Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a shovel.
~ Aldo Leopold (American author, philosopher, forester, conservationist; 1887-1948)

Gladly shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& one of the “humbler folk”)

IN THE SPOTLIGHT . . . Acer japonicum ‘Mai Kujaku’

Japanese Maples are probably my favorite trees for many reasons: the innumerable variety of cultivars to choose from; the incredible differences in leaf shapes and bark textures, and–most relevant at this time of year–their glorious autumn display.

At the top of my list is the ‘Dancing Peacock’ Japanese Maple (Acer japonicum ‘Mai Kujaku’). In summer, the foliage is deep green. As autumn progresses, the green is tinged with scarlet before turning a brilliant golden-yellow with orange and scarlet edges. Eventually, the foliage is fully flame-red from a distance. Among the largest-leaved of Japanese Maple, the ‘Dancing Peacock’ provides abundant color for a long time.

When our children were small, we planted a tree for each of them on our property. Ian’s tree was a ‘Dancing Peacock’. Every day when he was young, he would walk past his tree on his way to catch the school bus. He would be the first one to see the colors creep into the leaves and to let me know I should come out and “look at all the colors!”

Although the boy is all grown up now, I still carry memories of golden autumn afternoons when he would grab my hand and we would walk down the driveway together to see his ‘Dancing Peacock’ strutting its stuff at the bottom of our garden.

–Contributed by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& wistful “empty nester”)

“Once a garden is established, much of good gardening is about removal rather than planting, honing what you have to produce a pleasing effect, sacrificing the particular for the good of the whole. Gardening is a creative past time, but the result is always a work in progress; unlike a painting or a piece of music, a garden is never fixed in time.”
~ Rosalie Parker (from “In the Garden”)

As you ready your home for winter, don’t forget to give your garden some TLC, too! At Hanselman Landscape, we specialize in natural garden design tailored for Pennsylvania homeowners, ensuring your garden thrives in harmony with its surroundings.

Your death, near now, is of an easy sort.
So slow a fading out brings no real pain.
Breath growing short
Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain
Of energy, but thought and sight remain:

Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see
So much sweet beauty as when fine rain falls
On that small tree
And saturates your brick back garden walls,
So many Amber Rooms and mirror halls?

Ever more lavish as the dusk descends
This glistening illuminates the air.
It never ends.
Whenever the rain comes it will be there,
Beyond my time, but now I take my share.

My daughter’s choice, the maple tree is new.
Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame.
What I must do
Is live to see that. That will end the game
For me, though life continues all the same:

Filling the double doors to bathe my eyes,
A final flood of colors will live on
As my mind dies,
Burned by my vision of a world that shone
So brightly at the last, and then was gone.

~ Clive James (Australian essayist and journalist, written in 2016 during the final stages of his fight with terminal cancer)

Shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& mindful of the fleeting beauty of this life)

The idea of integrating a home with its surroundings is common in Japan. Exterior walls are often full-length windows or panels that fold or slide back to connect the inside of the home directly to the outside. Overhangs cover porches that end not in railings, but in a step down onto moss or rock paths that wander into the garden. Earth, rocks, trees, and shrubs are shaped and positioned to suggest that the structure is nestling into the landscape, rather than perched on top of it. This union between inside and outside is best represented in the sukiya style of architecture common throughout Japan. Sukiya-style homes incorporate the use of natural materials, the integration of interior and exterior spaces, a general sense of quiet elegance with rustic overtones, and a harmony with the human scale and human sense perception (see Sukiya Living Magazine for more information about this style of architecture and way of life).

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright employed some of the elements of Japan’s sukiya architecture in his “organic style”, a classification he coined for buildings that harmonize with the inhabitants and their environment.

In the Great Valley south of Pennsylvania’s Blue Mountain is such a house. Built in 1964 by a local musician-turned-engineer who was inspired by Wright while a student at MIT, the home utilizes Wright’s “organic” architectural trademarks–natural materials, open floor plan, and “window walls” that open to the outside. Like sukiya-style or Wright homes, the house originally nestled into the surrounding groves of Birch, Ash, and Pine. However, with the passage of time, few of these majestic trees remained; the house and its setting were no longer in concert. The current owners recognized the discord and contacted Hanselman Landscape.

They asked James to integrate the house with the landscape once again, increase privacy (exterior walls are virtually all glass!), provide sustainable, year-’round interest (plant for multi-seasonal color and birdlife), and invite interaction between home and garden (paths, patios, a fire pit, and raised vegetable beds). What a privilege it has been to partner with these insightful clients to restore harmony between this architectural treasure and its environment, and now to provide regular garden care!

Contributed by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (and sukiya-living advocate)