Cold Climate Gardening

I have long fantasized having a substantial arbor dripping with roses. Ignoring the fact that there aren’t too many repeat-blooming climbers hardy enough to take my climate, I realize with dismay that my most favored place to site an arbor turns out to be on a slope every time I leave my dream world and actually go take a look. Then there is the little matter of cost, and the issue of frost heaving, and with one thing and another I’ve never installed an arbor.

Over ten years ago, however, a winter storm bent a large branch of a large box elder tree in the Secret Garden. (Click on the photo at left to enlarge it.) You can see this box elder to the right in the background in my November entry for the Design Workshop. At the time, the path didn’t run this way. It made a direct beeline from the house to a location just in the foreground and then turned left down the path that you can see in this photo. I redirected the path as a result of this branch coming down, intending that it become a natural arch framing the path and drawing you in from the entrance.

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I have always loved picket fences. They just look so neat and orderly, and they let flowers peek through. When we first moved here I would look out the window and daydream about a picket fence around the front and at least part way up the sides of our property. I would debate within my mind about whether or not there should be a gate, or maybe there should be two gates…I don’t know what brought on my epiphany, but one day it hit me: I live on a hill. I have never seen a picket fence that looked good going up a hill. They are made for flat, or nearly flat, areas. Back to the drawing board.

Years later, we …

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Perhaps it is a bit extreme to say “Paths make the garden,” but ever since I was a child paths have been an emotionally significant element to my enjoyment of a garden. I didn’t realize this until we moved to the rural 15 acres where we now live, when I struggled with how to turn acreage into a garden.

That a path exists gives a sense of safety. You know you won’t get lost or swallowed up as long as you can see the path. The fact that you can’t see where a path leads is what lends it the air of mystery, what gives you a little tingle of excitement.

Once I realized that paths were called for, the problem became one of creating and maintaining them. (I still feel abysmally ignorant about this subject, so if anyone knows of a book on trail maintenance, please let me know.)

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