Garden Diary: Red

I've had six walnut logs since a tree fell two years ago. I painted them red, and I've been trying to find a use for them. A vague memory of a magazine photo showing a corridor lined with red logs at Jack Lenor Larson's garden on Long Island (seen many years ago) kept recurring. He had used them in a Japanese context. For me, in a western New Jersey forest habitat, red evokes the Native Americans who lived in this area for thousands of years - the Lenni Lenape. I put them into a circle (think symbol of turning inward for protection, a group huddled around a campfire) under cedar trees at a far side of the garden and, last weekend, repainted them Front Door Red. They work well viewed from a distance through the plantings.

You can't see them here, but they are to the right of the tallest cedar in the center of the photo.

Here you see a glimpse of red but you may need to click on the photo to enlarge it.

Changing viewpoint slightly ...

A little closer, standing amid the plants ...

As long as we're standing here, a close-up of backlighting on a Silphium perfoliatum shown from distance above ...

Getting closer ...

Shifting viewpoint again ...

Red of a different sort, Lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker'. It was vertical, but continuous rain has given it a graceful quashed look, though it's covering most of the path.

Viewed from the opposite side ...

And at greater distance, moving toward the logs, which are behind the photographer ...

Panning right toward the bank at the base of the house ...

Up close, the logs look naked. They need additional plantings, perhaps small bunch grasses or carex and other smaller plants to anchor them and make them appear to have grown out of the earth.