DERBY — Whether you need to redesign a garden or are putting in a garden for the first time, take some lessons from the folks at Graycliff Estate, the historical landmark located at 6472 Old Lake Shore Road in Derby.

The landscape, as well as the buildings at Graycliff, were designed by the famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright for Isabelle Martin and her husband Darwin, a wealthy Buffalo businessman. The couple used it as their summer home.

To bring Graycliff back to Wright’s original vision, the landscape has been restored to look as it did, when completed in 1931.

Reine Hauser, the executive director of the Graycliff Conservancy Inc., learned a lot, during the landscape restoration process, and has shared four tips that you can use in your own garden.

– Develop a plan before you do anything.

Graycliff’s plan was more than 500 pages long. While you don’t need anything that complex, you should still write down your ideas.

“You won’t have as good a result, if you just go out and dig in the dirt,” Hauser said. “You’ll save time and money, if you have a plan.”

Make a simple sketch of your yard to show what will go where; the late fall and winter are great times to plan a garden.

– Hardscapes are as important as softscapes.

Softscapes are the plants. Hardscapes are the man-made elements such as patios, decks, trellises, water features, driveways, paths and walls. You cannot think about just what flowers or bushes or trees you will have in your garden; you must plan for hardscapes, too.

“Mistakes are expensive,” Hauser said. “You don’t want to put in plants and have to dig them up, to put in hardscapes. You might be destroying plants you just put in, and how sad is that?”

The Graycliff restoration included two major hardscapes, a natural-looking pool and a driveway.

Graycliff is set high on a cliff with sweeping views over Lake Erie. Wright designed the irregularly shaped pool to echo the lake. The pool has been restored and is now the size and shape that it was in 1931.

The driveway has been updated to meet 21st century requirements, while evoking the feeling of the original design. Wright originally used crushed shale that he specified be stained a warm, yellow-orange; that was later replaced with asphalt.

While the restorers wanted to get rid of the asphalt, they could not go back to the original crushed shale, for several reasons. New floors are being installed inside, and visitors would track the shale indoors. More importantly, crushed shale would not allow for full accessibility, or easy access for emergency vehicles.

What they did instead was install a poured concrete driveway, tinted to match the original shale, with exposed stone aggregate. This mimicked the original look, while providing practicality.

– Think about how you are going to water your plants.

“Are you going to use a drip system, or are you going to be lugging hoses around?” Hauser said.

If there is a corner of your yard where hoses don’t quite reach, you may want to choose plants that tolerate low levels of moisture, for that area.

There are drip hoses for certain areas at Graycliff, but some new trees will need special attention, until they become well established.

– Heirloom plants can be wonderful, but they can have drawbacks.

Hauser said she has learned that heirloom roses can be very fragrant, while newer varieties can be colorful and disease resistant.

“Know what you’re getting into,” she said, “and talk to the staff at your nursery.”

– Bonus tip: For more inspiration, visit Graycliff yourself!

You can view not only the changes to the landscape, but the renovations that are going on inside the buildings, when you visit Graycliff in person. This New York state landmark is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Graycliff will generally be open every day except Wednesday, through Dec. 1. Basic and in-depth tours are offered at various times. Detailed information is available by visiting www.graycliffestate.org or calling 947-9217.

Reservations are necessary for all tours, due to the limited space. To make reservations, call 947-9217 or email graycliff@verizon.net. In the email, request the date and time of the tour you prefer. If you wish to reserve a tour fewer than 24 hours in advance, call, instead of emailing for a reservation.

Graycliff will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, but will offer an extended tour schedule on Friday, Nov. 26. Tours will continue all weekend. Yuletide tours will be offered Thursday – Monday, Dec. 26 – 30. Also available are Master Architectural tours, private tours and group or school tours.

Connie Oswald Stofko is the publisher of Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com, the online gardening magazine for Western New York. Email Connie@BuffaloNiagaraGardening.com.

By George Giltner


Posted Nov. 15, 2013 @ 10:00 am

Leesville, La.

As the festive season approaches, Hannah Stephenson checks out what Christmas gifts are in store for gardeners

What do you give the gardener who has everything? Perhaps a luxurious back and neck massage to ease those endless hours of digging? Or perhaps a good manicure to file away all that grime from under the nails?

Let’s face it though, not many gardeners actually do have everything, a garden always needs something new – which makes finding a gift this Christmas that little bit easier.

You don’t have to go big – a few pretty plant labels in, say, slate or terracotta, a selection of seeds to keep them busy in the New Year, some stationery with fruit or veg patterns or simply a new pair of secateurs to help them through spring pruning may go down well.

There’s a plethora of personalised gifts for the gardener – check out www.gettingpersonal.com for a selection of calendars, diaries, crates and even shed signs that can be personalised to feature the recipient’s name.

If you’re looking to replace bog standard basics with more stylish ones, consider a new watering can and matching plant pots from Fallen Fruits, which offers a pretty patterned set of a can and three plant pots for £20 (www.qvcuk.com or phone 0800 50 40 30).

Burgon Ball also has stylish new ranges of forks, trowels, kneelers and other accessories, endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society. I particularly like the Chrysanthemum pattern, taken from the striking illustration of Chrysanthemum ‘Karashishi’ by the Japanese artist K Hasegawa, dating from 1891 and taken from the RHS’s Lindley Library.

The trowel and fork come in a beautiful printed box, featuring painted handles printed with the RHS logo and an engraving of the Gertrude Jekyll quote, ‘The love of gardening is a seed once sown, that never dies’ on the body of the trowel. Priced £19.95, they’re available from all good garden centres, RHS plant centres and www.burgonandball.com.

Gardeners who want to match their stylish new tools may want to chuck out their old wellies in favour of some natty new Kew Sprig ankle wellies from Cath Kidston. They don’t just look good, they are snug too, whether on the allotment, trudging through the snow or on their way to a summer festival. Made of rubber with a cotton inner, priced £35 in sizes 4-8, for stockist details visit www.cathkidston.com.

For new vegetable gardeners Mr Fothergill’s Get Growing range of seeds (£1.60 – £3.15) and kits, including herb pots (£1.49), starter collection boxes (£8.49) and mini windowsill propagator kits (£3.29) will make ideal stocking-fillers. For details go to www.mr-fothergills.co.uk.

For those who might want to attract wildlife to their garden, tell them to put the new BeeMat on their Christmas list. It’s a biodegradable, pre-seeded growing mat containing mixed flower seeds which aim to attract bees, including verbena, Californian poppy and borage among other varieties, and is available to plant from spring. As well as providing colour, the mat will also suppress weeds. For stockists visit www.beemat.com or call 01476 530374.

If you know a gardener who gets peckish while working in the garden, a selection of luxury biscuits in quirky tubes of ‘Keep Calm’ gardening themes may make the ideal gift. The tubes can be used to store plant labels, string and other gardening sundries long after the biscuits have been eaten (triple pack £13.99, www.thompson-morgan.com/ 0844 573 1818).

Gardeners who prefer to make their own produce may opt for an unusual new cheese-making kit from Suttons (www.suttons.co.uk/christmas), featuring everything you need to make fresh mozzarella and ricotta in under an hour, adding your own freshly grown herbs and spices to the cheeses. The kit has enough to make 10 batches and each batch weighs around 2lbs – that’s a lot of cheese for a kit costing £19.99.

Ornamental owls may have made their mark in the garden in the past couple of years, but now other animals are also gaining momentum. A new collection of solar powered metal silhouette animals including an elephant, horse, hare, peacock, duck, swan, pheasant, heron and cockerel cast both light and interesting shadows at night. Each contains an integral solar panel that powers a rechargeable battery that lights either a white LED or a colour changing LED at night. Ranging in price from £24.99 to £39.99, they are available from most leading garden centres. For details go to www.smartsolar.com.

Those who want to attract real wildlife into their garden can do so with a striking new Echoes bird bath from Suttons, a sturdy glazed ceramic piece in shades of dusky pink, brown and green, with matching feet. the first verse of William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence is inscribed around the edge. (£24.99, www.suttons.co.uk/christmas or 0844 922 0606)

If your loved one is more interesting in entertaining guests around the Christmas table than entertaining bird life, look no further than a dazzling miniature azalea tree from Thompson Morgan. The present features a double-flowered evergreen azalea (height 50-60cm/20-24in) shaped like a mini Christmas tree, branches laden with buds, delivered in a pot. The plant comes in either red or white (£39.99, www.thompson-morgan.com/ 0844 573 1818).

A sure-fire win for any gardener is an annual pass with the National Trust (www.nationaltrust.org.uk) to allow visitors to wallow in inspirational gardens, or an RHS membership (www.rhs.org.uk) which includes free garden visits, discounted show tickets and a monthly magazine. If they want to just increase their knowledge, opt for membership of Garden Organic (www.gardenorganic.org.uk) for access to specialist advice, reduced costs to join its Heritage Seed Library and free entry to RHS gardens.

News

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Gardening Tips from a Pro

Home and garden stylist Deborah Hill Herbertson was guest today at the Westport Woman’s Club as it hosted a tea and lecture with the Westport Garden Club and the Greens Farms Garden Club.  She is the design specialist at Terrain on Post Road East and is responsible for many of the indoor creations offered there as well as teaching a wide range of classes. Among her tips: think outside the box, take time. “I like to look around, forage,” she said. “I like using Mother Nature as my decorator. I never met a candle I didn’t love. Have a little fun.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

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Bulb planting time is upon us, but don’t forget to plant them all. Many of us buy bulbs and put them away for later planting, then forget them until spring. Planted then, they won’t bloom for a year.

Daffodils are good to plant, even in yards browsed by deer, for they’ll leave those alone. Rodents will also leave those toxic bulbs alone.

Scott Kunst, owner of Old House Gardens bulb and plant vendor (and repeat visitor to our area since his sister lives here) recently reported one of his customers had found a fast way to plant daffodils that was so successful she continues to do it. Previous owners of her home had left old baskets in the garage, and she had extra daffodil bulbs. She put a few inches of soil in a basket, added daffodil bulbs, and topped them with enough soil to come up to their tips. She watered them in, and put them in the unheated garage for the cold weeks of winter.

Southerners refrigerate those bulbs that require chilling, but we can let nature do that. Kunst’s customer brought the basket to her door stoop when winter moderated, the bulbs producing blossoms and foliage, adding spring charm to her front door area.

Inexpensive baskets that you could use for planters may be found at thrift stores. Some baskets will be sufficiently sturdy for re-use, but discard those that fall apart. Then plant the “basket bulbs” in the ground.

Tulip bulbs might also be planted in baskets or pots. If you plant them in pots, plant with the flat side of the bulb facing the rim of the pot.

USING WATER TANKS AS PLANT CONTAINERS

A recent insert in Sunset magazine shows a great idea: galvanized livestock water tanks used as plant containers. They’d need drainage holes drilled in the bottom, but there’s enough surface area in the tanks for diverse crops and sufficient depth for good root development.

Gardeners in parts of the country that have acidic soil shouldn’t use galvanized containers, but we don’t have that problem. Alkaline soil won’t deteriorate galvanized surfaces.

Such containers could be used for nursing home patients in wheelchairs or in locations where soil is unsuitable for growing vegetables such as on concrete or pavement, or even where caliche or lava tubes are close to the surface. There’s an area of Ada county, near Amity and Maple Grove, where lava tubes lie just a few inches below soil’s surface. Also in the southwestern part of the county, caliche is near the surface, and in some areas even atop the surface of the soil.

WATCH FOR MICE AND VOLES

If you gardened in straw bales last summer, and those bales are near your house, you may have a pending invasion of mice. Straw bales give them a safe, warm home to raise litters, then the young leave for other warm areas such as inside your home.

Watch for vole runs. If you haven’t seen them before, they look like an odd streak in your lawn about 2 inches wide, where voles have pounded a path from one garden bed to another, usually. Some of the longer grass blades may lop over the run, creating a tunnel for part of it.

Voles, also called Oregon meadow mice, burrow underground as well as run along the surface of soil. Voles are larger and slower than mice, but smaller than rats. They also have short tails; rats have long tails.

Voles establish home burrows where they rear their young. Since I’ve had no vole damage since adopting my Cairn terrier from the Humane Society, he apparently has wiped out home burrows in four areas of my yard. The holes he dug are large and about a foot deep, but he hasn’t damaged any plants, amazingly.

If you see mounds of earth pushed onto the surface, that’s not done by voles, but by gophers. They require different trapping techniques and larger traps than wood-based mousetraps used for voles.

BLOSSOMS IN AUTUMN

Shorter daylight hours have sparked blossoms on some of my primroses and even a couple of forsythia branches.

Margaret Lauterbach: melauter@earthlink.net or write to Gardening, The Idaho Statesman, P.O. Box 40, Boise, ID 83707

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