Boxwood Workshop planned for March 5th

Care and Restoration of 

Boxwood and other Shrubs

Sat. March 19, 2016        9:00 – 2:00

donation: $25.00 including a boxed lunch

t    benefit the restoration and improvement of the Burt Stark Grounds

9:00 - 11:00 – Abbeville Civic Center classroom

11:00 – 12:00 – lunch

12:00 – 2: 00 –hands-on at the Burt Stark House gardens

Topics to be discussed:

·        identifying the types of boxwood

·        problems with boxwood shrubs

·        how and when to prune and shape boxwood

·        proper care of tools when pruning boxwood

·        how to rejuvenate an old or damaged boxwood

·        care and fertilizing boxwood shrubs

·         how to propagate more boxwood from your cuttings

Instructor:

James Hodges, Clemson Extension Agent Greenwood Co.

Contact information

Send all information with check made to Burt Stark House by March 11 to 

BSH Boxwood Workshop

c/oDavid Whitmire 106 Greenville Street, Abbeville, SC 29620

For questions you can email us at burtstarkhousegardens@gmail.com

Name: ____________________________________________________________

Address: __________________________________________________________

                 __________________________________________________________

Email: _________________________________

phone: (        ) - ______- ­­­­­­­­­­___________

Sponsored by the Abbeville Historic Preservation Commission 

View of the Front Gardens

Here is a view from the upper porch using my teenager's GoPro camera. The fisheye lense shows a complete view of the front yard including the driveway path, the boxwoods, and the front gate area. In the photo you can clearly see the difference between the boxwood on the left and right sides. My goal is to restore and fill in the outer and the inner boxwood hedges, to fill and restore the gravel drive path, and to establish new herbaceous perennial beds inside the edges of the lawn.

Below is the view from the front gates looking back toward the front of the house. Again, you can see the clear difference between the two sets of boxwood hedges. The front yard is designed in a long tear drop shape this end being the point of the tear drop and the largest rounded end near the front steps of the house.

To Everything there is a Season

    Work continues inside the house spring cleaning and preparing for this summer's tourist season, and work continues outside the house too. Weeds need to be pulled now while everything is dormant and flowers have not begun to bloom. Below is the poundage of sticker bryer roots pulled from underneath just one gardenia bush. This process has been repeated in every flower bed around the house. 

     Next, there is several years worth of privet hedge growing in the outer garden beds in amongst the fig trees, and roses. They are fairly easy to pull out if young enough, and don't put up a real fight even if well established, but it will still be a monumental task.

     On a happy side note - pecan seeds from the best, old pecan tree have rooted and could become future landscape trees to replace some trees that are aging and will need to come down at some point. It is good to know that original plants and trees can be grown and be ready to repopulate the grounds.
     In the photo you see that this seed was soaked and started on Dec. 21 - so it only took two shorts months to cokes it to life. The life of a gardener is not a fast paced life.
To everything there is a season...

The Kitchen Garden begins - Cleaning behind the Old Kitchen

 Years worth of old junk has been stored behind the Old Kitchen. In preparing for our new Kitchen Herb Garden all that junk needed to go. Everything was freshly raked and all the original urns were stored safely under the side of the building for use later. Our next step will be to move the mound of dirt and debris to fill in some eroded places on the grounds. Fencing needs to be purchased and set in place, organic matter added to the soil, beds need to tilled. There is much more to do, but this is first step towards our new garden.

Pruning the Crape Myrtles here at the Burt Stark House

In the photos below to the left are the before shots of the Crape Myrtle Beds and to the right are the after shots. The ladder is 10 feet tall. Crossed branches were cut, anything that was growing toward the house was clipped as far up as could be reached.

    Before Right Side

 After Right Side    

    Before Left Side

 After Left Side    

Hopefully this pruning will create a pleasing canopy of shady leaves. The aspidistra "Cast Iron Plants" need the shade to keep from them from getting sunburned. The gardenias need the light and air to fill in and bloom successfully. The hydrangeas should also benefit from a little afternoon shade from the hot summer sunshine.

No Murder Here

 GOPRO image of the front of the Burt Stark House. It is time to trim the crape myrtle trees which were way overgrown and touching the house this past summer. If you look very carefully at the left side of the picture you can see the gardener at work. It was a beautiful and toasty day in late January. Much pruning and cutting was done but no one committed crape murder.

This is a view of the front yard here at the Burt Stark House. I hope to spend a lot of time here this spring and summer. Restoration of the double boxwood borders is first on the list, then I hope to begin work on herbaceous borders lining the inside box hedges. It is a lofty goal that may take years. I look forward to the challenge. Several fund raising events are planned, more on that later.
(Photo credits to my teenager)

Newby Hall UK - Fantastic Herbaceous Borders

Newby Hall UK - Fantastic Herbaceous Borders