Lobstering
RUSTY COURT, A LONGTIME LOBSTERMAN, AND HIS SON EVAN INTRODUCE THE STATE AND LOBSTERING TO GARDEN SMART. It's a beautiful August day on the coast of Maine and the weather is divine. Rusty tells us that July, August and September are very handsome but as it moves into winter it's a different story. But lobstering is a year round endeavor. Probably 50% of the guys that fish out of this town will fish right through winter. That can be difficult and sometimes dangerous.

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Water's Edge Garden
There is a lot of diversity here, and there are some challenges. Egypt has sand, Maine has a lot of rock ledges and tough surfaces. Interestingly, DON POINTS OUT THAT THE GARDEN STARTS AT THE SEASHORE, AT THE WATER'S EDGE. The guys take a closer look. Here they notice and discuss a wide variety of seaweed as well as the rock features which are abundant throughout all of Maine gardens. Over time the rock breaks down and becomes sand and pebbles and with that comes incredible pieces of what Don calls "God's rock garden." Certainly rock gardens are used throughout Maine because they're plentiful, but additionally the wonderful things that wash ashore like driftwood, pot buoys, etc. are great to incorporate into the garden.

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Front Doormat Garden
Joe and Don move up the hillside to a more traditional garden space. THIS GARDEN IS IN FRONT OF THE MAIN BUILDING, it's a large perennial garden that Don refers to as a working garden because the flowers are used for cuttings that become the table arrangements in the restaurant at night. It is also the front doormat of the Inn, it's the first thing that people see as they arrive. The building is fairly large, 2 and 1/2 stories, so these beds are fairly large to match the scale of the building. The bed lines are laid out so that they flow and become part of the seaside landscape. The beds don't have rigid lines, instead they're quite fluid in their layout and design. And the beds are beautiful.

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The Herb Garden
THE HERB GARDEN, located outside the kitchen is another traditional garden, and it makes particular sense in this resort setting. In many resorts the herb garden may be tucked away because they often are not the prettiest to view. At certain times of year, certainly after the crops have gone by or have been picked through, the garden can look quite bare. Here the guests enjoy the garden, in fact it was decided that in the new layout the main pedestrian path leading to the woods would go right through the herb garden. The guests will often see Chef Al picking Oregano, Thyme or whatever he needs for his recipes, it's a true working garden. The guests are encouraged to get involved with the gardens, they've been invited to weed or to dead head the plants which helps the growth of perennials in the fall and spring. As a reward the Inn shares those plants with their guests, they're welcome to take cuttings or divisions of perennials.

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Combining Different Elements Into A Garden
THE NEXT BED IS NICE LOOKING BUT APPEARS TO BE A NEWER GARDEN. This garden was a response to the new units being incorporated into the Inn's master plan. They've certainly been positioned to maximize the views of the water. Importantly, the garden has been redone to introduce some of the elements of the formal gardens we saw in front but as well has combined elements of the woodlands gardens in the back. It is a nice technique. Since the path leads to the woodlands gardens, they have incorporated some Conifers and Spruces while blending in some of the plants viewed earlier which were closer to the water. This is a concept that can be utilized at home, blend the best of both worlds.

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Introduction To Frogsleap
THIS HOME AND GARDENS ARE CALLED FROGSLEAP. Joe meets Gail, the gardener that takes care of this garden. She has been here 20 years working with the owner. Gail is a self taught gardener, has had a few classes here and there and is always learning. Gail has gardened her whole life and enjoys it a lot. This garden requires constant maintenance and planting. Thus Gail has several part time ladies that help in this endeavor, plus the owner is very involved with her garden. The owner says she "has plants that follow her home" thus they're constantly finding little spots here and there to put those plants. Keeping up with weeding and planting new plants is a constant challenge.

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Fragrance Garden
Joe barely gets started on the garden tour when a few feet in he wants to stop and take it all in. Here he notices an incredible fragrance. And that wasn't by accident. THIS GARDEN WAS PLANTED FOR FRAGRANCE. The first fragrance is the Rhododendron Azalea. They've planned for successive fragrance. For example, early in the spring it starts with Daffodils which are chosen for fragrance, then as the season progresses it's Peonies and Lilacs, then Roses and Oriental Lilies.

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Succession Planting
THEY'VE EMPHASIZED SUCCESSION PLANTING THROUGHOUT. Certainly with blooming plants. It is later in the season thus the Echinacea is coming into bloom. Heucheras are blooming continuously, the Coral Bells are added to carry through some of the leaner times as are the Cosmos and the Verbena. The butterflies add a double punch because they too are colorful. The flowers provide great color, then the butterflies come in, all provide that long season of color.

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Lily Leaf Beetle
They don't have a lot of pest control problems. Diverse planting helps immensely, resulting in a robust garden. One of the biggest pest control problems they face here is the LILY LEAF BEETLE. It is moving up from the Boston area and devastating their Lilies. The adult Lily Leaf Beetle is bright red, the larva is a little slug like looking thing that buries itself in its own excrement. Thus it's unpleasant to rub against and does tremendous damage to the lilies, the larva alone can devastate a plant in a weeks time. Gail will either hand pick the beetles or larva, squish them or douse them in soapy water.

Click here for more info

Perennial Garden and Deadheading
Gail and Joe next look at a BEAUTIFUL PERENNIAL GARDEN. This bed was developed with a white, yellow and blue theme. Even the Vaccinium Blueberries in the background, which are ripe with blueberries, carries the theme. It's fairly late into the summertime, yet everything is in full bloom and every plant has many blooms. Gail actively deadheads, not only to improve the looks of the plants but to encourage continuous blooms. As an example, the Echinacea purpurea Echinacea if pruned down to a leaf node will send up shoots from that area and get new blooms, which means they will bloom for an additional month to month and one half. If not deadheaded this time of year the garden would look bare and barren, plus Gail would at least want to deadhead the expired flowers to make the garden look better. The point of dead heading is - the plant is going to seed, if you stop the ability of the plant to go to seed, it will send up another flower. Deadheading is directly responsible for generating the new growth.

Click here for more info

 

LINKS:

Spruce Point Inn

Garden Smart Plant List

Complete transcript of the show.

Maine is a beautiful state with plenty to see and do but it has a relatively small population of about 1.23 million people, per 2000 figures. In spite of the small population a lot happens in the state, 99% of the blueberries in the country come from Maine as do 90% of the lobster.
RUSTY COURT, A LONGTIME LOBSTERMAN, AND HIS SON EVAN INTRODUCE THE STATE AND LOBSTERING TO GARDEN SMART. It's a beautiful August day on the coast of Maine and the weather is divine. Rusty tells us that July, August and September are very handsome but as it moves into winter it's a different story. But lobstering is a year round endeavor. Probably 50% of the guys that fish out of this town will fish right through winter. That can be difficult and sometimes dangerous.
Rusty provides a little insight into the job. They typically get to the boat about 6 AM, pick up fuel, pick up lobster bait then it's off to the hauling area. They fish different areas, if the wind's blowing hard they might work an inside area, if a beautiful day they work out around the islands. Lobstermen follow an unwritten law in the state of Maine, they don't go over the line and into the next town. Each lobsterman is allowed to have 600 traps per boat and they're allowed to put the traps most anywhere in their zone. They haul 200 traps a day. For example on Monday they'll haul 200, then 200 Wednesday, then 200 Friday. They try to give the traps a 2 or 3 day set, maybe a 4 day set. In other words they stay on the ocean floor for 2-4 days before they go back to them. If the lobster are running, like last week, they'll pick up speed and try to haul more traps or pack in more days doing it. A pound to a pound and one half in each trap is a good haul. If Rusty could retrieve 200 pounds of lobster in a course of a day that would be a good day. In the wintertime the catch goes down as the water gets colder, but the price goes up. Joe thanks Rusty for the lobstering lesson and returns to shore.
Joe is happy to be back on solid ground, surviving what will probably be the closest that he'll ever be to a version of Deadliest Catch. He is joined by Don Layton. Don is a landscape architect with connections all over the world but with roots in Maine. Don was licensed as a landscape architect in 1980 and has worked throughout New England. But because landscape architecture is important to resort planning his firm has found themselves in Egypt for the last 13 years. It's interesting work because a lot of work there is dealing with the planning of pieces of property that are nothing but desert. They frequently start from scratch on many of those projects. The projects in Maine are quite different. Here they have lots of varied, wonderful things, like the seaside to work with.
Don shows us an historic Inn in Boothbay, Maine. It was built in 1894 as a hunting lodge, and was such a popular place for people coming up from New York that by the 1920's they began charging. Thus it became an Inn. It evolved in the 50's, 60's and 70's as quite a place to be. People like the Kennedy's, Hubert Humphrey, those sort of people, frequented the facilities quite a bit. Around the 1980's it underwent a facelift, new gardens, etc. and that upgrading has continued through today.
Top

There is a lot of diversity here, and there are some challenges. Egypt has sand, Maine has a lot of rock ledges and tough surfaces. Interestingly, DON POINTS OUT THAT THE GARDEN STARTS AT THE SEASHORE, AT THE WATER'S EDGE. The guys take a closer look. Here they notice and discuss a wide variety of seaweed as well as the rock features which are abundant throughout all of Maine gardens. Over time the rock breaks down and becomes sand and pebbles and with that comes incredible pieces of what Don calls "God's rock garden." Certainly rock gardens are used throughout Maine because they're plentiful, but additionally the wonderful things that wash ashore like driftwood, pot buoys, etc. are great to incorporate into the garden. Don has seen people from landlocked states come to the seaside for the first time, they'll often stand there for hours and hours discovering the varied life forms. For example, tidal ponds are wonderful features that allow different creatures to survive while the tide is out and provide a wonderful place for kids to explore. As one works their way up the shoreline plants that have attached to the rocks become apparent. And, they serve an important role, erosion control is one of the most important. These gardens with Roses, Bayberry and Sweet Fern are extremely important for keeping shorelines in place. Otherwise a lot of the roads and homes would be running down the shoreline. Buffer gardens are an important because they hold back a lot of erosion yet they're still beautiful. A great combination, beautiful and functional.
Top

Joe and Don move up the hillside to a more traditional garden space. THIS GARDEN IS IN FRONT OF THE MAIN BUILDING, it's a large perennial garden that Don refers to as a working garden because the flowers are used for cuttings that become the table arrangements in the restaurant at night. It is also the front doormat of the Inn, it's the first thing that people see as they arrive. The building is fairly large, 2 and 1/2 stories, so these beds are fairly large to match the scale of the building. The bed lines are laid out so that they flow and become part of the seaside landscape. The beds don't have rigid lines, instead they're quite fluid in their layout and design. And the beds are beautiful.
Top

THE HERB GARDEN, located outside the kitchen is another traditional garden, and it makes particular sense in this resort setting. In many resorts the herb garden may be tucked away because they often are not the prettiest to view. At certain times of year, certainly after the crops have gone by or have been picked through, the garden can look quite bare. Here the guests enjoy the garden, in fact it was decided that in the new layout the main pedestrian path leading to the woods would go right through the herb garden. The guests will often see Chef Al picking Oregano, Thyme or whatever he needs for his recipes, it's a true working garden. The guests are encouraged to get involved with the gardens, they've been invited to weed or to dead head the plants which helps the growth of perennials in the fall and spring. As a reward the Inn shares those plants with their guests, they're welcome to take cuttings or divisions of perennials. There is a real synergy between guests and the maintenance staff to keep the gardens looking great.
Don shows another space that typifies how the resort industry has changed. This area has a wonderful view of the water, it is a rather large space, a deck. In earlier times this was a croquette and badminton area but is now what they call the wedding deck. In the resort industry weddings are big, as are corporate retreats and large decks, large terraces are used to accommodate these outdoor events and are important to the success of the resort. This space is surrounded on 3 sides by units that blend in with the woods, but opens up to an incredible view of the ocean. It is a fun place for as few as 6 people but can accommodate 250 people. This area makes the point that landscapes are always in transition, they're dynamic. They should be ever changing based on the needs of the homeowner, as they are here, based on the needs of the Inn. Whether to accommodate a successful business or to accommodate your children as they grow older, the back yard, the landscape, will always to be changing.
Top

THE NEXT BED IS NICE LOOKING BUT APPEARS TO BE A NEWER GARDEN. This garden was a response to the new units being incorporated into the Inn's master plan. They've certainly been positioned to maximize the views of the water. Importantly, the garden has been redone to introduce some of the elements of the formal gardens we saw in front but as well has combined elements of the woodlands gardens in the back. It is a nice technique. Since the path leads to the woodlands gardens, they have incorporated some Conifers and Spruces while blending in some of the plants viewed earlier which were closer to the water. This is a concept that can be utilized at home, blend the best of both worlds.
As the guys continue down the path they arrive at the woodland setting. This woodland setting is perched on 42 acres of untouched Maine woodland. It has 2 and 1/2 miles of trails. Thus, this land goes from the seaside gardens to these woodlands trails. It is truly a Maine experience and very special for those visiting the Spruce Point Inn.
Joe thanks Don. He has provided a very unique perspective on gardening and garden design. We'll always remember this seaside garden. Very unique, and beautiful.
Joe is off to visit another Maine landscape, this a residential setting. From an estate garden that predates the 1900's to a residential garden that's barely 30 years old, is a dramatic shift. And this residential garden has an amazing story. At first it was accessed only by water, then slowly but surely the couple that owns the property carved out of dense woodlands, the gardens. The gardens that have evolved are truly beautiful.
Top

THIS HOME AND GARDENS ARE CALLED FROGSLEAP. Joe meets Gail, the gardener that takes care of this garden. She has been here 20 years working with the owner. Gail is a self taught gardener, has had a few classes here and there and is always learning. Gail has gardened her whole life and enjoys it a lot. This garden requires constant maintenance and planting. Thus Gail has several part time ladies that help in this endeavor, plus the owner is very involved with her garden. The owner says she "has plants that follow her home" thus they're constantly finding little spots here and there to put those plants. Keeping up with weeding and planting new plants is a constant challenge.
Top

Joe barely gets started on the garden tour when a few feet in he wants to stop and take it all in. Here he notices an incredible fragrance. And that wasn't by accident. THIS GARDEN WAS PLANTED FOR FRAGRANCE. The first fragrance is the Rhododendron Azalea. They've planned for successive fragrance. For example, early in the spring it starts with Daffodils which are chosen for fragrance, then as the season progresses it's Peonies and Lilacs, then Roses and Oriental Lilies.
Top

THEY'VE EMPHASIZED SUCCESSION PLANTING THROUGHOUT. Certainly with blooming plants. It is later in the season thus the Echinacea is coming into bloom. Heucheras are blooming continuously, the Coral Bells are added to carry through some of the leaner times as are the Cosmos and the Verbena. The butterflies add a double punch because they too are colorful. The flowers provide great color, then the butterflies come in, all provide that long season of color.
Top

They don't have a lot of pest control problems. Diverse planting helps immensely, resulting in a robust garden. One of the biggest pest control problems they face here is the LILY LEAF BEETLE. It is moving up from the Boston area and devastating their Lilies. The adult Lily Leaf Beetle is bright red, the larva is a little slug like looking thing that buries itself in its own excrement. Thus it's unpleasant to rub against and does tremendous damage to the lilies, the larva alone can devastate a plant in a weeks time. Gail will either hand pick the beetles or larva, squish them or douse them in soapy water.
Top

Gail and Joe next look at a BEAUTIFUL PERENNIAL GARDEN. This bed was developed with a white, yellow and blue theme. Even the Vaccinium Blueberries in the background, which are ripe with blueberries, carries the theme. It's fairly late into the summertime, yet everything is in full bloom and every plant has many blooms. Gail actively deadheads, not only to improve the looks of the plants but to encourage continuous blooms. As an example, the Echinacea purpurea Echinacea if pruned down to a leaf node will send up shoots from that area and get new blooms, which means they will bloom for an additional month to month and one half. If not deadheaded this time of year the garden would look bare and barren, plus Gail would at least want to deadhead the expired flowers to make the garden look better. The point of dead heading is - the plant is going to seed, if you stop the ability of the plant to go to seed, it will send up another flower. Deadheading is directly responsible for generating the new growth.
The next bed is similar but has some differences. This bed has blues fading into whites along with pinks and lavenders, in the style of the Gertrude Jekyl English style border garden. As a general rule each spring this garden comes back, but sometimes with the unpredictable Maine winters they may lose half the garden. In a worst case scenario, if they don't come back, they replant with new perennials and at that point, if desired, they can effect a different look. Then in a short time the garden responds and flourishes.
Joe thanks Gail for the garden tour. This truly is a stunning garden. Joe is envious of Gail's job, what a great location and garden. Good work.
Both gardens visited in this show took existing spaces that were already beautiful, then improved them with appropriate plant choices. We also saw how garden rooms were connected with transitional spaces, where plants were used from both areas. That concept applied to a garden from the turn of the century as well as one that was relatively new. There were many interesting and valuable gardening lessons discussed in this show, many should be considered in your yard and garden.
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LINKS:

Spruce Point Inn

Garden Smart Plant List