Lamiastrum galeobdolon

     If you want a ground cover for dry shade that will establish and spread quickly, none is better than Lamiastrum galeobdolon, commonly known as Yellow Archangel.  Of course, that means one must keep after it to keep it within bounds, usually requiring shearing every month or two.  It gets about a foot high, so weeds are never able to get established in it.  It has attractive yellow flowers in late spring.  Photos 4 and 5 show it accompanied by one of my Leonardo da Vinci structures.
     There is a very unusual cultivar or variety of it, 'Herman's Pride.'  First, it does not spread with runners as does the species.  Second, its leaves are triangular, rather than round or oblong as the species.  And third, it does not do well in deep shade, as does the species.  I have about 70 plants of this variety, and I have had to move it as the trees growing overhead got older and bigger.  The last five photos show this variety.  In photo 7 it appears in a grouping on center right, and in photo 8 it is on top of the RR wall next to the walk with the railing.

One more snowfall--the last, I hope

     Mother nature fooled me again.  Three weeks ago I had a full week of yard cleanup work that put me ahead of schedule.  Then the other day she dumped seven inches of snow on my garden.  At least it was pretty.
     Photos five, six, and seven are of wooden structures designed by Leonardo da Vinci 500 years ago.  I built four of them for my gardens, with two hanging in trees.  I found his model in a da Vinci museum in Venice, Italy.  The last photo is of a structure I built last year..

Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright?  Maybe.

     In the late 1970s, I bought some outdoor lighting fixtures.  They were tall and narrow, and they reminded me of designs of Frank Lloyd Wright.  In 1980, I tweaked the design and built several fixtures, large enough to house plants.  Not being a carpenter, there were some problems (such as "light leakage" from the corners).  In 2013 I had a cabinet maker make me several with better construction.  I have three in my gardens, one each of cedar (first photo), white ash (photos two and three), and ipe, a wood from Brazil.  Two are in my Japanese garden, as they remind me of Japanese architecture.
     Last summer I visited Taliesin, the studio and home of Wright in Spring Green, WI, 90 minutes west of my home.  In December I visited Taliesin West, his winter studio and home in Scottsdale, AZ.  I think he would like my design.  He, too, was presumptuous--and lived in Wisconsin. 

Truly transformative

     Hedwigia ciliata is an amazing moss, taking only three seconds to go from a dead-appearing state to a very-much-alive green.  Just add water.  The first two photos, the first of "dead" moss, the second of very much alive moss, were taken just seconds apart.  Note the small expansive section of moss on the top left to prove it is of the same location.  This moss is usually found on granite rocks in full sun.  When it is dry (almost always), it goes dormant and looks rather unsightly.  With rain or fog, it is a very pretty moss.  If watered in the dormant state, it looks pretty in seconds, but not as pretty after it rains.  Nature apparently has magical powers.
     Photos three through six were taken after a light snowfall.
     The last two photos were taken in Japan, where the stems were much longer than I ever saw elsewhere, up to six inches.
     This moss is not too common, but if you search long enough, you should find it where there are granite rocks in the sun.  If you add water and in three seconds the "dead stuff comes alive," you likely found some Hedwigia ciliata moss.  If so, the next time it rains, see how beautiful it is.

More from "the other side"

     Here are more photos from Sri Lanka, a sub-tropical delight for plant lovers.  For me, the best were the mosses, the most beautiful I ever saw.  The high humidity and rainfall make for perfect conditions for mosses to grow.

     The WWII cemetery in the capital of Kandy is the most beautiful I ever visited, well landscaped and maintained by a full-time worker.  Many of those buried there are British, killed in bombing raids by the Japanese.

     I also love the tea plantation areas in the south, where the highlands are conducive to tea cultivation.  They were started by the British in the 1800s.  Tea pickers, all women, earn the equivalent of a minimum of $5 for an eight-hour day (prices for many items is a third to half of ours).  They have their harvest weighed four times a day, the last weighing done in their village.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On the other side

     Of the world, that is.  I took these photos in December 2015 at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.  It has a sub-tropical climate, so lots of palms and other exotics (for me).

     The photos show something I never saw before, a wire-frame house covered in vines.  The first view shows it a distance at the end of a very colorful walkway.  The last photo was taken inside.

 

 

A little explanation

     My wife, Dorothy, and I bought our one-acre property in 1969.  It is 150 feet wide and 300 feet deep, with a bit cut off on the back left.  We bought it mainly because there was a hill on it, and I knew that could make for more interesting landscape gardens.  Plus, it had a 20-acre woods behind.

     The first photo shows us, along with Dorothy's father, just before starting to build the house.  The next two photos show the house in 1970 and 1972.  Notice that the driveway does not go straight out to the road, as usual.  I curved the drive to the side of the lot for two reasons.  First, it would make for a wider lawn, making the lot appear wider.  Second, I thought the curved drive would make for a more pleasing entry.  After 47 years, my wife still is mad at me for doing that, as so many visitors have a hard time backing out.  Quite a few have driven off the pavement.  Too bad.

     The fieldstone terraces in the front were built in 2007.  I never liked the plain flat front lawn extending into the ditch.  A year earlier, I saw a photo of a very abstract design of a lawn somewhere in Europe.  It had three flat sections, rising at different rates, with the highest rising about 20 feet in total.  The most unusual thing is that they did the same thing in the opposite direction, but the three levels flipped (meaning that the fastest rising one became the slowest rising one).  Somehow, in trying to emulate it, I came up with the design of terrace levels with intersecting curves. Not the same, but a bit different, nevertheless.  My (ordinary) neighbor said I should have built an "ordinary" terrace.  I asked him, "Do I seem ordinary to you?"

     The plant at the base is Lysimachia nummularia (Moneywort).  The first terrace has Sedum floriferum 'Weihenstephaner gold' and the next terrace Vinca minor (Periwinkle).  The dark green plant in the center is Muelenbeckia axilaris (Wire Vine).