Serenity in the Garden

  I wrote this post in my new substack 'Jan Johnsen's Gardentopia'  - go here to read it and see the photos: https://janjohnsen.substack.com/p/music-for-the-eye?s=w

Life moves on and so do I. I am going from being a Blogger to a 'Substacker'! Please follow me there: Go to Jan Johnsen's Gardentopia   and please subscribe.  Every week I will post something of interest to garden lovers and garden designers. I started my new substack with a great quote. It is why I share all that I do. Please follow me on Substack. "The world is moving into a phase when landscape design may  well be recognized  as the most comprehensive of the arts. Man creates around him an environment that is a projection into nature of his abstract ideas." - Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe

rose hips photo by Jan Johnsen  Allow your roses to form hips.   Did you know that, like  many plants that produce fruit, the formation of rose hips is a signal to the rose to go dormant for the season? from Monrovia - Japanese rose  Rose hips provide wonderful color in the garden and are a good source of vitamin C for birds in the fall and winter.  They are one of the highest plant sources of Vitamin C. 'Cherry Pie' Rose makes great rose hips: Oso Easy Cherry Pie Rose -from May Dreams Garden Blog  You can eat them too. Rose hips are used for jam, jelly, syrup, soup, beverages, pies, bread, and wine.  They can also be eaten raw if care is used to avoid the hairs inside the fruit.   The redder they are, the softer and sweeter.   source: live by the sun blog  for more info on roses go to Chris Van Cleave - click here . 

Gaudi’s Curves The visionary Barcelona architect of the early 20th century, Antonio Gaudí, studied the spirals and curves of nature and utilized them in all his projects.   Gaudi, unlike other architects of his time, did not rely on rigid shapes. Consequently his buildings feature columns spiraling up like trees and ovoid windows peering out onto the world.   They are remarkable in their organic glory. Looking up in the Sagrada Familia cathedral. source- wiki commons. Gaudí’s love for curves is on full display in his Parque Güell, a municipal park on the outskirts of Barcelona. Here, he incorporated twisting paths, imaginative colonnades and naturally formed staircases into a steep hillside.  I took this photo of his famous colonnade there - based on a wave's action.  Gaudi copied Nature.          photo on left - Jan Johnsen The large open public area at the center of the park is surrounded by a long, curving wall and a bench covered wi...

In one of my earlier blog posts I wrote about the Native Americans' Three Sisters Garden (corn, beans and squash )  but I neglected to tell you of the Fourth Sister ...a very important member of this family! This is from Hubpages :  "Fourth Sister, didn't look anything like her other sisters, although she was as tall and as slender as First Sister (corn) . That seemed fair to all, because Third Sister and Second Sister shared similar but different features. They could climb and run, while their other two sisters were forced to stand tall and proud." Mother Sun explained that each sister had her job and each had to benefit from and protect one another.  But Fourth Sister's job was most important of all -- for she was the guardian of the North , planted firmly, to protect others from the robbers who soon would come. The fourth sister was the elegant sunflower. The Sisters are known to the Native Americans as the “mothers...

  Montrose White Calamint from Rare Roots I wrote this post years ago and now, in 2021, Lesser Calamintha has been named 2021Perennial Plant of the Year...  So here is my post on it and my prediction that - someday - it will be recognized.  #prescient    The thing to do is PLANT FOR THE BEES .   So if you join me on that important bandwagon I suggest you plant -  Dwarf Calamint 'Montrose White'   ( Calamintha nepeta spp nepeta 'Montrose White'). Calamintha is an herb that's native to Europe and is used in cooking in Italy under the name nepitella. This plant, I predict, will be a  'Perennial Plant of the Year'.  Why? because it is a hardy (to USDA zone 4) and delightful flowering perennial plant that is  deer resistant.   YAY! Photo from Nursery Management  Calamintha nepeta spp nepeta 'Montrose White'  was named by Mike Yanny of Johnson’s Nursery in Menomonee Falls, Wis.  Yanny’s wife purcha...