I 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.

Is it just me, or is moss everywhere these days? I love all the new applications designers and artists are finding for the lovely green stuff. Like this prototype moss carpet by designer Nguyen La Chanh.

The base is constructed of a foam called plastazote, which is soft and retards the growth of mold. Each piece of moss sits in a different cell so if one needs to be replaced, it can be done easily. The designer also chose traffic-resistant mosses, but reminds us, “of course, this carpet is not meant to last a year in your bathroom.”

More art piece than everyday functional object, but I love it regardless.

Via Abbey Goes Scouting. Thanks Degan for the tip.

Ever fantasize about going “back to the land”? Growing your salad and side dishes, making your own goat cheese: that kind of thing. But, you tell yourself, it can’t be done. Not until you own that idyllic farm.

Bollocks, argues 26-year old Jenna Woginrich in her Mother Earth News blog post titled “A Renter’s Homestead.” Jenna is a homesteader who grows tomatoes, raises chickens and spins yarn from her own angora rabbits. She’s also a renter – something that doesn’t keep her from taking steps toward self-sufficiency.

The landlords I’ve had would’ve freaked out if they’d known about my cat. I can’t imagine what they’d do if they found out I was keeping heirloom chickens. Actually, I can. It rhymes with depicted. Jenna has an idea for keeping landlords happy, though: “offer them a dozen organic free-range eggs every two weeks and some homemade tomato sauce. They’ll cave like spelunkers.”

In my experience, if the place you rent has an “outside”, most landlords are just thrilled to learn you’re a gardener – they’re probably not going to impose stylistic considerations on the types of plants you introduce. After all, before you came along, the yard probably only saw rudimentary lawn maintenance.

I got started in vegetable gardening because I was a renter. Vegetable seeds are cheap, and investing money on perennials for someone else’s garden wasn’t on my to-do list. I had a big lawn-filled backyard that needed… something other than lawn. A few months later, I had a big, beautiful veggie garden.

Don’t have a yard? You’d be amazed what you can grow on a teeny tiny balcony. No balcony? Find yourself a community garden and get yourself a plot. (If the waitlist is too long, spearhead the development of a new community garden in your ‘hood. Many local governments are increasingly sensitive to the benefits of community gardening. If they balk, tell ‘em it’s good for the economy.)

Point is, as Jenna puts it, “you don’t have to put off your fresh food dreams” just because the conditions aren’t as ideal as you think they ought to be. Growing even a little bit of your meal is better than all store-bought, right?

Read Jenna’s blog here.

Check out this new take on the seed bomb. It’s a biodegradable helium balloon painted with the classically kitschy garden gnome. The work of Dutch Studio TX, the seed-filled balloons deflate after a day, landing on the sod attached to the bottom of each balloon.

“Each balloon is made of PLA plastic and painted with 100% water-based
chalk. The balloons take 4-6 months to decompose and leave a burst of
color in their wake.”

More art piece than practical seed delivery method, but still pretty cool. I love the idea of these seed-carrying balloons deployed all over the city, delivering their floral cargo like little gnome parachutists. What a sight that would be!

Via Inhabitat.

I read Second Nature: a gardener’s education by Michael Pollan (who has been getting lots of press lately for The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food) for the February-March 2008 selection of the Garden Blogger’s Bookclub, hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens.

I thoroughly enjoyed Pollan’s writing – so much so that I deleted my name off the library wait list for The Omnivore’s Dilemma (number 157) and shelled out the coin for my own copy.

Second Nature is, on one hand, the tale of Pollan’s trials and successes as he tries to put his stamp on his new property – an old Connecticut dairy farm. But in doing so, he educates himself – and the reader – in a collection of essays meditating on the sociological constructs that define a “garden.”

At first, Pollan vacillates between a romantic, Emersonian take on gardening – believing that “natural” is always superior to “artificial” – and a slightly more aggressive approach, particularly in regards to the woodchuck that is devouring his carefully-planting vegetable garden. It is this tension between naturalist (“who gazes benignly on all of nature’s operations”) and if not developer, at least an experienced gardener with “a somewhat less sentimental view” that is at the heart of this book.

At first, Pollan takes the naturalist’s route, planting a wildflower garden and adopting a laisse-faire attitude toward weeds, which he approaches as “not a category of nature but a human construct, a defect of our perception.” But after a year battling bindweed, pigweed, burdock and other assorted thugs in his wildflower bed, Pollan realizes that his “idealized wildflower meadow now looked like a roadside tangle and, if I let it go another year, would probably pass for a vacant lot.”

On the other end of the spectrum, the hungry woodchuck incites Pollan to try everything from attempting to firebomb the woodchuck’s burrow to “an act of terrorism” – bringing home roadkill and shoving into the hole. His fury at the woodchuck makes him realize some of our “darker attitudes toward nature: the way her intransigence can make us crazy, and how willing we are to poison her in the single-minded pursuit of some short-term objective.”

Pollan’s exploration of how we confront the natural landscape is ultimately the theme of this book – and like most things, it doesn’t fall neatly into some predetermined category: “Domination or acquiescence? As developers or naturalists? I no longer think the choice is so obvious.”

Second Nature is full of insightful gems like this, and any gardener is sure to recognize him or herself in Pollan’s musings.

I’ll end with one of my favourite paragraphs from the book:

Domination, translated into suburban or rural terms, means lawn. A few acres of Kentucky bluegrass arranged in a buffer zone between house and landscape, a no-man’s-land patrolled weekly with a rotary blade. The lawn holds great appeal, especially to Americans. It looks sort of natural – it’s green; it grows – but in fact it represents a subjugation of the forest as utter and complete as a parking lot. Every species is forcibly excluded from the landscape but one, and this is forbidden to grow longer than the owner’s little finger. A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule.

As you know, I was too pregnant to make it to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle last week. Thankfully, my friends Caitlin and Owen (aka “O”), the brilliant minds behind garden design group Aloe Designs, made the trip and took notes. This is Caitlin’s report back from the show. Thanks Cait! (P.S.: Caitlin has just launched a new blog called Nesting, about “all things home and garden.” Check it out!)

Northwest Flower and Garden Show 2008
by Caitlin Black

With all this yucky rain, we have really been itching for spring and some garden inspiration. So O and I headed down south to the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in Seattle. We took a break from it last year, so we were pretty excited to see what was in store for ’08. Lots of great goodies. We managed to complete it in a day and were definitely inspired by some great ideas. Some of the highlights:

1.0 Going Native

It seemed a few years back the overall theme was bulb mania. This year it was replaced by lots of exhibits featuring indigenous plantings and mild mulches, which as we all know require little maintenance and are drought tolerant – an easy recipe for any urban gardener. One we loved: A Weekend Adventure – by New Leaf Creations (above).

2.0 Eat Your Greens

Thanks to the Northwest Horticulture Society, we were so thrilled to see that a large amount of the show was dedicated to kitchen gardens. From small container arrangements to large potagers this was definitely my favorite part of the show (above and below).

I was just as ecstatic when I saw the live chicken coop at the Seattle Urban Farm Co. display. This was way too cool for its own good, with a vegetable garden-lined brick pathway, edible green roof, mini orchard, farm kitchen and the beloved livestock. Way to go guys!

3.0 Contemporary Arrangements

We always seem to gravitate to the modern, but there were so many great
container arrangements this year. Check out these sleek planters (above
and below).

4.0 Think Green

Sunset sponsors this event, so I felt like a kid in a candy shop trying to make sure we made enough time to hear some of the speaker series. The most memorable talk was by one of their editors, Lauren Bonar Swzey, who spoke on the design savvy sustainable gardens she has visited over the years. Can we say “job envy”?

5.0 Designer Spotting… And a Little Bit of a Crush

To say that I didn’t go bright red and a bit sweaty when I got to meet one of my favourite international designers, Jamie Durie, would be completely lying. He was just as gorgeous and lovely in person. I talked with him for a bit about his books and even scored an autograph. O was thoroughly embarrassed for me.

6.0 Monrovia Plants

Monrovia is, in my opinion, one of the best plant suppliers out there. If my long-desired job at Sunset doesn’t pan out, I think these guys would be my second choice. It was great to see some of the new species they have developed. Two that intrigued us were Baby Bliss Flax Lily and Wate’s Golden Pine. Now if only our nurseries carried more of their stock.

7.0 Farmers Rock

We talked with some great suppliers in the Marketplace but our favorite couple were from Half Moon Bay, CA. Farmer John Muller and his wife Eda run Farmer John’s Pumpkins and distribute Franchi old world heirloom seeds from Italy. We bought up some gems and successfully managed to smuggle them back home – yippee!

8.0 Classic Designs

I have been on a serious search for some girlie-as-girlie-can-be rain boots. I finally found them at the Smith and Hawkins booth. As much as I am ready to see the rain disappear, maybe a few more days wouldn’t hurt so I can sport these cuties.

9.0 Eco Friendly Products

Two interesting products caught our eye. One is a non-toxic organic pesticide spray that has packaging reminiscent of Method. It’s called Pharm Solutions and is made locally in Washington State.

The other was a five gallon compost tea brewer made from a company called Keep It Simple.

10.0 A Resting Place

After being on our feet all day we were ready for a seat and a tall one. We found the perfect answer in Ballard at Kings Hardware – a local watering hole that served cold local brews and mini little burgers. A nice end to a great day.

Jewellery designer Abigail Percy guest blogged on Design*Sponge last week, and her posts are all themed around botanical design.

She’s pretty well-positioned to provide her perspective on the matter, too. Her own designs, which I have long coveted, are botanically-inspired — like her anemone earrings, above. (*Drool*)

Abigail says, “I love seeing just how many different ways the same plants can be stylised…from something very literal, to something really abstracted and vague – all stemming from the one source.” Her posts go on to explore the influence of the botanical on pattern design, ceramics and fabrics and more. Go check it out – it’s a guaranteed mood-enhancer for the botanically-deprived gardener!

I just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Subtitled “A Year of Food Life,” it’s a personal account of back-to-the-land living crossed with an inquiry into the (big) business of food. It’s not a new book (it came out last spring), nor is it a new concept. But whether Kingsolver’s arguments for eating locally are old hat or big news to you, this is one compelling read.

On one hand, it’s an account of how one family spent one year with the aim of getting their food “so close to home, [they'd] know the person who grew it.” Often, Kingsolver writes, “that turned out to be us.”

On the other hand, the family narrative is interspersed with an examination of corporate agriculture, the impending food crisis, oil dependency, and the effects of each on our planet, our children and communities. Sound heavy? Well… it is, but Kingsolver manages to take such weighty topics and make them not only relevant but digestible. And she provides steps everyone can take to improve the situation, even if you’re not planning to grow your own food.  

As a gardener, I loved the way the author organized the book around the calendar, which, because the Kingsolver family was living so closely in tune with nature, echoes the growing cycle – from asparagus in April to (frozen) zucchini the next March. I learned a lot that I’ll apply to my vegetable growing (without feeling like I just read a book on crop rotation or seed starting). I think Barbara would like that.

For recipes and more, visit the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle website.  

Have you seen The Story of Stuff yet? You can watch a teaser below, but I urge you to watch the full version here. 

What is it, you ask? It’s a 20-minute film that’s a provocative look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns; about “all our stuff–where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.”

If that sounds boring, it’s not. It’s really well-done, easy to understand, and in many places, eye-opening. Yes, it’s 20 minutes long – short for a film, but long to watch off the side of your desk – but I got so absorbed I wasn’t even tempted to shut it down. If you are, you can navigate through it so you don’t watch the whole thing. Or watch it on your lunch break.

It’s narrarated by Annie Leonard, an activist who has spent the past 10 years traveling the globe fighting environmental threats: 

Leonard examines the real costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, and she isolates the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. The Story of Stuff examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of “planned obsolescence” and “perceived obsolescence” — and how these notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today. 

I try to practice sustainable principles in my daily life, but consuming less is a constant struggle for me. Hell, I have a category called “Retail Therapy”! The Story of Stuff is a great reminder that consuming comes with a cost beyond the check-out till.