Thimble gardens
How much do I adore these sweet, sweet thimble gardens over at the gorgeously eclectic Resurrection Fern. SWOON.
I’ve also never seen snails look so beautiful.
February 25th, 2009February 24th, 2009I’m in Sunset!
Sunset magazine is showing Heavy Petal some love yet again. Woot! Heavy Petal appears in their March 2009 issue alongside some totally rad blogs – Housemartin, Beyond the Lawn, Garden Bliss, Victory Home Garden, and Orangette to name but a few. Sunset, I love you! February 20th, 2009Top 10 Highlights from the Northwest Flower and Garden Show 2009There’s always so much to take in at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, and this year’s – possibly the last ever – was no exception. But where to focus your energy? Here’s what stood out for me.
1. Japanese fusion. There’s something so very Pacific Northwest about modern minimalism-meets-Japanese tradition. One could almost say it’s a cliche. But it’s not to the point of being overdone, so let’s refrain from dismissing it just yet. And personally, I love this look. Click, the display garden by Shapiro Ryan Design is a gorgeous example of this garden style done right. Not only are the physical structures of this garden beautifully constructed but the colour echoes in the plantings are stunning yet subtle. In the top photo, Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ stands out against a backdrop of Anemanthele lessoniana (New Zealand wind grass).
Love the cedar boardwalk. So Pacific Northwest!
2. NYC rooftop lust. Rebecca Cole’s Sky’s the Limit gave me serious garden envy (I wasn’t the only one lusting, apparently; this garden won Best in Show.) I love the innovative seating – both the structure, created of wireframe-enclosed logs – and the bold modern fabric of the cushions. She’s also created “area rugs” of hardy succulents – under the coffee table, for example. What a great concept. They’re permeable water-holding areas, slowing down rain water runoff and looking great in the process.
Sky’s the Limit makes a big impact with a limited colour palette. Love the Mondrian-esque greenwall.
3. Fab Prefab. Modern Shed has been making waves in the design community for its minimalist prefabricated sheds. Their Studio Shed was featured in this display garden by Serene Scapes Seattle.
4. 200 square feet of cool, clean modernism. The unofficial award for best sales booth goes to Smith & Hawken. Green wall panels (modified from the ones they sell, perhaps?) framed the area, while succulents and orchids spilled from oversized containers. The flooring was an attractive – if a bit unstable – mix of wooden decking and faux sod.
5. Fresh water. This waterfall (by Mark the Pond Guy) is fed by rainwater harvested from the metal roof and stored in a cistern under the patio. Neat.
6. More succulents than you could shake a stick at. Poly Pots had a lovely display of cool-toned pots, along with a fantastic selection of rare succulents and other plant oddities. I only wished I could bring a few back over the border.
7. Doing shrooms. Fungi is hot this year. Fungi Perfecti was there, of course, but mushrooms were also popping up as garden art. Could we be seeing some cross-pollination from the popularity of the woodland theme in fashion and interior decor?
8. Citrus reign. Splashes of citrus dominated many of the display gardens. Here’s lemon yellow in a display by Pots2Go in the container garden gallery.
9. Compact greenhouses. Okay, so it’s not the sexiest thing in the world, but it’s seed starting time and I’m liking the compact nature of this “space-saver greenhouse” by Sunglo. Still too big for my space, but we’re getting there.
10. Going live. Seattle local Willi Galloway from Diggin Food met up with me and my family at Vios, a hopping Greek deli in Capitol Hill. It was great to meet in person after so many virtual exchanges. And as other Seattle garden bloggers have suggested, next time (and I have a feeling there will be a 2010 show) we’ll have to set up a garden blogger’s meet up. February 17th, 2009Sneak Peek! Display gardens of the Northwest Flower and Garden Show 2009I took the media tour of the display gardens at Seattle’s Northwest Flower and Garden Show today, and wow – what a trip! I’ve never seen a garden show in its assembly phase (although I’ve participated in disassembly). It’s great to see the gardens before the Show actually opens; you don’t have to fight through hoards of people to snap a photo. On the other hand, most of your photos are full of extension cords and ladders and garden designers’ butt cracks. Before I share some of my observations and photos – sans crack – ponder this: - 415,000 lbs of rocks and bolders are placed in the elaborate display gardens each year – several weighing in at over 7,000 lbs each. - 60 dump trucks filled with dirt and mulch are trucked into the Convention Center to form the foundation of the display gardens. - 3 1/2 days are allowed for display garden creators to turn their flat, cement space into the gardens we see. Pretty impressive. Pretty grand. Not all that in keeping with the current climate of modest spending. And yet, there’s something so thrilling about it all. It’s just so over the top. Which brings me to the gardens themselves. The theme this year is sustainability, of course: “Sustainable Spaces. Beautiful Places.” Call me a cynic, but how do you reconcile that with the above? Even if the stated theme hadn’t been sustainability, I think we would have seen “green” inform a lot of the 26 gardens on display this year. I expected to see a lot of green roofs and walls, and a lot of veggies. Green roofs and walls – definitely. Veggies? Not so much. I guess they’re just not as impressive. I’d love to see a garden show elevate the humble vegetable. Consider this a formal request. Thank you. On the flipside, I was happy to see that the outdoor kitchen has quietly taken its leave, only appearing in one display garden, and even then, more modestly than in the past few years. (Now, could someone let Garden Design magazine know?) The firebowl also seems to have regretted its past indiscretions and vanished, which we can all be thankful for. So if that’s the Not List, what’s the Hot List? Besides the surprising scarcity of edibles, here’s what jumped out at me at the 2009 Northwest Flower and Garden Show:
Native plants cropping up everywhere. In this display, by the Washington Park Arboretum, Phil Wood Garden Design and Bob Lilly, they’re the main contender, but they made an impact in several display gardens.
Reusing and repurposing materials. The stumps used in this display by Dan Robinson of Elandan Gardens, Ltd. were harvested from clearcut sites. And what did I say about native plants?
Awareness of water conservation. Drought-tolerant plantings made several appearances, but so did the humble rain barrel, like the one in this garden by the Washington State Nursery and Landscape Association, Partnership for Water Conservation, Walden Garden Services and Lucinda Landscapes.
Green walls. Everywhere. This one’s in a garden by Rebecca Cole Design, Smith & Hawken and B. Bissell General Contractors, LLC. (More on this garden, a personal fave, later.)
Green roofs are hotter than ever. So is solar power. Look up to see these technologies in play. The above green roof (and accompanying rain barrel) is in a display created by New Leaf Creations. There you have the Heavy Petal overview of the 2009 Northwest Flower and Garden Show display gardens. Tomorrow I’ll have a closer look at my two favourite display gardens, as well as a report on the rest of the Show. For now, I’m going to bed. February 15th, 2009Last-ever Northwest Flower and Garden Show starts February 18, 2009
From the 2008 Show: Under the Arbor display garden. The Northwest Flower and Garden Show, held in downtown Seattle’s convention center, starts Wednesday, February 18 and runs through Sunday, February 22. I’m heading down tomorrow to cover the event. I’m lucky enough to be able to attend a media “sneak peek” of the always-fabulous display gardens… and of course I’ll be reporting back to you. Check back on Tuesday night for your own sneak peek! As you may have heard, this is likely to be the last Show in the event’s 21-year history. Wanting to retire and unable to find a suitable buyer for the Show, Duane Kelly, chairman of Salmon Bay Events, the company that founded and owns the event, has decided to close the Show for good. Salmon Bay Events also owns and produces the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, which will also be closing barring a last-minute buyer. The Northwest and San Francisco Flower & Garden Shows are the second- and third-largest flower shows, respectively, in the United States; the largest is in Philadelphia. The theme of this year’s shows is “Sustainable Spaces. Beautiful Places.” The 26 display gardens are pretty much guaranteed to be spectacular; in keeping with the theme, many promise to offer inspiring ideas about sustainability in gardens. Sustainability will also be the focus of many of the 120 free seminars presented by speakers from around the world.
From the 2008 Show: Molbaks container display. I’m stoked to attend the show for a few reasons: first, it’s really the best garden show in the Pacific Northwest (and thus the only one I regularly attend). Second, I missed last year’s show because I was too pregnant to get health insurance for travel to the States. Third, it comes at the perfect time of year: a breath of spring at the end tail of winter. All the inspiration needed to jumpstart the growing year. Fourth, it’s probably going to be the last one. And I’ll miss it when it’s gone. The last Northwest Flower and Garden Show will be held Feb. 18-22 at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle. The cost of admission, which includes entrance to gardening seminars, is: $20 for adults; $9 for students 25 and under with valid student I.D.; $4 for kids ages 6 and under. February 8th, 2009Berries in the winter garden
Photinia davidiana (David’s Christmas berry) is a tough evergreen plant that also has white flowers in early summer. I last wrote about how hardscaping can make your garden in winter – and year round, for that matter. I still maintain that the hard landscape makes the biggest overall impact on the garden in winter, but there’s no denying plants pull their weight. Take evergreens. They’re pros at this winter thing. Evergreen shrubs, trees and hedges can function like hardscaping in terms of their permanence and impact. They are architectural plants that will retain their form while the rest of the garden lies dormant. Ornamental grasses and plants with interesting seed heads are also popular additions to the winter landscape. But when it comes to creating interest in the winter garden, you can’t beat berries. They provide food for birds, colour amidst the white – or gray, as the case may be – and joy to human visitors. Here are some of my favourites.
The berries of cute little Pernettya mucronata look like tiny strawberry bubblegum spheres. This low-growing shrub has fine, glossy evergreen leaves that take well to a shearing.
Although the berries of the Pacific Northwest native Snowberry (Caprifoliaceae Symphoricarpos albus) are considered toxic, they can be highly entertaining to children. I survived growing up with a yard full of them. Now Lila will have to, too, as I planted one in our backyard. (*Update*: Eleanor from Out of Doors, an ethnobotany student, has pointed me towards the Plants for a Future Database listing for snowberry, which indicates, “Although toxic, [saponins] February 5th, 2009Hardscaping in the winter garden
Even covered in snow, a bench is a focal point that provides a resting place for the eye and reminds us of peaceful reflection. [Photo: sarae on Flickr.] The experts are constantly exhorting us to add winter interest to our gardens. “Emphasize structure,” is a popular refrain. “Think about hedges, arbours and other permanent landscape features.” And while in theory I couldn’t agree more, in the past, I have not been so good at following this advice. This winter, however, with the semi-completion of our back patio, I finally understood what hardscaping can bring to the winter garden. Hardscaping is a landscape designers’ term for the hard landscape: the permanent, man-made features of a landscape – stone, concrete, wood, metal, etc., (rather than plants or bare earth).
Fences provide a vertical element in the winter garden when plants are dormant. [Photo: zenera on Flickr.] Even though the bamboo against my fence is flattened under heavy, wet snow; even though the hornbeam is bare and the one shrub that might have offered up some berries is buried; even though my bright, lime green pillows are inside for the winter and there’s not a whiff of gin and tonic about, my patio still looks half decent. What did I do right? I’ll put it in the words of Vancouver-based garden designer Ruth Olde of Blasig Design, whom I interviewed last year. In explaining her approach to garden design, Ruth said:
While some people – myself included – would argue. “but it’s not a garden without plants,” the point Ruth’s making is that it’s the non-plant elements that can really make a garden. That’s where hardscaping comes in. It creates the backbone of a garden, the bones upon which everything else hangs. And in winter, this structure is clearly evident, which is why it’s a great time to assess your garden. Let’s face it: plants are rarely the stars of the winter garden. Sure, there are plants with lovely berries, gorgeous bark, interesting seed heads, and even flowers. But it’s the architecture of the garden that provides overall impact: the structure that garden writers go on about. And while this might not be popular with certain plant-obsessed gardeners who see every square foot of patio as taking away space for a new plant (and I’ll admit, I have to struggle against that line of thinking in the quest for better design) I’m convinced that done well, hardscaping is the secret to a great garden, in winter and otherwise.
Formal gardens are based on structure. Here, evergreen hedging provides a similar function to hardscaping in that it is basically a permanent fixture of the landscape. [Photo: miss karen on Flickr.] It’s all about balance. Plants are yin to hardscape’s yang. Hardscaping sets off a prized specimen plant better than a sea of more plants. A single row of bedding plants doesn’t have the presence or scale to set off a sweeping walkway. Take a moment this winter to assess your garden’s structure. Even though your plants may be buried in snow or sleeping under the soil, does it still look like a garden? Is it interesting to look at? If you answer “no” to either of these questions, think about how you can create a stronger backbone for your garden. Formal garden styles tend to be inherently stronger, architecturally speaking, since they use straight lines and geometric elements such as clipped hedges and raised beds. Informal garden styles can still possess plenty of backbone, however, provided that their individual elements are well defined. Both styles benefit from thoughtful additions of hardscape materials. But don’t just add a patio or pathway because your garden feels heavy on the lawn. Hardscaping is functional. Fences provide privacy. Oblisks support climbing plants. Paths connect. Patios provide a place to relax, barbecue and entertain. Assess what’s needed in your garden to make it work better and you’ll end up with an opportunity to not only improve its functionality but its overall beauty and impact. |
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