Tag Archives: Foliage
A Summer Summary Garden Tour
Except for one freeze that lasted two days this last winter, here in the greater Seattle area you could safely say that ours was the winter that never happened. Consequently, between the release of Fine Foliage in the spring, my own business and my nursery work, there was no real need for me to update much of my garden for spring and summer this year, it was looking pretty darn good.
Then, in the waning days of August, I received a call from a magazine wanting to come and shoot in my teeny-tiny garden and my containers in 10 days! Scurry, scurry, scurry, rally the troops, plant, plant, plant, clean, clean, clean!
It turned out better than I ever imagined and we celebrated with an impromptu party on a lovely August evening that coincided with my birthday. It couldn’t have been a more perfect gift!
Now as autumn has placed its boot firmly in the rain and mud, this short burst of wild activity, color and enjoyment of the garden is now at its end and I trudge damply toward the clean up and pre-winterization of the garden and containers.
The one thing I did promise myself however, was that I would post a summer wrap-up of the finished (When is it ever finished?) garden for this season to share all of the hard work my friends and I put it in, in such a short time frame.
My special thanks go to Heather Little Bradley and Ryan LaPointe for their invaluable contributions in such a mad-cap few days!
Now, as it fades into the cool, low light of the shorter, wetter days of fall, I can move on to appreciating it in a whole new way. At least until chaos reigns again this spring. Plans are already brewing! 🙂
Enjoy the wrap-up! Click on photos to enlarge.
I hope this end of summer garden wrap-up tour inspired you to plan for spring and summer in your own garden for 2014. Unfortunately there are just too many plants here to list them all by name, but if you want any specifics, I am happy to oblige.
If you would like to look at more photos like these, join me on my Facebook page by clicking here. We have fun there learning all kinds of stuff!
What Really Worked – My Favorite New Plant This Year
I suppose I should have amended that title to include “New to ME This Year” because many of you will say “What? – I’ve had that one for years!” It’s not really a new plant on the market at all. Its been around a while. But, I just haven’t warmed up to STOKESIA ‘Peachie’s Pick’ (or the Stokes Aster), until now.
I think it was the foliage pairing that did it. And me being the “Fine Foliage” girl that I am, well…ya know! The fat lavender blooms looks so great with that soft coral edge of the Acalypha wilkesiana that it just made me fall in love. What a fantastic bloomer it’s turned out to be in late summer.
Here is some information to learn more about that fabulous Stokesia.
Now for more eye candy from other wonderful garden designers on what their favorite new plant was this season. Be sure to click on their links too and learn more!
http://www.therainforestgarden.com/
http://thedailysouth.southernliving.com/category/the-grumpy-gardener/
http://www.cowlickcottagefarm.com/blog/
http://fromthesoil.blogspot.com/
http://gardeningwithconfidence.com/blog/
http://www.jpetersongardendesign.com/
Like this post? We are ALL on Facebook too! Stop on by and say “Hey!”
Garden Designers Roundtable – Celebrating Trees
The definition of Dendrolatry: Tree worship, refers to the tendency of many societies throughout history to worship or otherwise mythologize trees.
If that is true, then yes, I am hopelessly guilty. I admit it, I have had a close relationship with trees from a very young age. Trees have had a significant place in my life spiritually as well. But, then again, so has most of man for as long as we’ve been around. Here is a great link to learn more.
Whether it is because of their inherent elegance, grace and majestic beauty…
Or their winter interest….
Or Autumn color against a blue sky…
Or magnificent flower…..
Foliage that can’t be denied…..
A conifer of striking color and dimension…..
Or simply a sacred place to rest and contemplate the world…
Trees are magical, mystical and ever present beauties that we dare not take for granted. They are the life blood of this amazing planet that give us the oxygen to fill our lungs, paint our hearts with color and shade and heat our homes.
Planting a tree is the ultimate act of positivity about the future.
To see more fabulous blog posts from the other Lords and Ladies of the Roundtable please follow these links below:
Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO
Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK
Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT
David Cristiani : The Desert Edge : Albuquerque, NM
Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ
Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT
Douglas Owens-Pike: EnergyScapes Inc. : Minneapolis. MN.
Wordless Wednesday: Design Style Book
Deep In the Green of the Moss Garden
Yesterday, I went and took a long therapeutic walk through the Bellevue Botanical Garden. The flowers were just barely starting to peek up, mostly the earliest Hellebores. But, today the truest star was the moss in all its myriad of textures and colors. Being a native here, you would think that it would be boring and tiresome to see this all the time, but I never get bored with it. Just look at the sculpture that Mother Nature left us to admire.
I tried to give you some good detail to admire, but trust me, whatever device you are looking at this on could not possibly do justice to the depth of color and texture here.
I loved how this rick sat all by itself, ENGULFED.
A view down into the fern gully ravine from the trestle bridge above.
I decided there was no other word than the made up one that I thought of for this that fit it nearly as well- “Entwangled”.
Just look at the diversity in this one small space positively TEEMING with life!!
A very old Flowering Cherry tree, most expertly pruned.
Now you understand why Seattleites love their coffee SO much, if we stand still long enough in one place here this is what happens! 🙂
For more great information about all things MOSS- this is a fabulous place to visit! http://www.mossandstonegardens.com/blog/
Be sure to join me on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thepersonalgardencoach and look for my new book Fine Foliage, co- authored with Karen Chapman coming out March 1st!!
Wordless Wednesday – Pure H-O-T Drama!
Garden Designers Roundtable- SHOW of Inspiration
Inspiration for garden design ideas for the New Year can obviously come from any number of sources. You can fall down the internet rabbit hole of Social Media and lose hours of your life to just Pinterest alone for ideas on anything you can find inspiring, that’s the whole POINT!
People can be an inspiration; a winter walk can bring inspiration, great garden books, and meditating on philosophic ideas, food and cooking, architecture, animals, interior design, all of those and more can be the spark of inspiration. I am not going to list here ALL of the innumerable ways that you can find inspiration in your design life. I am only going to focus on one way here. But, do be sure to check out those phenomenal links above too. 😉
My bookshelf of inspiration!
Last June I wrote this post that struck a chord with a number of you, titled “Looking To the Landscape for Mental Healing”. In it, I referred to one of my most favorite “bits” with regard to “inspiration”, if you have a moment, I think you would find it a great companion to this post.
Chanticleer
My inspiration is so seasonally predictable, so like clockwork, so springtastically motivating- its the Garden Shows that get me revved up! I have only missed one of my local show- the Northwest Flower and Garden Show since its inception 25 years ago. Beginning in January, I start getting the garden itch for new plants, seeds, design ideas, garden art. By the time the show rolls around in the third week of February, I’m positively apoplectic for my fix!
I spend the entire week of the show blogging, photographing and networking with my compadres in the world of Horticulture, Garden Writing, and Design. Getting inspired by the immensity of imagination and effort that goes into one of the largest garden shows in the country is positively exhilarating.
Leaf Magazine, Riz Reyes, Nancy Claire Guth
Before the Northwest Flower and Garden Show I will be heading south to the Yard, Garden and Patio Show in Portland as a Show Judge! Plus taking a couple of days to visit with friends at places like Viscaya to get my plant groove on and take some fun bits home.
A couple of years ago, at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, I presented a Container Garden display with Janit Calvo of Two Green Thumbs Miniature Gardens – Eat, Pray, Love, Garden.
This year is uber special because I will be speaking at the show with my co-author of Fine Foliage Karen Chapman of Le Jardinet Designs.
Do I have reasons to be extra special inspired THIS year of all years?? – YOU BET I DO! Look at all of the magnificent friends I have, with whom I get the privilege to share my passion for landscape design and horticulture!
To see more fabulous blog posts from the other Lords and Ladies of the Roundtable please follow these links below:
Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ
Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT
Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK
Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO
Jenny Peterson : J Petersen Garden Design : Austin, TX
Snippets of Foliage and Winter Garden Art
Making good use of January indoor time is important to me as a gardener. I like the creative momentum that builds up after the fall garden clean up is over, the holiday distractions are finished and I’m really ready to get going on something nature oriented. Ogling the seed catalogs and various juicy pictorial based websites are the creative outlets I rely when digging or designing are not a palatable option. But, it’s still not actively DOING something, or CREATING and THAT is what energizes me.
So, I went out into the garden and took little snippets and bits of plants that were looking lovely and decided to have fun with them. I played Portrait Studio! I did this once a few years back when I entered the Gardening Gone Wild Photo Contest and learned an invaluable little photo trick from David Perry, one of my photography idols.
I had loads of fun creating these foliage based shots (no blooms here just yet). I hope YOU enjoy them too! 🙂
This was a sampling of one style of the artwork I created over the weekend, I’m saving the rest for later. Now, to figure out what else is going to keep me busy for a while…. Oh ya, I have a book coming out soon!!! 🙂
Wordless Wednesday: When Seasons Collide
THE Personal Garden Coach 