12 Comments

Thank you for these thoughts! I wish you could see my garden...I'm just south of Peekskill, in case you ever come this way. The 1,630 daffodil bulbs I planted this past fall are blooming everywhere, new peonies, and waiting on many azaleas and rhododendrons, with daylilies growing strongly...this August I will have been here 50 years...I wonder if the Garden Conservancy would be interested in my garden, or if it's just not "finished" enough...

Take care...it's a wonder, and an honor, to read your posts...to be connected to you a little bit...thank you so very much for your caring presence, wisdom, kindness, always sharing your exceptional visions of beauty...

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Les - that is 10 minutes from me!

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Oh my goodness! Would you consider coming? The daffodils have moved past their zenith, the azaleas and rhododendrons are only starting, the dogwood buds are swelling and gaining color... Please, come for a visit?!

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Would you like to come for lunch? It would be lovely to meet you, and visit together...

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Yes! I go to Peekskill twice a week - alas no time for lunch becuase it is my busy work season. But a brief hello?

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Oh my goodness! This is wonderful!!! Yes, a brief hello...how excitingly marvelous!!!! You can survey what is here...a few azaleas/rhododendrons have bloomed, but the big blooming has not started yet...dogwoods are only half way there. This area seems to be a pocket with delayed blooming, maybe by a week or two. Phlox subulata is blooming now...so pretty soon for the best view of blooming plants! Daylilies from July to September...

Thank you so very very much, Jan...can't even express how much this means to me...I have had your books for years, instantly knowing that what you wrote spoke to the deepest parts of me...feeling like you were an ethereal soulmate. Figuring out stuff around here has been decades long challenges, even with your writings! I trust you will be tolerant of all the "undone" parts...this is what holds me back from speaking with the Garden Conservancy for an open garden...would people really like to come here? I don't know...

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Les - write to me at jan@johnsenlandscapes.com

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I, too, love this post. I use this concept of "smaller garden" for different areas of my larger 2 acre garden...I, too, have a Buddha, tucked under an almost 50 year old Serbian spruce, the first tree I planted here. My question is about the metal furniture. I have two vintage metal chairs...they are lovely, but I have not been able to figure out what color to paint them. Right now they are rusty white... I have thought of red, as there might be a red bridge in a Japanese style garden, but I don't have a bridge. I have thought of muted green or moss green. I know I don't want yellow, blue, black/brown.

I love the Buddha photo, and the dry stream bed...you must have moved, since I remember reading about the giant rock your husband wanted, was delivered and remained where they had put it (if I remember this story correctly!)...loved that story, because I, too, love rocks...

Happy Spring!

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Hi Les! I think a Sage green color would be nice. I would not do red - it grabs the eye a little too much- unless that is your objective. Playing with color is so fun! The Buddha is in one of my client's garden - it is a magnificent garden...

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Love this blog post. I would love a post about adding texture to the garden - favorite grasses and plants etc? Because I feel like I’m always adding flowers but it needs balance.

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I will post about grasses and other plants soon - thank you for the feedback! Jan

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Apr 28
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Oh no! The only way I have found it to trap them - my dear friend traps them and carries them far far away in her car. I am not that intrepid - another friend hires a guy named 'Trapper Dan'....

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