Oh the places I’ve been...

Although I haven't been blogging over the last years I have not stopped visiting as many gardens as time allows. Just last week while my family was skiing in Vail Colorado I walked through the Betty Ford Alpine Garden. As beautiful as it was in winter I hope I get to see it some day in full bloom.

Two years ago Andy and I went to Germany. We visited public gardens and stunning castle gardens but nothing was better than the visits to my Aunt's garden and my cousin's garden. I truly discovered my roots and the origin of my love of gardening.

I took many photos in the public gardens and the castle gardens. 

This blog is just an opening chapter to highlight some of the sights I've seen the last few years. With February winds blowing through our bare trees and howling down the chimney I thought I'd come up with a topic to fuel my garden dreams. Spring is just around the corner, or so we hope.

One of our more adventurous trips was this past August. We took a Harley Davidson trip to Nantucket where the gardens, window boxes and beaches took my breath away.

There were hikes in amazing places with wonderful friends,

Shopping in new "instantly favorite" locations,

and visits to family members where we swapped plants.

Sometimes there were just walks around our charming Centerport which is just chock full of lovely gardens. So check in every now and then and come along with me to the places I've been.

Ferns

It's beautiful out today. Well, let me clarify, it's beautiful for the end of January. I had a lovely walk around the neighborhood where I looked at all kinds of winter plant material. Coming back to my porch I noticed how nice this fern looked. It will take some digging around but this spring when I go over my plant labels I will take note of what type of fern this is and try to find more for my garden.

Ferns have been catching my eye quite a bit the last few years. Surprising to me is the many different conditions where I have found them thriving. Two years ago we traveled through Northern Germany. One of the castles we visited had real life grotto. Be still my beating heart! This combination of ferns and Wisteria is just stunning.

One of the first ferns I grew (back at Old Country Gardens) was the variety "Ghost". It grows well here in Centerport too, this last spring I learned that it's super easy to divide and hardly missed a step when replanted. I have not had the other ferns here grow as fast.

Here's "Ghost" with a purple Heuchera. I took this photo at the Peconic River Herb Farm, one of my must visit places here on Long Island. 

This nice green fern came without a name. That's because I dug it up in a field at our friends house in upstate New York. It's been happy for three or four years so I'd like to see some more come along. Maybe I have to go dig a few more...

One of my new experiments this past season was this perennial shade pot. I'm hoping these babies make it through the winter, in about 8 weeks I'll know for sure.

Another go around

So here I am again, trying to find a way to get back to my garden blogs. So much has happened since I last posted here. I married my wonderful Andy, making me Melanie Chopay. 

Thankfully Andy loves the outdoors too and we’ve hiked and walked through many a garden or nature preserve. Not only has my name changed but I also manage a bank, who would have guessed that? By the way this photo was taken in Hamburg Germany. 

I have two years of pent up photos and ideas to share, can’t wait to get them out to the world again. 

Love

Melanie

Peconic River Herb Farm

It's finally here! It's Spring!!

If only I could rush outside and see dew drops on my ladies mantle. Unfortunately most of our beds are still covered in snow or dusty leaves. It will be two more weeks before I uncover everything so right now I'm still living in anticipation mode.

Alchemilla mollis (Ladies mantle) is one of my "can't live without" perennials. I always explain it by saying it's like adding crown molding to a bare painted wall. Ladies mantle makes all of it's companions look fabulous. It's the ultimate tapestry plant.

There are no visions of sugarplums dancing in my head right now. The only visions are of the garden centers and nurseries that I will be visiting in a very short time. Luckily we have so many of them available to us here on Long Island. This year I hope to adventure out and try a few north and west of New York city too.

Peconic River Herb farm is a must visit nursery for any gardener on Long Island. Pack a picnic lunch and a chilled bottle of champagne, there's plenty of places to sit and have lunch.

I love all their quirky garden art like this planted wheelbarrow.

Last year it was cold and rainy when I visited the herb farm but it didn't stop me from taking photos and buying plants too. They have a fabulous selections of herbs (of course) but also a surprisingly large selection of perennials, annuals, shrubs and small trees. The staff there is super helpful too.

If you get to visit, save time to walk the large grounds. You'll find all kinds of plant combinations and ideas every which way you turn. There's many mature trees so you'll get lots of ideas for semi-shade areas if that's your style. I love this combination of Epemedium, Dicentra spectablis (bleeding hearts) and Podophyllum (May apples).

The rustic charm and sounds of nature will whisk you away to a place far far away from home. 

I can't wait to go back again this May. Maybe I'll see some of you there...

We are all bundled up inside while the wind and rain and sleet swirls around us. Long Island was under a blizzard warning today but temperatures rose just above freezing so it's pretty much rain now.

Spring is just around the corner and it's all I can do to keep from starting to clean up the garden. I've always been a perennial kind of gal but last season one of the stars of the garden was my Coleus on the front porch. You can bet I'm going to add more of these.

Sitting out on the front porch is one of  my favorite pastimes. You can see how small the Coleus was at first.

Total sun is hard to find here at our little cottage. Wherever I find it I tuck in some succulents.

The front curb was wasted space so it too became part of the garden.

This post is mostly a test, there have been so many changes to blogger that I'm playing around to see if I can post again. I miss my garden friends!

Rainy Day Garden Tours

Today was a tough day to be a gardener. I'm in the middle of a 3 months shift at work that has me covering Saturdays. In exchange I get a day off during the week and I've promised myself to spend the day as a gardener. Drizzle, fog, rain and temperatures in the high 40's were a challenge but I refused to back down. First stop was SUNY Farmingdale, they were having a plant sale and my daylily friends would be there. This place is just magical to me.

The large kitchen gardens are still waiting for most of it's plant material to arrive but there were still lots of things to see like this cracked but still beautiful trough.

Tucked into a wooded walk was a cheerful spring planting combination.

So much blue, I just love it!

The white trees were perfect with the underplanting of blue. The challenge was taking good photographs as I was protecting my camera from the weather and my fingers were numb.

A large planting of Allium reminded me that before their spectacular blooms the foliage already poops out and gets quite ratty.

A nice little woodland walk

This spot was perfect, I could have taken a dozen photos here.

Pulmonaria in all it's glory! This is a plant I need to get for our cottage garden.

Well one thing for sure, when it rains the Alchimella molls (Ladie's mantle) is going to show off!

Next stop was Peconic River Herb Farm all the way out in Calverton. The rain was more steady here and my poor fingers really froze but I still took my time and checked out every corner of this heavenly place.

I don't think it's possible to take a bad photo of this potting shed.

Early spring bloomers were competing for attention. Epimedium, Dicentra and May Apples, oh my!

The grounds were empty, only a half dozen employees busily filling every nook and cranny with new plants for Mother's Day coming this Sunday. 

How do you like this window box? I just adore it.

One more close up look. So yes, I'm back, I've got a darling cottage garden and I'm going to write all about it. Today's post was driven by all the photos I shot today but no worries, I'll be sharing all kinds of information on perennials that do well here for me.

Arctic Blast! Not at Planting Fields Arboretum

This past Autumn we spent a wonderful afternoon at Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay NY. While all the outside plant displays were magnificent as always, it was the greenhouses that took our breath away.

This morning we awoke to a fridgid 4 degrees, talk about cold! It's one of the coldest winters I can remember, the salt water bays of Northport, Centerport, Cold Spring Harbor and Huntington are frozen solid. One place though that I know is warm is inside the greenhouses at Planting Fields Arboretum, I can't wait to get there again.

The plant displays change in the green house from season to season although the large main-stay plants are always there. I'm not going to try to list the plant names, tropical plants are not my expertise.

The best lesson I've learned from tropical gardens is how important foliage color and form can be. Who needs flowers with a combination like this?

I couldn't resist it, this is the same shot just a little closer. I'm in love with all these patterns, colors and textures.

Being that this was fall, there were quite a few Chrysanthemums in the display. I'm not complaining.

There are benches and ledges scattered around, it's easy to find a place to sit. I keep promising myself to come back here with a book and just relax for a few hours. It's something I've put on my bucket list.

If you have time, there's side rooms with different temperatures and air conditions. You'll find a dry room with cacti, an orchid room and a room filled with begonias. There's probably even more rooms, I haven't made the full tour in a number of years.

There's no reason to sit inside and complain about the snow and ice, get yourself over to Planting Fields Arboretum and soak up some plant life!

melanie