“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, a place to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.“ John Muir
Category: Garden Articles
What’s Your Sign?
What is the sign you look for to tell you spring is near? Is it a robin, a crocus poking up through the dead leaves of last fall, a just awakening snake in your path, a citrus blossom, a pussy willow branch, or that first walk out of doors without a jacket?
A Garden Love Story – Abkhazi Garden
“A Garden is a perpetual reminder that there are no shortcuts to the important things in life”.– Princess Peggy Abkhazi
In Victoria, BC there are many fabulous gardens. The Abkhazi garden is an acre heritage site tucked away in a residential area of Victoria. This garden situated on a rocky ridge overlooks the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic mountains. Peggy and Nicholas Abkhazi built this garden over a period of 40 years as an expression of their shared joy.
Garden Conservatory – A Crystal Palace
It is citrus season. Outside my door the oranges are ripening on an overloaded tree providing a surplus of the sweet fruit. If you don’t have a tree right outside your door, you can still find an abundance of the succulent fruit right down the street at your supermarket.
Plants of Ice & Fire
The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Garden
A few years ago I had no idea where Tasmania was. I remembered the Looney Tunes ® cartoon character of the Tasmanian Devil, but beyond that I knew little else. Until this year, when I found myself in the Tasmanian Royal Botanical Garden in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, over 8000 miles from my garden.
The Artichoke Project
Late last November I planted two Artichoke plants in a sunny spot in one of my new flower beds. I wanted something to grow fast and add some variety of color and shape to my view. They grew beautifully! By March their silvery-green leaves spiked up vigorously at both ends of the bed providing a framework for the smaller plants between them. The end of each symmetrical leaf was punctuated with a fine thistle tip.
Floriade Nightfest
In ancient times much of the world paused in their work to celebrate flowers. Weary of winter and with food supplies running low the Roman Goddess Flora was celebrated. In the spring a Maypole was erected, ribbons streamed down and the dancing began. Young women wore crowns of flowers in their hair. The beauty of life, flowers and fertility was thoroughly celebrated with the hope of a great harvest in the Fall. The celebration lasted several days with games, performances, feasting and drinking. Australia’s Floriade does just that! By day the festivities are lit by the sun and by night lights multiply the magic of the celebration.
Chinese Friendship Garden
In September it is spring in Sydney Australia and when we walked into the 2.5 acre Chinese Friendship Garden for a moment I thought this will be the same as other Chinese gardens. There were the quite wonderful textured rocks and the bonsai collection in the entry but there was something more, the garden was a full of color! There were orange clivias, lining the paths, rhododendrons and azaleas in shades of pink, and ruffled white.
Sunflowers in Song
A single row of sunflowers is a delight in my garden! As the flowers fade and seeds form a flock of yellow canaries and some peach faced loved birds descended on the tasty seed heads. I heard them chatter, I heard their songs. They were everywhere in the garden.
Stumpery Garden
As a southwest gardener, wandering into a northwest woodland garden is an exciting experience. Here are the shade plants of azaleas, jack-in-the pulpit, mayflower, hostas and rhododendrons. There are great varieties of tree bark textures, conifer needles and dazzling shades of green. Discovering the Stumpery Garden in the Rhododendron Species Garden in Federal Way, WA was a surprise, full of wonderous wood and glorious green. Here I had my first encounter with what is described as a “Victorian period garden romanticizing nature.” The intention is to show the wild side of nature using tree roots and stumps placed upside down or on their sides. The wild nature of hefty, twisted tree roots presents a vastly different, and somewhat dramatic view of trees. The ends jut up and out, their trunks ripped at the ends, lying in varying stages of decay, arranged in fences, circles or as a single focal point. The root pockets become natural planting spaces for a variety of ferns.