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14 Feb 2013
February 14, 2013 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin garden seasons, The Art of Landscaping, winter landscapes

Morning, February 14, 2013 Unsurpassed Beauty in the Northern Landscape Garden

Today, February 14, 2013, our Northland's Twin Cities' landscape, the good and the bad, is overwhelmed by the most beautiful ourdoors the human eye and mind can perceive. The description "breath-taking" belittles the glory of the scenery. No matter how beautiful a day can be here or anywhere on Earth, none can surpass Mother Nature's canvas this morning..... At this moment , four hours after sunrise, after a nightfall of four to five inches of...

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09 Jan 2013
January 9, 2013 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin About Masterpiece, battling the Minnesota climate, garden seasons, The Art of Landscaping, winter landscapes

How Beautiful and Inspiring are Your Winter Grounds?

In our part of Minnesota the Winter landscape is equal in duration to our Spring, Summer, and Fall landscapes put together. Do your own adding. With the exception of some oaks, leaf fall is over before the first of November. Leafing out in Spring invarably begins the week of May 15 here in the Twin Cities dictated by the habits of our major deciduous shade trees. This lacing of our landscape is one of the...

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08 Dec 2012
December 8, 2012 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin garden seasons, The Art of Landscaping, winter landscapes

Winter Arrived in our Twin City Northland Last Night

Winter arrived last evening here in the Twin Cities of the Northland. In a matter of an hour or two a rather dry settling of snow covered about two inches the beautiful landscape garden surrounding my house. Never is the beauty of these grounds superior! I don't look forward to winter any more, but its visual beauty when natural or artistically recreated can be breath taking. So much so, I have swept paths through these...

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16 Nov 2012
November 16, 2012 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, garden maintenance, Residential Projects, The Art of Landscaping, winter landscapes

Pruning……”Tuning” to Improve Harmony in the Landscape Garden

The Art of Landscape Garden is, of course, a Visual art form. So is 'Magic!' These are similar expressions, both being visual 'trickery'......The 'artists' want to control what the eye is to see, or what the brain thinks the eye preceives. In the ideal the art of landscape gardening should be to the eye, what Beethoven's compositions are to the ear. To the vast majoirty of home owners the grounds around the home they own...

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15 Nov 2012
November 15, 2012 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin garden maintenance, garden seasons, Pruning, The Art of Landscaping, winter landscapes

Pruning, Beautfying the Landscape Garden in Late Fall

Two years ago November 13, a Saturday, my landscape grounds was buried under 32 inches of heavy, icy snow. Damage to white pines and arborvitaes accompanied the event.. I cannot remember last year's advent of winter. It was uneventful. Usually, the first snowfall is among the most beautiful, here in Vikingland. Especially if it is a dry one of about five inches of snow for a good white topping causing no tipping of pyramidal conifers....

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01 Nov 2012
November 1, 2012 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, shrubs and trees, The Art of Landscaping

A Word or Two about Ginkgo biloba

I have a 70 foot Ginkgo biloba at the east border of my landscape garden. The following diary of events is visually, one of the most spectaclar events of the garden's landscape calendar. The normal Ginkgo biloba growing in a happy location is a big, big tree. A generation or two ago here in the Twin Cities there was one 25 foot Gb of note growing at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis proper. It was considered...

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11 Oct 2012
October 11, 2012 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, garden seasons, perennials, shrubs and trees, The Art of Landscaping

The Beauty of October, “the Fall” of our Landscape Gardens

Americans are overwhelmingly indoor people these days. Their knowledge of Nature outside their windows seems to have disappeared from their minds and therefore language and action. The detachment from our outdoor world endangers who we are as a people, as a culture, and our abilities to survive catastrophe and our abilities to recognize beauty from the ugly. All of the billions of people living on our Earth could become housed within the state of Texas...

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26 Sep 2012
September 26, 2012 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, perennials, The Art of Landscaping

Harmony in the Landscape Garden with some Autumn Beauties

As we enter the last month of the non-winter garden season here in our Northland, I regularly stroll my garden paths to evaluate the various arrangement of plants regarding their health, appearance, and harmony with their neighbors. Do they fill their space as beautifully among their neighboring notes for the eyes, as Beethoven adagios do for the ears? What 'note' is each plant playing. What music for your 'eyes' are you composing, and why. Remember...

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26 Sep 2012
September 26, 2012 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, garden seasons, shrubs and trees

Don’t Forget to Water Valued Trees a bit Extra this Autumn

Autumn is running almost two weeks early this year. It is also likely that this Autumn will be more dull in color. Many falling leaves will have shown no color but dried up brown.....for the very reason that the summer was dried up and hot for our northern clime. The treeless line, that is the rainfall line indicating less than 15 inches of annual precipitation, runs just west of the Twin Cities at a slanting...

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13 Sep 2012
September 13, 2012 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, garden maintenance, Plant health, shrubs and trees

Autumn “Falling” Early This Year in our Neighborhood

About three weeks ago two 80 plus feet high cottonwoods began shedding their leaves cluttering up many of my garden paths and favorite plants. There is no apparent need for this shedding because these water hoggers have grown up over the past 50 years immediately beside an acre sized pond including a large part for which I pay property taxes. Too, I have noticed the shedding of white pine needles which started about two weeks...

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