Posts tagged as:

garden-design

Colchicum Design Ideas from Montrose Gardens

October 10, 2009

Many gardeners complain that it is difficult to place colchicums in the garden because of their unusual growing cycle, in which their leaves grow in the spring, die down in the summer, and then the flowers emerge in the fall. The colchicum bed at Montrose Gardens in Hillsborough, North Carolina, pictured above, contained many colchicum [...]

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Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities!: Book Review

April 9, 2009

Read my review of Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities

Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities!: Notes from a Gloucester Garden by Kim Smith made me aware of my garden book prejudices: What kind of title is that? You just don’t start a title with “oh” and end it with an exclamation point! And then I read the back cover: “Drawn by the tender magic of [...]

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Home Outside, Creating the Landscape You Love: Book Review

April 7, 2009

Julie Moir Messervy opens Home Outside: Creating the Landscape You Love by remarking,
Most of us feel less confident about creating outdoor living spaces than we do about our interiors. Inside, we happily paint walls, choose finishes, and buy rugs, furniture, and fixtures, but when we step outside we’re unsure of how to begin.
Maybe that’s why [...]

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50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants: Book Review

February 24, 2009

I confess, when I first heard 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants by Tracy DiSabato-Aust was coming out, I was dismayed. I have the first edition of The Well-Tended Perennial Garden, which was incredibly satisfying because it was based on her own close observation and methodical experimentation. At the time it was published, it was very [...]

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In the Garden with Jane Austen: Book Review

January 13, 2009

I first read Pride and Prejudice in grade school, when my grandmother put a volume of Readers Digest Condensed Classics for Children in my hands. I’ve read Pride and Prejudice (unabridged) several times since then, but I never had a good grasp of the culture of that day and missed some subtle humor in the [...]

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Write your garden’s mission statement

December 31, 2008

Many of us write goals or resolutions for the new year, but have you ever considered writing your garden’s mission statement? Helen Yoest of Gardening with Confidence encourages us to do just that.
Many of us have named our garden, but I think a mission statement goes further. It forces you to think about what you [...]

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Spring Fling: The places

April 16, 2008

In a previous post, I told you a little about the people I met at Spring Fling, the first national meet-up of garden bloggers, held in Austin, Texas on April 5th. Here are photos of some of the places we visited, along with my thoughts and observations. (Click on any photo for a larger version.)
Zanthan [...]

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Fallscaping: Book Review

January 28, 2008

Inspiring Ideas and Photos Take the Autumn Garden to the Next Level
I’d read several books by Piet Oudolf and by Wolfgang Oehme, but I never really “got” the fall garden until I read Fallscaping, by Nancy Ondra and Stephanie Cohen. Somehow those two American women made gardening in the fall accessible to me in a [...]

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The transitory rustic garden arch: Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop

January 24, 2008

I have long fantasized having a substantial arbor dripping with roses. Ignoring the fact that there aren’t too many repeat-blooming climbers hardy enough to take my climate, I realize with dismay that my most favored place to site an arbor turns out to be on a slope every time I leave my dream world and [...]

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Five views of one path: Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop

November 27, 2007

Perhaps it is a bit extreme to say “Paths make the garden,” but ever since I was a child paths have been an emotionally significant element to my enjoyment of a garden. I didn’t realize this until we moved to the rural 15 acres where we now live, when I struggled with how to turn [...]

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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

July 14, 2007

Long-time readers of my blog know that I have never shied away from being honest about the poor upkeep of my garden. Sometimes I find beauty in the weeds, and sometimes they depress me, but I’ve never pretended they didn’t exist. I agree with Colleen that fear of “not doing it right,” or “not being [...]

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A Garden Labyrinth

April 26, 2007

And what is retirement for, if not to make a few dreams come true? And what is a garden for, if not to satisfy the longings of your heart?
I have learned a lot from watching the garden of my best garden buddy, Bub, develop. The most satisfying garden, for the gardener and for others, [...]

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The Intimate Garden: Book Review

April 8, 2007

The Intimate Garden: Twenty Years and Four Seasons in Our Garden by Gordon and Mary Hayward belongs to the rare breed of landscape design book that is actually helpful:

One private residential garden–not little glimpses of a dozen gardens
The garden was developed over many years. (They figured it out as they went along)
They tell you the [...]

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