Maintaining the Pergola Garden
This time of year can be very hectic - my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew are busy keeping up with all the rapid growth in the garden beds.
Summer may be coming to a close, but there is still lots of work to be done - weeding, pruning, and grooming the many perennial plants and shrubs. This week, the crew is tackling the areas around my long and winding pergola.
Enjoy these photos.
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- These boxwood shrubs along both sides of my winding pergola were grown from small saplings nurtured right here in one area of my vegetable garden next to my chicken coops. There are more than 300 boxwood shrubs planted here. This photo shows the latest growth which needs to be trimmed and groomed.
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- I love boxwood and use a lot of it around the farm. Buxus is a genus of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The leaves on boxwood branches are arranged opposite from each other, making pairs.
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- Some of you may recall, I planted the boxwood exactly four years ago. I decided this area would be great if planted with a row of boxwood on both sides. This 2017 photo shows the area all ready for planting.
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- The boxwood we used had been growing in this patch for about three years. Finally they were ready to transplant to their more permanent spots under the pergola.
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- Each shrub was placed into a plastic pot and then groups of potted boxwoods were carefully transported.
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- Every boxwood was positioned perfectly, two-feet apart from the next. The best time to plant boxwood is during the fall. These plants need well-drained, alkaline soil that contains organic matter.
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- These were some of the first ones planted. Boxwood can grow in full sun and partial shade.
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- And here is Phurba yesterday – the boxwood is nearly waist high. To groom the tops and sides, Phurba uses a STIHL HSA 25 Battery-Powered Garden Shear. The hedge shear attachment with double-sided cutting blades cuts in both directions. It’s one of our favorite tools – it’s very light and handy.
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- This tool has two attachments – grass shears and shrub/hedge shears. The top is the grass shear attachment, which is helpful in cutting the grass around my fence posts. The bottom is the hedge shear attachment. And each fully charged battery lasts 110-minutes.
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- Here, Phurba skims over the tops and trims the lighter green, new growth while shaping the shrubs as he goes.
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- Here, one can see what he has trimmed and what still needs to be done.
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- Adjacent to the pergola on one side is my expansive soccer field where my grandson, Truman, loves to play when he visits. In order to keep it in excellent condition, it must be mowed regularly. Here’s Chhiring on my Kubota ZD1211-60 zero turn riding mower. It has a 24.8 horsepower diesel engine and a wide mower deck. It gets a lot of use this time of year.
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- All the cuttings are placed into my Martha Stewart Multi-Purpose Heavy-Duty Garden Tote Bags. We use these bags all over the farm. Each tote can hold more than 900-pounds! Find them at my shop on Amazon.
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- Domi uses STIHL’s brush cutter to whack any extraneous weeds around the pergola beds. These heavy-duty cutters have a four-point anti-vibration system that helps reduce operator fatigue and an easy-adjust handle bar for easy maneuverability, transport, and storage.
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- Also in the pergola garden – comfrey, Symphytum officinale, a perennial that grows in clumps naturally along riverbanks and in grasslands. It is a member of the borage family. The plant grows slightly taller than it is wide and features large, pointed, dark green leaves up to eight inches long that have a coarse, hairy texture.
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- And there are still a few clematis blooming. Clematis is a genus of about 300-species within the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. The name Clematis comes from the Greek word “klematis,” meaning vine. Most species are called clematis, but it has also been called traveller’s joy, virgin’s bower, leather flower, or vase vine.
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- One one end is this giant weeping copper beech tree – I love these trees with their gorgeous forms and rich color. I have several large specimens on the property. The deep red to copper leaves grow densely on cascading pendulous branches.
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- Perovskia atriplicifolia, commonly called Russian sage, shows tall, airy, spike-like clusters that create a lavender-blue cloud of color above the finely textured, aromatic foliage. It is vigorous, hardy, heat-loving, drought-tolerant, and deer resistant.
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- This is the seed pod of the daylily. I have a selection of daylilies planted here. Daylily ‘Entrapment’ flowers appear in midsummer, and again in late summer to early fall. They grow up to 26 inches tall with semi-evergreen foliage and ruffled blue-purple blooms.
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- In the center and at the ends of this winding pergola are wisteria standards. Looking up, one can see its vines mixed in with the climbing vines of my beautiful Rosa ‘Veilchenblau’ – the violet rambler also known as ‘Bleu-Violet’, ‘Blue Rambler’, ‘Blue Rosalie’ and ‘Violet Blue’ that blooms from May to June.
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- And here’s a closer look at the newly groomed boxwood. I am so pleased with how it’s developing – so lush and green.
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- My gardens are constantly evolving. The entire border is just so beautiful – in spring when it blooms with gorgeous purple and blue; in summer when it features all the bright orange lilies; and, in autumn, with all its bold greenery. Enjoy your gardens.
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