Touring Cricket Hill Garden - What a sight! by Jenna Messier

Dan Furman, Manager of Cricket Hill Garden

     Yesterday was a lovely afternoon to stroll through Cricket Hill Garden and view a fantastic display of blooming peonies which blanket the cleared hillsides. Located in Thomaston, Connecticut, the nursery is situated on a forty acre parcel reminiscent of a zen sanctuary - complete with pond, ducks, woodlands and terraced gardens.  Dan Furman led the tour and provided guests with a history of peony culture, basic growing procedures and he identified the many varieties in bloom before our eyes.  Some of the Chinese varieties have been cultivated for over a thousand years!
     According to Dan's fact sheet, there are many good reasons to grow peonies beyond their gorgeous flowers such as they are drought-resistant, deer resistant, and extremely long-lived.
There are three types of peonies; tree peonies, herbaceous peonies and intersectional peonies which are a cross of the first two types.  Peonies prefer sun, but the tree peonies can live in partial shade, too.  Dan prefers to use Neptune's Harvest Organic Fertilizer, azomite rock powder and an annual application of compost to maximize peony growth and vigor.

Deep red peonies are cherished

This pink is so vibrant

 

     
 I saw evidence of many organic land care best practices at Cricket Hill Garden, which I wanted to highlight. Dan uses ground covers, some of which could be considered weeds, rather than having sterile beds of endless mulch.  White clover, sedums, mustard greens, and many other plants surround the bases of the peonies.  To some this looks weedy, but Dan says he likes to let other plants live among the peonies and hold back the pressure from more invasive weeds.

Jack in the pulpit are everywhere!

Milkweed and clover for pollinators

New at Cricket Hill Garden, Dan has been propagating fruit trees and selling the young stock.  He offers Asian Pears, Nanking Cherries, Paw Paws, and smaller fruits like raspberries and elderberries as well.  Dan has been trialing different cultivars, specifically when they are marketed as Zone 3 plants, although Dan reminds us not to believe everything you read! He has some small Medlar Trees and apricots as well.

A Small Medlar - a European fruit from the rose family

Paw paw with grafted varieties

     

















I suggest you make a trip to Cricket Hill Garden to experience the magical place for yourself. But if you cannot, they can ship you peonies when the plants are dormant to ensure a successful transplant.
Go to treepeony.com and check out what they have to offer.  The hard part is selecting which peonies are right for your garden, with so many cultivars to choose from!

Umbrellas shade the peonies to prolong bloom time

Glass sculpture from Mundy Hepburn add to the beauty

Dan uses Root Pouches, made of recycled materials

Rows of young fruit trees

Growing Plants and Gratitude Inside Prison Walls: Out and About with AOLCP Kate Lacouture

 by Kathy Litchfield

PROVIDENCE, RI – Kate Lacouture didn’t set out to spend several days a week locked inside towering stone walls, planting basil, rosemary and zucchini alongside maximum security inmates without parole.

       

     Yet she has found that throughout her 20-year career as a landscape architect in San Francisco and her native Rhode Island, working with groups and teaching them to grow food has proved one of the most rewarding things she’s ever done.

            

“I feel like these are important life skills that seem to have been lost to this generation of kids and young adults.  A lot of my inmates remember gardening with their grandmothers. And the women that leave prison are all excited about starting their own gardens and that makes me so happy,” said the Yale graduate who earned her master’s in landscape architecture from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in 1994.

          

OLC Chat's Tonight 4/24 with Priscilla Hutt Williams

Happy Belated Earth Day!

The OLC Chat Series  will be moving to Thursdays @ 8pm  with our first talk TONIGHT 4/24. The new conference line is 1-631-482-9099 that can be accessed via phone or computer. This week I will be talking with Priscilla Hutt Williams. 

Out & About with AOLCP Melissa Miles

by Kathy Litchfield

Employing “Common Sense” Principles for a More Positive, Permanent Future

PHILADELPHIA, PA -- Melissa Miles shared one word when describing her first job out of college – “awful!”

An environmental engineer at an oil refinery, she spent hours after work freeing geese stuck in oil pits that weren't supposed to be left open and driving them to a bird rescue in Delaware.

“It was perhaps the best example of the worst we've done, but a really good experience for me to see that first hand,” said the Philly native who has dedicated her life’s work to permaculture design, ecological restoration, green building and environmental activism.

Composting really is fun! - by Jenna Messier

I have 3 compost bays in my back yard, the center bay is made of wood and the outside two bays were easily added with wire fencing and a few metal posts.  Honestly, it is extremely easy to make compost. Especially if you have little kids who waste a lot of food, their scraps always go to feed the worms and critters in the compost pile which makes me feel so much better!

3 bays for cycles of compost, boards will cover top to limit moisture

Embracing Organic Land Care – One Design at a Time Roots…

 Part I:

Embracing Organic Land Care – One Design at a Time Roots…

By Michael McCleese, AOLCP

Twenty-five years ago I took a job on a landscape crew as an out of shape, burned out social worker.  It was a particularly hot summer and I’ll never forget what it was like hefting 24” balled and burlapped boxwoods out of a trailer onto a planting bed.  I was used to carrying a pager, talking on the telephone, and having long lunches with co-workers.  Landscaping was tough. The sun was brutally hot. The work was hard and physically demanding. Sweat and grime soaked my clothes and at the end of the day; I was really, truly hungry.  As the weeks passed, leathery calluses began to replace the blisters on my soft palms.  I noticed something else that summer while I dug holes and mulched and edged and planted. As the calluses got tougher and my body slimmer, I started seeing colors in the garden, not just green, but 40 kinds of green and 20 kinds of yellow and lavender and blue!  I began to notice venation in leaves and that some shrubs and trees had exfoliating bark on their limbs and trunks.  Then the big surprise, I started noticing shapes and textures and grade changes in the landscape. Amazing! A garden designer was born!

Out & About with AOLCP Mike Wallick

Out & About with AOLCPs

Award-Winning Organic Turfgrass at the University of Texas at Austin

by Kathy Litchfield

Mike Wallick

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Someone once asked Mike Wallick if he knew what an “expert” was. The answer he received was “someone more than 50 miles from home, with a briefcase.”

As West Campus Supervisor for Landscape Services at the University of Texas at Austin for the last seven years, Wallick knows that diplomas and degrees carry weight. His brand new NOFA accreditation (PA course, 2013) is increasing his credibility not only among his colleagues and superiors, but within the greater Austin community.

“Becoming accredited is the career accomplishment I am most proud of, as it reveals a holistic approach to the concept of ‘land care’ and outlines the program for us to align ourselves with the natural processes at work and/or help to restore those processes,” he said.