The January 3 meeting of the Garden Club of Woodbridge began with lunch, followed by a critique of romantic designs, which were submitted by several members of the club.
After the critique guest speaker, Amy Sampson, residential and commercial landscape designer, who owns AES Landscape Design and Consultation in Cheshire, presented “English Garden Design.” English garden design includes herb gardens, knot gardens, parterre gardens, cottage gardens and Victorian gardens.
Some information gleaned from Amy’s slide presentation: harvesting of herb gardens should be done in early morning and shouldn’t be watered late in the day. Cottage gardens should not have wasted space – grounds, walls, fences are covered, and have a relaxed vibe. Knot gardens have a very formal design in a square frame, and consist of a variety of aromatic plants/culinary herbs. Parterre gardens are part of a formal garden with symmetrical patterns, plant beds, low hedges or colored gravel, separated by paths. Victorian gardens have bold and complimentary colors blooming together.
Dave Christensen, owner of Christensen Landscape Services in Northford, introduced himself at the garden club meeting on February 7. Dave stated that his company has been in business since 1981, and offers full-service landscape and design services.
Christensen’s Josh Frick, Residential Account Manager, and Joe Ross, Arborist, presented slides on “Pruning 101.” Josh discussed pruning basics, reasons to prune, pruning practices (and mistakes), gardening tools, correct and incorrect ways of pruning (he suggested stepping back from the item to see what to remove and to determine the structure you desire). Joe presented reasons to prune trees, importance of knowing your tree, facts about nodes and budding, and mistakes made during tree pruning. It was mentioned that after pruning, removing various branches at the top of the plant/tree will let in air and sun. Both Josh and Joe indicated that sun, water and most importantly air are very important for the health of trees/shrubs.
Contact for the garden club is Mary Jane at [email protected], if there is an interest in joining.
