Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 60
G Flexibility Pays Dividends
text and photos by elizabeth hunter
mountain
garden
in what might be called the "garden whisperer" approach,
there's much to be said for letting the plants have
a role in the plans.
back in early spring, I had great
plans to attack the chaos below the
old smokehouse that stands at the
edge of my clearing. A huge mulberry
I loved once dominated that area. In
fall, its leaves turned golden, then
dropped in spectacular fashion,
sometimes in a single afternoon. But
its trunk hollowed out where it
forked a few feet above the ground,
and, when it threatened to fall on the
smokehouse, I made the heartbreaking decision to have it taken down.
Tree service workers chunked the
trunk and largest limbs into firewoodlength pieces; I had to split and haul
them to the house. A neighbor and I
did part of that work, but the largest
chunks remained and were gradually
buried beneath the blackberries,
roses, honeysuckle and buckeye saplings that came up among them.
I had only begun with my cleanup
when a pair of phoebes built a nest in
the lower level of the smokehouse.
Every time I came down to work, they
went nuts, so, for the month it took
their eggs to hatch and the nestlings
to fledge, I worked elsewhere. By the
time I returned, a jungle confronted
me. Cleanup would have to wait 'til fall.
Which turned out to be a good
thing, because the roses I had begun
hacking away at when the phoebes
interrupted me weren't multifloras,
but the old fashioned rambling kind.
Inadvertently, I'd eliminated enough
of their competition for them to show
their stuff. Draped prettily over the
old mulberry stump and the wood I'd
never removed, in mid-June they
bloomed lustily. Behind them, blackberry canes were loaded with berries.
There was no way I could reach them,
but the birds and other wildlife would
enjoy them.
Back when I started gardening, I
60 | BlueRidgeCountry.com
Old-fashioned rambling roses, accidentally spared, bloomed exuberantly around
and over the old mulberry stump.
lessOns TO learn
sTaying yOUr HanD
My garden is forever teaching me lessons like the one involving the rambling roses.
The spring before last, trying to help cardinal flowers establish along a forest edge, I
removed everything around them. That fall, some tall, yellow-flowering plants lit up the
woodland beyond the cardinal flowers. Close inspection revealed them to be one of the
plants I'd been yanking. This spring, I spared them, wanting their yellow and the cardinal
flower's scarlet in closer proximity. A suggestion: If you're clearing an area, leave one or
two specimens of plants you don't recognize. If they turn out to be undesirable, remove
before they set seed.
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Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014
BRC Unlocked
From the Editor
From the Farm
Creature Feature
Great Buys
Country Roads
Festivals & Events
50 Great Things to Do in the Mountains this Fall
Photoessay: The Crispness of the Air and of the Leaves
Roanoke, Va.: A Resident Enjoys her Town as a Visitor
Blue Ridge Parkway Views: The Detail
Cyrus McCormick: The Agricultural Industrial Revolution Began Here
Locavore Dining: It’s All in the Details Right Out Back
Mountain Garden
Cabin in the Woods: Hidden Mountain Resort
Guest Column
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Intro
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Cover1
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Cover2
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 3
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 4
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - BRC Unlocked
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - From the Editor
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 7
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - From the Farm
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 9
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Creature Feature
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Great Buys
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Country Roads
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 13
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 14
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 15
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Festivals & Events
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 17
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 18
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 19
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 20
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 21
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 22
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 23
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 50 Great Things to Do in the Mountains this Fall
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 25
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 26
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 27
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 28
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 29
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 30
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 31
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 32
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 33
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Photoessay: The Crispness of the Air and of the Leaves
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 35
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 36
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 37
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Roanoke, Va.: A Resident Enjoys her Town as a Visitor
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 39
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 40
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 41
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 42
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 43
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 44
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Blue Ridge Parkway Views: The Detail
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 46
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 47
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 48
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 49
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Cyrus McCormick: The Agricultural Industrial Revolution Began Here
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 51
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 52
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 53
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Locavore Dining: It’s All in the Details Right Out Back
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 55
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 56
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 57
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 58
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 59
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Mountain Garden
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 61
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 62
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 63
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Cabin in the Woods: Hidden Mountain Resort
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 65
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Guest Column
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Cover3
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - Cover4
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