Must See Garden Tour - Maplewalk

welcome to Hort tube my name is Jim putam super excited we've come to Charlotte and we've scored two times uh if you're watching following along with the channel we did a video with Jay sifford on a incredible installation he did and then uh Jay told us about this amazing Garden in Charlotte that we had to see so we contacted uh the owner and uh apparently like 3,000 people saw this Garden last year it's open they did it is open to the public uh 365 days a year it's called Maple Walk Maple Walk and the uh you actually walk into what's essentially our backyard where our residen is is has a gate to keep people from wandering there but we Garden 2 and a/4 acres here and have about 1,300 different plants in the garden uh 97 different Japanese maples 23 different dog Woods a bunch of Chamas so we welcome people to stop by and see us and that it's a it's it's truly amazing and we've C we we were dry like you guys were dry you've gotten some rain since but you guys were dry you guys were dry as well we missed the peak of the Japanese maples coming out with their really pristine color although they look beautiful it's not not knocking them yeah yeah yeah and uh but this Garden is a place where you could visit a lot because you would have early flower very very early flowering things as we can have in the South absolutely right uh in fact uh late February early March Chamas uh witch hazel chilopsis um helor in the Gard uh for sure um edgeworthia daffne uh are all blooming so there's a lot to see at that time of the year and then you have this foliage layer that kind of uncoils with all the with all the color exactly it's sort of it evolves into that yeah uh and we see the maples coming out and one of the things that surprises people people when they contact us knowing we have a lot of Japanese maples they keep saying well tell me about the fall tell me about the fall and I say don't forget about the spring don't forget about the spring because there's lots of color in the spring and so the good thing about spring color is that it all comes out about the same time where in the fall yes there is a peak but the Japanese Maples don't do it all on schedule right and so there's an evolutionary period of of them uh them turning but uh don't miss out on the spring color of Japanese maples I think one thing you'd also get from this Garden is that Eve how long have you guys been putting it in now we've been gardening since 1991 uh parts of the garden are much newer than that right but it has been uh it's been a process not an event and lib and I do all the gardening uh she has a young woman uh when I say young she's young by our standards cuz we're in our 70s but uh who helps her 3 hours a week okay W um but I've laid 46 tons of stone in here but we've planned everything we maintain everything I Edge the the turf um we do it all right there's one thing about visiting a garden like this where you've got the space you've actually put things in here given them some space you can actually see what a plant is going to look like uh as opposed to coming to our garden where they're all like this and I'm going to have to keep them you know pruned a little more these things you've allowed plants to really take shape well Jim it's interesting you say that because a number of the area nurseries uh if they've got regular customers they'll tell people if you want to see what this plant looks like in 10 or 15 years go over to Maple Walk and then you get a chance to see what the plant looks like we were so excited to start the uh video off that I didn't let Tom introduce himself I'm Tom n camp and my wife lib Jones uh who by the way I kid that on our third date she said I was born Elizabeth Jones I'm going to die Elizabeth Jones I said aren we get to have ourselves just a little bit she said well if it's going to be a problem I'm going to find out right now yeah that's funny one of the things about this Garden that you could definitely get from it you said how many how many tons of stone oh I've laid 46 tons of stone in here 46 tons of stone and a lot of that's created transitions you you've created board edges you've created transitions from Turf to different walkways and the turf here is Tiff Grand which is one of the hybrid Bermudas yes uh and it is uh really pleased with the turf you're just going through with a weed eater on it up on the edge and keeping it you're you're not and You' got you've allowed yourself a defensive space it is and I did that because having it up close to the stone makes it impossible to keep KN right yeah and it'll get into the yes keeps it out of the beds right although this is not a real aggressive Bermuda oh really no and it's one that's very shade tolerant okay got you you can see how much sheade I've got in here right right so you get there's pretty much every angle here you get a Japanese maple yes uh yes I I yes we have a lot of Japanese maples and I do love them uh I particularly love them because I believe that they're 12 Monon SE uh 12mon trees that should look good in every season so if you prune them properly you're going to have a tree that's Pleasant to look at 12 months out of the year and I tell one thing that one thing when we go to gardeners who really have just really thrown themselves in there's always this combination of conifers that are you're on the very Southern edge of right with Japanese maples and then you've got you've got a garden over here that's for you know things that don't want a drop of water right yeah yeah it's a I'm going to try it all I'm going to try it all now and as you see some of these things like this Zer Escape here my wife does all the perennials and one of the ways we keep peace in the family is that I don't touch her perennials and she doesn't touch my trees no that's funny that's funny I see one of the cactus has a flower on it yeah beautiful your prostrate Beauty cedris deodora tell us about this yeah well when I planted this I knew it was prostrate I loved the color and I said boy it would be nice as it grows if it brushed up against this Boulder right well it has consumed the boulder yeah and the Boulder's too big to move and I'm surely not going to harm the deodor cedar yeah so I'm just living with it and I paid a lot for the older and that nobody sees right yeah so this prostrate Beauty I mean we have a feeling blue yes what's the this one seems to be bright a little brighter my I have a feeling blue also I've got it in more shade okay and it has never for me has never been anywhere near as vigorous as this okay got this has been a vigorous plant this has been in the ground about 10 years so you got the circular patio space here did you lay this oh way above my pay grade oh really yes the um Libs saw this design at the Duke Gardens okay and took a picture of it and it was when I was in uh Durham at at the gardens uh in a pruning Workshop by the aesthetic pruners of America that turned out to be an expensive trip because she saw this she saw our handrails yeah the handil beautiful and she decided that once we got back we had to have those things right so and then once we were go do this we we uh decided to put the bench here yes and the stone on the bench weighs 2,800 lb was this on a single pallet or is it it came on a crane it came in on a cran from the road there it came in with a and then a bobcat came in and brought it in here and it's it's a um on two uh Boulders here it's not attached uh and watching them level that was interesting uh uh but it is uh imagine it sunk The Boulders a am sure it has yeah I did have an interesting uh conversation with a woman who came in as part of a group and there were I tend to have a photograph taken here of people touring the garden to prove they were here and there were four or five women sitting on it and another one comes up and I say come on we'll go take your picture and she says oh I'm afraid I'll tip it over and and I said trust me you're not you're not going to you know tip it over and she says oh it must be bolted to those stones I said it's not bolted to this with gravity bolted with gravity right so again one of the things here there's a lot of plants there's a lot of plants to see but you also have some really amazing garden art and this is the biggest piece of garden art this is the biggest piece and I have to credit my wife on this one lib decided that she wanted something substantial separating from what we call the upper Garden to our Woodland Garden which is totally a shade garden and so she saw this Arch uh online and uh we knew who we wanted to build it a fell named George Crump who is a Brit uh originally from Scotland and George uh had a company here and I had taken a class from George on building dry stack walls and so George and I knew each other and I contacted his company and lo and behold George was no longer there George had sold the company and I said oh my gosh uh he's the artist and but the company wanted to bid on it and that was fine and lo and behold uh making a long story short George came back uh because we had a relationship even though he sold the company to supervise the construction of the arch and there is not a single Stone in here that arrived on the property in this shape a uh a young man sat out on the street and for nine days did nothing but chip Stone and shape stones for the arch that's unbelievable and so it turned out extremely well and it uh it has made a nice demarcation and not surprised ly is a favorite place for photographers to shoot [Music] [Music] for for [Music] for [Music] for for for I usually come to Gardens and we talk about nothing but plants but it seems like I'm just getting you from one from one Hardscape feature to to another tell us about these rails well the hand rails in the garden uh the idea was stolen from the uh the wonderful garden in Durham the Duke Gardens in Durham and uh when lib and I were visiting one time we saw these lib said boy we had tried so many railings in the garden that weren't s Factory and when she reached and saw how stable these were we she wanted to have them they are actually stainless steel sunk in 2 fet of concrete covered with an epoxy to look like black walnut yeah uhuh and they are done by a metal artist I don't think he ever wants to do them again cuz I don't think he thinks are terribly creative but we have them all over the garden and they are a hit with all the visitors it's wild cuz you look at it it looks every bit like a li a limb and you go whoa that thing is sturdy no it is they are sturdy and we we sort of joke the when we were originally did it we were doing it for the visitors now as we get older we're so thankful that these railings are in here you have an interesting combination of dry shade plants and then some shade plants that would like a little more moisture is are the Rocks attributing you think to well probably but but I would be lying if I told you it was intentional right okay got you got you some things are happy coincidences and through trial and error you see what's happy where they are right and uh and I think as a gardener trial and error is a big thing you know people will come through and say oh I've got a brown thumb I you know I killed too many things and I tell them I said I've killed more things than you'll ever planned you know right and so don't be afraid you know to to kill something it is uh if you think it's going to be an interesting combination right and because sometimes you plant something that people say oh you can't grow that in l behold grows just fine right yeah you've got a 28t drop on this property correct bottom to top so by the time we get down here it probably is a little more moisture migrating down as well it is in fact that area down uh below us there is almost like a ring Garden down there okay gotcha gotcha gotcha really get slowed down oaklea Hy ranges yes looking beautiful and you get enough light in there yes just to get them to uh to really really on a show well and it's getting a little bit of shade from the big leaf magnolia here behind it yeah can you get anything can you see that stuff with the camera it's lit up too by the sunlight up there it's beautiful beautiful tell us about the cornice back here yes this is Wolf eyes one of my favorite dog Woods um great variegation and the uh this wolf eyes has never bloomed and I don't care uh in fact I think the Bloom on would probably be a distraction from the beautiful foliage right and it's a dark Shady shadowy kind of space this is a beacon yeah it's a beacon of light a beacon of light in here yeah it really brightens the area up yeah beautiful for [Music] [Music] for for [Music] another real bright spot in the garden is this acuba want to tell us about this one yes this is by far my favorite acuba this is suia marginada and it is spectacular for most of the year uh the new growth is just vibrant uh you see some dark in here this is last year's growth yeah but it is just spectacular and in fact we do a little propagation of it in that during the winter my wife will cut off branches take it in for some interest in arrangements and then while it's sitting in the water it roots and I bring it back out and I plant it so I've got a bunch of small ones that are behind this that will eventually I'll have a a bank of these yeah beautiful this is what I've talked about with a Kuba a lot over the years is if you go a lot more now I see a few more interesting ones that garden centers but for a long time it was just gold dust and maybe a green one and there was all these then you go to Gardens and you see all these really interesting vibrant variegations no no it's a it's a beautiful plant and uh you want to check us for cuting too when we're leaving yeah yeah we might we might be pocking a few cuting on that one you you're welcome to do it okay awesome awesome so thank you so much Tom for inviting us in we're going to come back over here to Maple Walk uh in the future and and do some addition content if you have us back oh looking forward to it okay awesome thank you so much sure

Channel: HortTube with Jim Putnam

Views: 26,394

Keywords: gardening inspiration, garden design, landscape ideas, all about plants, Maplewalk, garden tour, charlotte gardens, horttube with jim putnam, Tom Nunnenkamp and Lib Jones, great gardens

Id: OjssuHJg7-Q

Length: 21min 39sec (1299 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2024