Gardening Tips

One of my favorite autumn colorations in trees has to be the claret ash (Fraxinus Raywood). As the weather starts to get a little nippy, the green foliage starts to turn to a luscious deep burgundy color (or claret - whichever suits your fancy). It’s a lovely specimen of a tree, doesn’t have a large extensive spreading canopy like your elms but is a pretty feature tree all the same. The dense foliage gives good shade in summer. The leaves are pointed and elongated. It can grow up to 60′ so give it plenty of space.

The lovely claret leaves in fall

It was only this Easter holiday when we stayed at a quaint cottage in the mountains that I grew to appreciate how important the view from your kitchen window is (or any main windows in the house for that matter). I think as gardeners often we forget in our landscaping plans to feature in views from inside the house. I found the mundane chore of doing the dishes so much more enjoyable because there was this lovely view from the kitchen window!

Elements of this view that make it work? The interesting use of foliage colors. Flowers are for a season but foliage is forever. The lovely reds of the Japanese Maple, the meandering path that makes you wonder, ‘what’s on the other end?’ all work to lift your spirits from the day to day chores and leaves room for some dream time. This was a deep narrow garden so the deviation from using straight lines and the trick of shifting the focus on the depth of the garden with winding paths and accents which are above the eye (the tree canopy) makes for a very successful little garden plot. Delectable!