James Golden

My blogs

About me

Gender Male
Location Rosemont area, New Jersey, United States
Introduction When we moved to a mid-century house overlooking the woods in western New Jersey, I knew the garden would have to be naturalistic and informal to suit the style of the house and the place. My new garden on Federal Twist Road is an experiment. I call it a wet prairie, and maintain it like a prairie, with annual cutting and burning. The site would appear to be an inauspicious one for a garden, with heavy wet clay saturated much of the year. I cut down trees to create a clearing in the woods, and planted many native and prairie plants, all carefully selected for suitability to the difficult growing conditions. Many non-natives too, if they liked wet clay. Most of these plants are highly competitive, even aggressive, and I try to match them so they keep each other in control. Then I stand aside, and intervene only when necessary.
Interests Gardening, reading about gardening, reading about other things, reading good fiction, biography, collecting ceramics, art, traveling in Italy, some favorite garden and horticulture writers:, Noel Kingsbury, Piet Oudolf, Henk Gerritsen, Christopher Lloyd, John Brooks, Rick Darke, Allen Lacey, the gardens of: Ton ter Linden, Jacques Wirtz, Dan Pearson, Petra Pelz, Tom Stuart-Smith, William Martin