Away with the monoculture of grass. Mowing a 1/4-acre of it is equivalent to the GHGs emitted by a car driven 50 miles. Now try some math…
Lying adjacent to Stony Run Trail in Roland Park (Baltimore City) are two homeowners who live in 1910 Dutch colonial duplexes known as “railroad houses.” One of the women of the duplexes is a dietitian and emergency room physician assistant, Tanya Jones. Her lush gardens on a 1/2-acre are captured by photog Beckerman (and reproduced here). The garden maker two doors away is Margaret Wright. (You can see others pix and the article here, for the time being.)
Get a look at the flagstone path through the garden. I might bring a folding chair to set on it about mid-point for some relaxing, immersing views. Or, just sit on the path… (My fantasy.)
So, what about the neighbor in between? Well, for one, its property contributes to a low, drystone wall along the 3 front yards.
One take-away in the piece: “As my mother said, ‘You can’t put a $20 plant in two buck soil.'” Another resulted the loss of a “towering” oak tree in her back yard while another neighbor’s full beech had to be taken down. Jones says about that major change: “I quickly learned that growing sun-loving plants is harder than with variable sunlight. They are a lot more work.”
Call it ecotourism, but I’ll be driving up there (too far to walk) late spring, parking somewhere nearby for a walk into Stony Run Trail and a look for myself.
Here’s one last image to peer (longingly?) into on the way to springtime…
(This post is dedicated to Dad who would have turned 94 today.
He loved trees–including apple and birch in the back yard–and simple gardens.)