Death of a Political Plant (13 page)
Read Death of a Political Plant Online
Authors: Ann Ripley
Tags: #General, #Mystery & Detective, #Fiction
Louise continued to press. “There’s a comfortable seat right here on the couch, Gil. Why don’t you take it?”
His face was stormy. “I don’t think so, Louise. In fact, I know there’s plenty of room in the other cars for people returning to the city, so I’m going to get out of here and go back to my hotel room. I need a little alone time.”
He hurried out the front door and she trailed after him, still apologizing. When he reached his van, he turned and gave her a haunted look and a grunted “good-bye,” then gunned the motor and sped off.
When she returned to the house, the party had resumed its normal pace and if anything had grown livelier. She glanced at her watch and saw it was getting on toward midnight; she marveled at the youthful capacity of the group. Hard work gave them the strength for hard play.
No one seemed surprised at Gil’s behavior. One amiable man made an awkward try at explaining it to Louise: “You wouldn’t believe it, but Gil designs the most serene gardens you ever saw. But in his personal life he’s always been a little hot-tempered, and it comes out at parties. You know, like Satchel Paige said, ‘Social ramble ain’t restful.’ With Gil, it’s always after a couple of drinks he probably shouldn’t be drinking, and it’s mostly talk besides.”
That was fine, but now she was left with the embarrassing task of reprimanding the errant jay, the most unrewarding houseguest she had ever entertained.
A
MERICANS HAVE A TENDENCY TO
admire many things and want everything. This can be particularly true of gardeners. If the garden isn’t quite full, why not tuck that new Penstemon digitalis “Husker Red” into the back corner, and try that new white marigold in the six inches in front? If we fulfill bur dreams of owning every plant, the overall effect will be “chaos-theory” gardening, In both large, but especially small, gardens, there should be a feeling of calm, not chaos. Serenity in the garden is reached by stopping before we have gone too far, not destroying our
views or allies, and remembering that less is sometimes more.
Garden designers will tell you that the small garden or yard is a greater challenge than the large yard, and small spaces are what most gardeners must work with. Perspective is a sometimes-forgotten consideration. Mastered by the Japanese for centuries, it concerns itself with the close-in, the middle distance, and the far distance view. By the placing of objects in these spaces, we alter perspective. We can use both our own trees, rocks, and walls and our neighbors’ to provide these accents and defining borders.
If a yard is wide and shallow, parallel vertical lines of plants will give it more depth. Conversely, a deep, narrow yard can be broken up and widened by interrupting the view from front to back. This is where the concept of garden “rooms” can be put into action: using barriers of trees, bushes, or partial walls to create interest in what is to come next.
A small yard needs no more than a few simple elements:
An interesting tree. River birch (
Betula nigra
), with its peeling white bark;
the unsurpassable Japanese maple, Acer W japonicum; or a species of cherry would be good choices.
A focal point, such as a rock with a depression that makes it a good birdbath, or a generous-sized decorative garden pot.
Several small evergreens, such as dwarf mughos or pines; and a couple of skeletal plants such as ornamental grasses, Apache plume, sagebrush, or yellow or red dogwood.
One or more ground covers to unify the plantings, such as liriope, epimedium, carex, ginger, sweet woodruff, ivy, or lamium. Within this ground cover could be planted an irregular drift of early spring bulbs; the ground cover will conceal its dwindling foliage.
Several ample clay pots submerged in the ground in the dramatic center of the plantings. They would hold colorful plants to accent different seasons. In spring, the pots could be filled with primroses; in summer, tuberous begonias, petunias, or geraniums; and in fall,
they could be replaced with chrysanthemums or anemones.
Even a small space can contain a water feature such as a scaled-down waterfall or pond; this becomes the yard’s central feature. Such a minimal pond should be planted with miniature water flowers. Simple changes in the grade can enhance perspective, even without water; this is done to good effect in western gardens where “dry bed” streams are imitated in a rocky descent of just a few feet.
The famous English gardener Gertrude Jekyll wrote in one of her books that garden design was all about making “pictures of living beauty” The paths in her woodland gardens led from one living scene to another. The use of color was important to her designs, and she was known for using it in great bold swaths. Other times, she used it in the most delicate ways, and once described coming upon this view: “A pleasant mass of color showing in the wood-edge on the dead-leaf carpet,” intertwined drifts of just three flowers, white daphne, red lenten hellebore, and yellow dog-tooth violet. The colors were what old-fashioned garden writers used to call “sad”—flower
tints of secondary strength, and as beguiling to the eye today as they were then. Combined with the other tones Jekyll valued so much—the tans, browns, and grays in tree trunks and bushes—these splendid and finely designed flowers in their faded hues formed a perfect garden picture.
S
INCE
T
ESSIE
, B
ARBARA, AND
Donna were anxious to make the nine o’clock session of the convention, Louise had no need today to employ her handy formula for “speeding the parting guest.” First, it was something she and Bill had only joked about, after a gaggle of guests had strung out their departure for more than half a day. Then she tried the formula and found it worked, and it involved only a little lying. There were
four rules. Number one was to make the guests a hearty breakfast, but only to brew up a limited supply of coffee, and not the guests’ favorite brand. Second was to put a scribbled schedule for the day in a visible place so they could see that she had lots of things on the to-do list. Third was to allude the night before to a possible doctor’s appointment for an undisclosed minor ailment. Fourth was attitude: to be friendly, and at the same time businesslike and brisk, so guests knew she didn’t need them, that she had already made the psychic break and was ready to go on with life without them.