Shrubbery

This shrubbery is located between stable and house
I have always loved shrubberies and the shrubbers who shrub. We first experienced the massive shrubberies, always the best, in England. Shrubs and hedgerows greeted us everywhere, as we meandered across the island doing one of our Pubs & Gardens tours. I still have the itineraries. Gerry chose the pubs and I picked the gardens. So we went from National Trust Garden to pub, to another garden in the afternoon, and then to the pub where we would stay the night. We did that every year during most of the 90’s, and I got to see a lot of shrubberies, not to mention the Mecca of all gardeners – the Chelsea Flower Show in London.
At that time, we lived in Upper Bucks County in Pennsylvania, and never missed the Philadelphia Flower Show in March – even if we had to drive through snow storms to get there. Those 90’s were heady gardening days when I would come back from the garden shows, head straight to the catalogs, and begin ordering for the season in our garden at Hessian House on County Line Road. I did the whole lot: formal flowering borders, parkland, culinary, woodland, wetland and, above all else, SHRUBBERIES! My favorite was the massive mixed shrubbery planted along the road - mostly Viburnum and Holly, but I also had a lot of fun with hydrangeas. I met gardening soulmates, Marj Swenson and Polly Ivenz (Polly, the butterflies are in full fluttering flight right now here at the Finca). We also lived next door to organic gardening experts, Ana and Ken Kodamos, doctorate level scientists associated with Rodale Press and Lehigh University. They inspired me to go totally organic, though it wasn’t easy with the golf course-style gardener we had in Pennsylvania. Even so, those were the gardening days. I thought I knew something.
Then we moved to Costa Rica, and I got blown away by all the biodiversity here in the Tropics and had to study all over again.
Now Armando is helping us to plant a series of shrubberies all over the place but, this time, I’m mixing function with beauty. Is it beautiful and edible? Then we will always find room for it! Gardening in the Tropics is very different from the Zone 6 in Pennsylvania, where the dormant winter season gives us a bit of a rest. In Costa Rica, the dry season causes some plants to go dormant, but not all the insects, and the war goes on! Right now we’re in the rainy season - my favorite in terms of beauty. But we’re also at the height of horsefly season. We’re using Citronella repellants for the horses (and ourselves…), trying experiment after experiment to improve the concoction. The cream is effective but too short in duration. Now we’re thinking of weaving the citronella grass right into the manes and tails - making a kind of grass-enhanced tail that our horses can use like a broom - whack! If the scent doesn’t keep the flies away, then use the tail! Of course, the horses can whack a fly dead with the tail anyway, so what the hell am I talking about? Well, maybe the whacking will release more citronella in the air every time the horse whacks and, thus he won’t need to whack so often?
Oh, just forget about the whacking and get back to shrubberies. Tropical shrubberies are not subtle things - you have lots of big leaves and bright colors. The butterfly gardens are actually shrubberies. Even the Lantana grows to become a big shrub here, and develops spines! - just part of its adaptation to the tropical world. You have to methodically prune and remove certain incorrigible plants, or else the shrubbery can become a monster in very short order. I have learned many lessons, and made some appalling mistakes. Now I consult Armando before buying anything - we probably have it already - and he chooses where to plant. All I do is the rough design, and he’s even getting the swing of that! There’s no greater joy than gardening with someone who really understands nature - going with it rather than fighting it. It’s the old indigenous way, which my northern gardening pals might recognize as elements of organic gardening – but new ways for a lot of people.
Happy gardening out there!