D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
June 2010
Voyeur in Flagrante
Visiting the multifaceted Vinson garden.
A garden voyeur is not someone who watches nudes frolic lasciviously around a bird bath. No, the quintessential garden voyeur, including myself (after all, there are three "v's" in my name), is aroused by garden making that shows creativity and consummate plantsmanship.
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Hoi Toi, a joyful Buddha statue,
sets a tone of welcome in the Asian room of the Vinson garden. |
A voyeur relishes the passion of the constant gardener — that down-in-the-dirt custodian who plants with sweaty integrity — not charlatans nor wannabes who call their domain "my garden," when the real work is done by paid help.
The relentless voyeur regards incapacitation or death as the only excuses for being a weed slacker. Furthermore, in this situation exemptions are granted only for gardens that encompass vast land holdings, e.g., Italian villas, French chateaux and English manor houses.
Like a vampire pursuing blood, an evolved garden voyeur hankers for gardens created by those with impeccable credentials and outstanding reputations. Only a voyeur — not Garden Design magazine nor PBS Saturday morning television — can decree whether a garden has a fully realized impact.
With all this in mind, I accepted an invitation to view the decade-old garden of Regina and Steve Vinson, ostensibly to report on the herbs and edibles section. The Vinsons, owners of the recently revived Silver Heights Nursery, share 25 years of experience in the trade.
Located in White Signal, on terrain partial to scrub oak and yucca, the provenance of the Vinson residence is sensitively designed suburban architecture romanticized with a walled garden and peak-through gates. "Peaking" foretells of surprises within.
The couple estimate that they have gardened three-quarters of an acre of their five-acre holding, including two growing areas for their nursery stock.
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The Hinman & Layne
Home, a century-old structure and landscape, can be viewed on Sunday,
June 6, from 1 to 5 p.m. as one of several stops on the Evergreen Garden
Club's annual tour. Seeing the garden's gnarly box elders is worth the
$5 ticket price alone. Ditto the curvy Renaissance flower beds that once
displayed lilacs and still contain showy rose bushes. Be sure to ask
the knowledgeable current owners not only about the garden's history,
but also neighborhood lore. 1-5 p.m. Tickets available at Dunn's Nursery,
the Farmer's Market and Mimbres Farms Greenhouse and Nursery. |
The entrance to the Asian garden, a small area adjacent to the bedroom window, sits on a pathway through a tall hedge of Amur privet (Ligustrum amurense). The hedge creates privacy and delineates a garden room designed for tranquility.
Regina is fond of this ligustrum species, native to China, because of its deep green color and scented, spring-blooming flowers. Better still, the privet is deer-, drought- and wind-tolerant.
A Buddha statue of "Hoi Toi" — his palms extended upward in greeting — beckons the visitor into an atmosphere of sanctuary. Planted behind Hoi Toi is a Golden Raindrops Crabapple distinguished by its yellow fruit in fall and leaves that resemble oaks. A low bench by a wall bespeaks rest and contemplation. From a tiny pond rimmed with flat stone comes the soothing drip of a bamboo water spout.
Other trees chosen for their scale, form and foliage include a Japanese maple, "Prairie Fire" crabapple and Mugo pine. Low-to-the-ground sedum, Prince of Wales juniper (turning purple in autumn) and a potted Ponderosa pine provide green throughout the year.
On the opposite side of the house from the Asian landscape sits a kitchen garden, the primary step to tasty, nutritious dining. The vegetable section boasts an eight-foot trellis for vining tomatoes (Lemon Boy and Super Sioux). Edibles ranging from sweet mix lettuces (Regina grew spicy mixes for the past two years) to bok choy, radishes and beets grow in a raised bed containing two feet of good soil. Cucumber and spinach are beginning to sprout.
Regina prefers to cultivate Fortex green beans because they can be eaten when they're very small or 10 inches long. She praises this stringless French bean for its tenderness at either size.
Due to space restrictions she cultivates eggplant and peppers in the growing area beyond the wall.
The herb section got underway after Steve dug a 200-square-foot bed and tilled in a soil amendment consisting of compost, bone meal, alfalfa meal and green sand (a mined product containing 32 trace elements plus potash).
The edibles section is situated to take advantage of midday sun and allows the Vinsons to plant what they want. This includes a raspberry patch nestled beside a sunny gate. Regina remarks that "the raspberries rarely make it inside the house."
Two perfectly pruned fruit trees — a Gala apple and "Belle of Georgia" white peach — offer both respite for shade plants and a cool, secluded seating area. "Around here," comments Regina, "pruning is a team sport."
During the hottest part of summer, the herbs are watered once a week for an hour using a bubbler system of hard PVC pipe. Regina uses a handheld hose to water the vegetable garden every other evening.
She does not grow apothecary herbs, only culinary ones, including Italian and curly parsley, lemon balm, lovage, sage, rosemary, lavender, English and lemon thyme, cilantro and Greek oregano.
Beet & Potato Salad with Tarragon Mayonnaise Steam bite-sized pieces of fresh beets and yellow potatoes. Let cool, then splash with vinaigrette. Chop tarragon leaves and add to mayonnaise. Mix everything together and taste-test for flavor. (If you're a big "foodie," make the mayonnaise from scratch.) Consult Julia Child's recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking for exact measurements. (Check next month's Southwest Gardener column to learn about the French vs. Mexican tarragon controversy.) |
On Thanksgiving Day, sage for turkey dressing as well as parsley and thyme are still available. The parsley reseeds so prolifically there is always plenty on hand.
Herb chores include pruning the lavender after it blooms. When the oregano and lemon balm grow out of control, Regina digs up portions of each plant.
Tarragon and pineapple sage provide the Vinsons with their two favorite summer treats: beet and potato salad with tarragon mayonnaise (see box) and homemade vanilla ice cream la ananas (pineapple).
While the Vinsons snack on salad and ice cream, their two cats and dog repose in a chain-link pet castle festooned with trumpet vine and a paw-comfy fescue lawn. Steve designed a high wooden perch that is approachable via a cluster of oak limbs.
All aspects of the Vinson's landscape deserve description, including their skill at blending the vistas outside the walls with the plantings within them. But this happy voyeur retains images of the multifaceted spread as a prime illustration of gardening a good life.
Southwest Gardener columnist Vivian Savitt gardens at Ditch Cottage in Silver City.
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