Tag: gardens

Random thoughts from the NW Flower and Garden Show

Last week was Seattle’s NW Flower and Garden Show. This multi-day extravaganza features display gardens, educational seminars, and many opportunities to spend $$$. I had a little free time one day and shot some pictures, which I present here along with my commentary:

The Good

The “perfect” lawn is no longer just a monoculture of grass.  At least two of the display gardens had flowers scattered for a designer version of ecoturf:

And a very cool repurposing of old heating vent covers as part of a patchwork of groundcovers:

The Questionable

A gorgeous Japanese maple (Acer palmatum), “born” in 1893:

I’m sorry.… Continue reading this article “Random thoughts from the NW Flower and Garden Show”

The Importance of Not Leaving Your Veg Garden Unattended for a Week in July


Small dog snout + normal-sized cucumber provided for scale.

This problem is self-explanatory and probably not at all atypical for our readers. Pattypans became UFOs; grey zucchini, footballs.  Note that it’s been very dry here in the Blue Ridge. I shudder to think what would have happened with normal rainfall.


Beans amuck! Scared the hell out of Joel when he opened the fridge. But they wouldn’t fit in the bucket!

If you haven’t tried yard-long beans, give them a shot sometime.… Continue reading this article “The Importance of Not Leaving Your Veg Garden Unattended for a Week in July”

Lamb’s Ears Revisited

A bit more on my recent travels to the big floriculture conference in Columbus, Ohio.  I always try to make it out to the Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens, on the campus of THE Ohio State University. There are several components, including trials, a large arboretum, and several small gardens.  My favorite is the Steven Still Perennial Garden. It’s a lovely mixed garden, designed by Adrian Bloom (Blooms of Bressingham), and was installed in ONE DAY by their garden volunteers – 2005, I think.… Continue reading this article “Lamb’s Ears Revisited”

Questions on sustainability

Linda’s recent post on the sustainability of topiaries got me to thinking, is any horticultural practice sustainable?  And, does it matter?

 

Picking up on the topiary theme I thought of the ultimate form of tree manipulation, bonsai.  I few years ago I visited the National Arboretum in Washington DC, which includes an incredible bonsai display.  Some of the bonsai specimens in the collection originated in Japan and are over 300 years old.  Is 300 years long enough to consider this a sustainable practice? … Continue reading this article “Questions on sustainability”

A nifty garden to visit

I missed my regular posting on Wednesday since (1) I’m on vacation and (2) I hadn’t had time to find anything sufficiently worthy of posting.  (Of course I have a compost barrel full of snake oil products I could rant about, but even I get tired of that.  Especially on vacation.)


Note the strategic head placement

But yesterday we visited the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens just north of Niagara Falls.  We didn’t have nearly enough time to see it all, so I’ll share just one special corner.… Continue reading this article “A nifty garden to visit”

Duty Calls

As retirements have decimated our Horticulture Department’s faculty ranks, I find myself in the interesting position of teaching a course in small fruit production next fall semester. I’m working on the syllabus as was speak (hence this post).  If you’ve read my bio (“About Us”), you’ll see that this is not my bag.  But our students are clamoring for fruit and vegetable production courses, so someone’s got to do it. We are also  currently without on-campus vegetable faculty, if you can believe it.… Continue reading this article “Duty Calls”