The Briar Patch

Welcome to my first post here at Pleasantville-Briarcliff Manor Patch!

I'm a longtime Patch reader and lifelong resident, a member of the Briarcliff Manor Garden Club and yes, a lover of horticulture. I hope to share some of our neighbors' amazing Hudson Valley inspired gardens, arrangements, garden recipes and tips as often as I can.

 Just please bare with me as I'm still new to blogging and posting things.  

I hope you too will share your garden inspirations with me and everyone here at the Patch, please send them on in as we grow and cultivate this digital garden.

~Sue

It's Spring, so what's blooming? I visited several Briarcliff Manor Garden Club members' properties today and saw so many early beauties.

Terry's Garden

 A teacher for over 30 years, Terry studies each plant well: why some plants thrive and some fail, she finds out why (like a sleuth).  On the north side of Briarcliff, she has ornamental trees, bushes, perennials and a vegetable garden on her property. There is some shade, where she has an array of variegated hostas growing, yellow floral variegated lamium, white single-petaled narcissus with yellow-eye & red trim. Spearmint is already growing. Japanese andromeda and dicentra (bleeding heart) varieties were spectacular. She even had the most gorgeous weed growing out of her basement window well, which Terry says grow by "Divine neglect".

Britt's Garden

Her landscaping is Monet-gorgeous. She has cultivated her gardens on the sunny hills of her property near the Trump National Golf Club with much love. She says "gardening is her passion" and she does it all herself. The landscapers only cut the grass. She has many gardens within her garden gates.   But, what struck me was the abundance of Picasso blue forget-me-nots running riot thru-out her entire property. Britt provides many houses for the birds. In return, they spread flower seeds into her gardens.

Mary's Garden

Have you ever looked at something so beautiful, you started to cry? Well, I did today when I stood under Mary's Kwanzan cherry tree on Fuller Road, in Briarcliff. It's the same deciduous specimen that has made Spring so famous in Washington DC. Especially in the East Potomac Park, where the Kwanzan Cherry trees, a gift from Japan, now dominate along the Potomac River and like Mary's, bear double rosy pink blossoms and are considered the showiest of all cherry trees. Mary, a professor of chemistry knows all the scientific names of her plants along with their viable properties. Mary says "Grow perennials when you can, they are less work and they come back."

Carrie's Garden

Many years ago, Carrie planted Mountain Pinks (creeping phlox) in her rock garden at the Senior Quarters on North State Road. The walkway ramp to her apartment was bleak with only rock formation and concrete. She decided to paint in some color and created a lovely rock garden, featuring mountain pinks, which are now out in full splendor.

 
A Secret Garden

Along Rt. 9, going down to Scarborough Train Station, I came upon a "secret garden" with a yellow daffodil path that just went on and on forever.