The Adirondack Garden: River Birches

Among the many challenges of creating your own Adirondack sanctuary is landscaping and gardening in a very short season in less-than-hospitable Zone 3.  On the one hand, it seems superfluous to be adding to an already awesome natural landscape, and we tried to keep as many trees as possible in building our house. But there is also a desire to add to what we have, to build a living legacy that can grow and develop over decades and beyond.  This is the first in a series of posts I will do documenting our fledgling Adirondack garden. This is a river birch planted in a wet area near one of our two bays.  It has done remarkably well.  Here it was just planted and is probably a few years old.  It is now four years later and the tree has flourished.  These trees seem to need lots of water, lots of sun and space to spread out.

In an Adirondack Garden: Hydrangea

It's an odd thing, gardening in a forest, trying to impose human will and design, order, on a landscape that will never be tamed. But we try to add color, order, more beauty all around our house. The deer stayed away from our hydrangea this year and the plants flourished. We cut them each week and put an arrangement in the guest room in a simple Daum crystal vase. The River Birches we planted also did quite well this season, but the hydrangea beat out everything for resilience and beauty. The flowers kept blooming, right up through October and Columbus day weekend. Plant hydrangea in your Adirondack garden and enjoy the color and fresh cut flowers throughout summer and fall. We have a long row of them as you approach the house and they are the perfect way to welcome our guests. They look as great in the woods as they do on our table.