ferns and woodland flowers.
Freely draining soil is essential so if you have a clay garden you may need to put in extra drainage. The site will also need to be cleared of perennial weeds.
Don't just position your stone randomly, think hard about the design of your rock garden.
Boldness works well so make it as large as possible and do not position it near formal areas such as rose gardens and bedding displays.
If you use limestone or sandstone they will have clearly defined strata lines so position the rocks with these lines lying horizontally, as you'd see them in their natural environment.
Once you have the rocks in place don't rush to plant. Leave the garden for a couple of weeks, giving the soil time to settle.
When considering which plants to use remember that the rock garden offers a range of habitats for different specimens.
Vertical crevices are perfect for rosetted plants such as saxifrages and lewisias which dislike water sitting around their necks, while level areas suit bulbs and upright perennials like aquilegias and primulas.
Mat-formers like thyme also favour flat surfaces and are particularly effective tumbling over the rocks.
You can also use spot plants like dwarf shrubs and conifers but it is best to limit the number as they can overwhelm a scheme.
Do not overcrowd plants and remember that mat-formers will spread vigorously. For the crevices use small, young plants that will easily fit the tiny spaces.
Make sure there is sufficient soil in the crevice, then gently squeeze in the plant at a tilted angle with the roots pointing downward.
When planting is completed mulch the surface with 2cm of horticultural grit.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Life Mag
GARDENERS seem to love them or hate them. I'm talking about rock gardens and as someone who rather likes them I was surprised to see gardening personality Chris Beardshaw say on a recent television programme that he really disliked them.
I have an ally, however, in top horticulturist Kathryn Bradley- Hole whose splendid book 'Stone, Rock and Gravel' contains detailed instructions for building and planting a rock garden.
'Wherever stone is abundant it can be put to good use in the garden,' she writes. 'When used well it enhances our connection with the natural world and the garden's sense of place in its surroundings.'
Once you have identified a suitable site for your garden you need to choose your rocks.
Try to blend them in with the local landscape, selecting stone from the immediate environment.
Local quarries may have piles of stones rejected by the building industry but suitable for gardens. Reclamation yards can also be profitable hunting grounds.
Once you have ordered your rocks ensure your site is prepared so you can get them in place as soon as they are delivered.
Your site should be as open, bright and sunny as possible. A sloping site is ideal as this gives better drainage and looks more natural.
Don't despair if you only have a shady area, just select plants that prefer that particular environment, such as ferns and woodland flowers.
I have an ally, however, in top horticulturist Kathryn Bradley- Hole whose splendid book 'Stone, Rock and Gravel' contains detailed instructions for building and planting a rock garden.
'Wherever stone is abundant it can be put to good use in the garden,' she writes. 'When used well it enhances our connection with the natural world and the garden's sense of place in its surroundings.'
Once you have identified a suitable site for your garden you need to choose your rocks.
Try to blend them in with the local landscape, selecting stone from the immediate environment.
Local quarries may have piles of stones rejected by the building industry but suitable for gardens. Reclamation yards can also be profitable hunting grounds.
Once you have ordered your rocks ensure your site is prepared so you can get them in place as soon as they are delivered.
Your site should be as open, bright and sunny as possible. A sloping site is ideal as this gives better drainage and looks more natural.
Don't despair if you only have a shady area, just select plants that prefer that particular environment, such as ferns and woodland flowers.
Home Garden Design Workshop
Spring arrived three days ago - on the calendar, at least. That may be a tease to garden buffs itching to do more than thumb through plant catalogs.
That's why the first hands-on gardening workshops of the new season are so appealing. One of them, offered at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Elm Bank Education Center in Wellesley, will create transition between garden daydreaming and realistic planning for the growing season ahead.
Garden designers Mary Dewart and Maria von Brincken will try to inspire gardeners in a "Connecting with Nature: Creating Gardens of Meaning and Beauty Intensive Home Garden Design Workshop." The two- day workshop, offered April 4 and 12, incorporates exercises on the Elm Bank property and in the classroom there, too.
"To be a good designer, you have to have everything from the big picture to the smallest petal or blade of grass in mind," Dewart said. "We plan to introduce people to several ways to get in touch with the big picture."
Von Brincken said the workshops would begin with opening exercises designed to "free up the imagination." Weather permitting, participants might go out into the landscape and discover the elements - from the shade cast by trees to hardscape under their feet - that grab each gardener's attention.
Dewart said the group will also learn to observe archetypal aspects of the landscape and discover which ones appeal to each gardener. For instance, some people might feel drawn to semi- enclosed places that represent safe harbors. This might be achieved in the garden by installing a terrace surrounded by perennials. Others might respond more to garden areas that serve, in a broad sense, as promontories. Examples of promontory spaces include an overlook and a plot that juts into a larger garden area. Still, other green thumbs might point to the cave as an appealing archetype. A garden outgrowth of this might be a pergola surrounded on three sides by shrubs.
After discovering the kind of spaces that make them comfortable and the archetypes that they respond to, workshop participants can return to the classroom and make simple constructions, using cardboard, of overall garden forms. They will then move to two- dimensional drawings.
Using color wheels and other materials, Dewart and von Brincken will help participants create garden designs that please the eye and engage the other senses, too. Even if the home landscapes at their command are sited around a house and driveway instead of the rich landscape of Elm Bank, the goal is for gardeners to learn a process that they can apply to creating meaningful garden designs.
That's why the first hands-on gardening workshops of the new season are so appealing. One of them, offered at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Elm Bank Education Center in Wellesley, will create transition between garden daydreaming and realistic planning for the growing season ahead.
Garden designers Mary Dewart and Maria von Brincken will try to inspire gardeners in a "Connecting with Nature: Creating Gardens of Meaning and Beauty Intensive Home Garden Design Workshop." The two- day workshop, offered April 4 and 12, incorporates exercises on the Elm Bank property and in the classroom there, too.
"To be a good designer, you have to have everything from the big picture to the smallest petal or blade of grass in mind," Dewart said. "We plan to introduce people to several ways to get in touch with the big picture."
Von Brincken said the workshops would begin with opening exercises designed to "free up the imagination." Weather permitting, participants might go out into the landscape and discover the elements - from the shade cast by trees to hardscape under their feet - that grab each gardener's attention.
Dewart said the group will also learn to observe archetypal aspects of the landscape and discover which ones appeal to each gardener. For instance, some people might feel drawn to semi- enclosed places that represent safe harbors. This might be achieved in the garden by installing a terrace surrounded by perennials. Others might respond more to garden areas that serve, in a broad sense, as promontories. Examples of promontory spaces include an overlook and a plot that juts into a larger garden area. Still, other green thumbs might point to the cave as an appealing archetype. A garden outgrowth of this might be a pergola surrounded on three sides by shrubs.
After discovering the kind of spaces that make them comfortable and the archetypes that they respond to, workshop participants can return to the classroom and make simple constructions, using cardboard, of overall garden forms. They will then move to two- dimensional drawings.
Using color wheels and other materials, Dewart and von Brincken will help participants create garden designs that please the eye and engage the other senses, too. Even if the home landscapes at their command are sited around a house and driveway instead of the rich landscape of Elm Bank, the goal is for gardeners to learn a process that they can apply to creating meaningful garden designs.
Thursday, March 9, 2006
Just a quick note
I had expected to have a few days to get this a little more organized...but based on the Little Girl Lost diary...all I can say is wow!
The love and encouragement for speaking out is awesome. So...I'll work on this all weekend and pull more info into this space.
Any readers with stories to share...this is a safe place to post. I will post your stories with your blogger ID or as anonymous...your choice.
Thanks for all the support...
The love and encouragement for speaking out is awesome. So...I'll work on this all weekend and pull more info into this space.
Any readers with stories to share...this is a safe place to post. I will post your stories with your blogger ID or as anonymous...your choice.
Thanks for all the support...
Little Girl Lost
This is written with love for those that have lived this story and those that love the ones that have lived this story. I always recommend reading this with a box of Kleenex handy...but that's just because I always need them. This is a response to a dear friend with love in my heart.
Choices were made by a little girl - decisions well beyond her years. The choice was to escape violence and sexual abuse. The choice was to not live with incest as her sister had. This is a little girl's story...and a woman's.
- - -
Then
Many years ago a little girl was growing up in what seemed to be an average family. Her parents worked and provided a place to live and food to eat. She had siblings to play with, toys and books of her own, and a dog in the yard that gave big sloppy kisses when she came home from school. She had pretty dresses and other clean clothes to wear. The family went to church and Sunday dinners with relatives. The little girl went to school and studied hard and got straight A's for years. These were well behaved children - always please and thank you, never speaking out of turn, and always quiet around adults.
This little girl's life was full of hidden pain and fears.
At home, where no one could see, was so much more. Where no one could hear were threats and fears. There was psychological and physical abuse - including sexual abuse. There were beatings for doing things wrong - a slap, a fist, a belt. Verbal threats were constant including threats of death if the little girl ever told anyone. There was sufficient violence that death, on occasion, was what the little girl wanted most. Her mother knew of the violence but not the sexual abuse. The sexual abuse / molesting started at about age 6. There is no reason to go into details. It was an adult with a child.
Her mother was also a victim of the violence if she interfered. During this time - ages of about 5-13 - some of the beatings were for showing and responding to the pain and hurt. When the tears would flow the beatings would escalate. This little girl was told that tears were a sign of weakness. So, in self defense, the tears stopped except when she cried herself to sleep.
After a violent incident that left permanent physical scars, the tears stopped altogether. The heart stopped feeling. The soul of a child had been broken. Walls of self-protection had finally been built high and thick around what was left of the little girl's being.
This self protection was by aloofness, by silence, and by apparent acceptance of the status quo. To all who met this little girl she appeared composed and well adjusted. She was none of the above. She was beyond hurt and had moved to anger and defiance beneath the surface. Her mind sought ways to avoid home, she looked for someone to tell, for someone to trust with her story - even if it meant her own death.
One fateful day the little girl turned openly defiant at home. She confronted her abuser with her hate and defiance. The beating was bloody - but she did not cry.
That day she told someone and they told the police. They were all appalled at the marks of the violence on this small child. She did not cry when she told the police. She did not talk about the sexual abuse. It was never talked about. That same day her father committed suicide rather than face the police. There was the funeral with all the family present. They bought a new dark dress for the little girl to wear - dark brown with ruffles. Then she sat dry eyed and defiant in the front pew with the rest of the family. Defiant as the relatives whispered behind her about her causing her father's death.
For the next 4 or 5 years, the young girl grew into a smart and confident young woman. Confident in her ability to survive the ostracism from her family and church. Stronger every time the accusations and whispers returned about her responsibility for her father's death. Strong enough to survive without any of them. She had decided it was better to be alone or lonely than to be hurt. Sometimes there was anger and rage and defiance against those that accused her. No tears were ever shed.
At age 18 this young woman left home. It was the only way she felt was available to her for change. She joined the Army and the women she met changed her life forever.
Living with dozens of other women 24 hours a day touched her as never before. She met others and they talked late into the night on many occasions. Lots of these women had been through the same things she had and sometimes more. Most of the women did not cry. Each had developed a sense of survival that was stronger than any could possibly realize. Over the next few years more women entered her life. Women that shared their stories and gained strength from the knowledge that they weren't alone. These were women that gave unconditional love and support knowing that their shared experiences gave them strength.
With all this love and support came an acceptance of the past. It cannot be changed but we can change ourselves. We can accept our defiance and use it to our advantage to fight for others. We can accept our strong and confident selves and pass that confidence on to others. We can love ourselves and learn to give love to others. These women changed the young woman.
One day - the tears returned. These were tears and great wracking sobs that almost tore this young woman apart. The tears returned among these women she called friends. These friends held her as the walls of protection came tumbling down. Friends that stayed but stepped back when she needed time to re-group because they knew the process. Tears make you vulnerable and they are scary. The tears intermixed with anger and rage and defiance. Yet the friends never wavered. And so the healing began for the little girl trapped in a woman's body. The young woman ultimately sought help from professionals and more tears flowed. Many other things have happened during the intervening years cause the woman pain. Yet the tears have flowed freely as an acknowledgement of the cleansing and healing process.
Today the woman is strong and confident in her ability to stand alone. She is just as confident in her ability to stand with others and give love freely. There is still defiance and rage against those that would hurt others. She is defiant and strident in her defense of victims - against whatever is the source of their pain. Tears flow freely now - for any that hurt or are in pain and, on occasion, for the little girl lost.
Now
- - -
This story is not written in the first person intentionally. Someone else, Diane101 I think, put forth the idea that "if you don't like your past then re-write it". This is the story of the little girl I was but not the woman I am.
This is the story of little girls that I met when they were grown women but not the women they became. Each of us chose to take a path of healing including permanently walking away from people and places that caused our pain. Each of us chose to walk the path to a place beyond being a victim to a place of strength. There are lessons we learned, strengths we gained, and most of all, love that we learned to share. Most of us now speak openly and publicly to help others that walk similar paths. We are here to reach out to help and love others. All those little girls lived in another place and time but each has been brought forward, protected and cared for, by the women that we became.
I give this story to my friend and to friends yet to be made. Let the tears flow freely for all of us as a symbol of strength and healing.
Rant Every time you think about the South Dakota law...look at the picture of that little girl.
Remember that she survived sexual abuse from the time she was 5 or 6 years old until she was almost 14.
Remember that she could have lived with incest and could have been pregnant AND had to carry the baby.
Remember not just that she survived BUT someone died because of this abuse. It was self-inflicted but someone died.
So each day I rage and fight and will continue for each and every little girl.
Blessed Be
This has been cross posted at Daily Kos and Booman Tribune. Originally posted at Village Blue with a different title and with some edits added here.
Choices were made by a little girl - decisions well beyond her years. The choice was to escape violence and sexual abuse. The choice was to not live with incest as her sister had. This is a little girl's story...and a woman's.
- - -
Then
Many years ago a little girl was growing up in what seemed to be an average family. Her parents worked and provided a place to live and food to eat. She had siblings to play with, toys and books of her own, and a dog in the yard that gave big sloppy kisses when she came home from school. She had pretty dresses and other clean clothes to wear. The family went to church and Sunday dinners with relatives. The little girl went to school and studied hard and got straight A's for years. These were well behaved children - always please and thank you, never speaking out of turn, and always quiet around adults.
This little girl's life was full of hidden pain and fears.
At home, where no one could see, was so much more. Where no one could hear were threats and fears. There was psychological and physical abuse - including sexual abuse. There were beatings for doing things wrong - a slap, a fist, a belt. Verbal threats were constant including threats of death if the little girl ever told anyone. There was sufficient violence that death, on occasion, was what the little girl wanted most. Her mother knew of the violence but not the sexual abuse. The sexual abuse / molesting started at about age 6. There is no reason to go into details. It was an adult with a child.
Her mother was also a victim of the violence if she interfered. During this time - ages of about 5-13 - some of the beatings were for showing and responding to the pain and hurt. When the tears would flow the beatings would escalate. This little girl was told that tears were a sign of weakness. So, in self defense, the tears stopped except when she cried herself to sleep.
After a violent incident that left permanent physical scars, the tears stopped altogether. The heart stopped feeling. The soul of a child had been broken. Walls of self-protection had finally been built high and thick around what was left of the little girl's being.
This self protection was by aloofness, by silence, and by apparent acceptance of the status quo. To all who met this little girl she appeared composed and well adjusted. She was none of the above. She was beyond hurt and had moved to anger and defiance beneath the surface. Her mind sought ways to avoid home, she looked for someone to tell, for someone to trust with her story - even if it meant her own death.
One fateful day the little girl turned openly defiant at home. She confronted her abuser with her hate and defiance. The beating was bloody - but she did not cry.
That day she told someone and they told the police. They were all appalled at the marks of the violence on this small child. She did not cry when she told the police. She did not talk about the sexual abuse. It was never talked about. That same day her father committed suicide rather than face the police. There was the funeral with all the family present. They bought a new dark dress for the little girl to wear - dark brown with ruffles. Then she sat dry eyed and defiant in the front pew with the rest of the family. Defiant as the relatives whispered behind her about her causing her father's death.
For the next 4 or 5 years, the young girl grew into a smart and confident young woman. Confident in her ability to survive the ostracism from her family and church. Stronger every time the accusations and whispers returned about her responsibility for her father's death. Strong enough to survive without any of them. She had decided it was better to be alone or lonely than to be hurt. Sometimes there was anger and rage and defiance against those that accused her. No tears were ever shed.
At age 18 this young woman left home. It was the only way she felt was available to her for change. She joined the Army and the women she met changed her life forever.
Living with dozens of other women 24 hours a day touched her as never before. She met others and they talked late into the night on many occasions. Lots of these women had been through the same things she had and sometimes more. Most of the women did not cry. Each had developed a sense of survival that was stronger than any could possibly realize. Over the next few years more women entered her life. Women that shared their stories and gained strength from the knowledge that they weren't alone. These were women that gave unconditional love and support knowing that their shared experiences gave them strength.
With all this love and support came an acceptance of the past. It cannot be changed but we can change ourselves. We can accept our defiance and use it to our advantage to fight for others. We can accept our strong and confident selves and pass that confidence on to others. We can love ourselves and learn to give love to others. These women changed the young woman.
One day - the tears returned. These were tears and great wracking sobs that almost tore this young woman apart. The tears returned among these women she called friends. These friends held her as the walls of protection came tumbling down. Friends that stayed but stepped back when she needed time to re-group because they knew the process. Tears make you vulnerable and they are scary. The tears intermixed with anger and rage and defiance. Yet the friends never wavered. And so the healing began for the little girl trapped in a woman's body. The young woman ultimately sought help from professionals and more tears flowed. Many other things have happened during the intervening years cause the woman pain. Yet the tears have flowed freely as an acknowledgement of the cleansing and healing process.
Today the woman is strong and confident in her ability to stand alone. She is just as confident in her ability to stand with others and give love freely. There is still defiance and rage against those that would hurt others. She is defiant and strident in her defense of victims - against whatever is the source of their pain. Tears flow freely now - for any that hurt or are in pain and, on occasion, for the little girl lost.
Now
- - -
This story is not written in the first person intentionally. Someone else, Diane101 I think, put forth the idea that "if you don't like your past then re-write it". This is the story of the little girl I was but not the woman I am.
This is the story of little girls that I met when they were grown women but not the women they became. Each of us chose to take a path of healing including permanently walking away from people and places that caused our pain. Each of us chose to walk the path to a place beyond being a victim to a place of strength. There are lessons we learned, strengths we gained, and most of all, love that we learned to share. Most of us now speak openly and publicly to help others that walk similar paths. We are here to reach out to help and love others. All those little girls lived in another place and time but each has been brought forward, protected and cared for, by the women that we became.
I give this story to my friend and to friends yet to be made. Let the tears flow freely for all of us as a symbol of strength and healing.
Rant Every time you think about the South Dakota law...look at the picture of that little girl.
Remember that she survived sexual abuse from the time she was 5 or 6 years old until she was almost 14.
Remember that she could have lived with incest and could have been pregnant AND had to carry the baby.
Remember not just that she survived BUT someone died because of this abuse. It was self-inflicted but someone died.
So each day I rage and fight and will continue for each and every little girl.
Blessed Be
This has been cross posted at Daily Kos and Booman Tribune. Originally posted at Village Blue with a different title and with some edits added here.
Monday, March 6, 2006
So. Dakota - where victims are punished
The legislature in the state of South Dakota passed legislation that prohibits all abortions except for cases that may cost the life of the mother. Today the Governor of South Dakota signed that atrocious piece of legislation. The impact of this legislation is that in addition to being assaulted during rape, by being brutalized by incest, and all the wounds and scars - women will be subjected to carrying babies to term. 9 months of additional trauma to the victims....but the State of South Dakota doesn't care. They are willing to abuse women and girls even further. There are no words for how appalled I am at this legislation - and it's assault on women and children.
Where I Stand:
Abortions are a medical procedure between a woman and her doctor.
What is truly appalling is that this legislation even made it this far. See what the mainstream media has to say here.
Where I Stand:
Abortions are a medical procedure between a woman and her doctor.
What is truly appalling is that this legislation even made it this far. See what the mainstream media has to say here.
From the Planned Parenthood site:
Yes the law will be stopped immediately because of legal action by Planned Parenthood of South Dakota. All eyes have been on South Dakota since February 22, when the state Senate approved a bill to ban nearly all abortions. Governor Mike Rounds (R) has indicated that he will likely sign the bill into law.
Planned Parenthood plans to file a lawsuit soon after the bill becomes law to keep it from going into effect. The ban clearly violates Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision that found it unconstitutional for states to ban abortion. The ban's supporters are hoping the case will ultimately reach a newly formed Supreme Court, potentially prompting a majority of justices to overturn Roe.
Anti-choice forces in South Dakota are on a mission to make the state the most hostile to reproductive rights in the country. And sadly, as a recent state task force on abortion revealed, they are not too far from reaching that goal.
The story below (linked), which originally ran in Choice! Magazine on December 22, 2005, provides an eerily prophetic look at how South Dakota became the first state since 1992 (Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey) to adopt a direct challenge to Roe.
Planned Parenthood plans to file a lawsuit soon after the bill becomes law to keep it from going into effect. The ban clearly violates Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision that found it unconstitutional for states to ban abortion. The ban's supporters are hoping the case will ultimately reach a newly formed Supreme Court, potentially prompting a majority of justices to overturn Roe.
Anti-choice forces in South Dakota are on a mission to make the state the most hostile to reproductive rights in the country. And sadly, as a recent state task force on abortion revealed, they are not too far from reaching that goal.
The story below (linked), which originally ran in Choice! Magazine on December 22, 2005, provides an eerily prophetic look at how South Dakota became the first state since 1992 (Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey) to adopt a direct challenge to Roe.
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