A noun. A verb. A blog.
A close-up of the bottle paving in Portland-area Bella Madrone garden There’s something magical about glass, isn’t there? Even when we can’t see through it or when light can’t penetrate from behind (like a stained glass window), it still manages to capture the light. As we approach the time of dull days, I like to […]
An almost-panoramic view of a Pittsburgh driveway that doubles as an entry courtyard. Nice to see a driveway that paving choice and framing makes both doubly functional and beautiful Of course, my whole garden would fit into this many times over. Still. Inspiring.
This picture shows me where the white tulips are winding down As garden bloggers, we’re often trying to present only the pretty pictures – making the camera show us off to our best advantage. But as gardeners, we really need to look at the “bad side” of our gardens sometimes, using photographs as record-keepers and […]
Convertible, moving-wall greenhouse, with back wall open for summer. In Buffalo this summer, while Helen and I toured the city’s must-see Garden Walk, I became deliriously envious (I mean, inspired) of a design solution for convertible greenhouse. Buffalo gardeners Arlan and Dom had transformed their greenhouse into four-season use. A greenhouse that doesn’t turn into the fiery […]
The rain brought out the rainbow in this mosaic rug by Clare Dohna – in the garden fittingly called Floramagoria Who knows at what stage this glorious mosaic came in this Portland garden’s planning and design? (A rhetorical question, as garden designer Laura Crockett and owners Craig Quirk and Larry Neill likely know quite well.) […]
Large firepit sitting area from designer-retailer JJ deSousa’s garden in Portland, OR Are you stuck with a garden that isn’t “on the level” – so sloped, it creates awkward changes in elevation? Want to turn that negative into a positive? Well, our promise to bring back ideas from the Garden Bloggers’ Fling in Portland OR […]
Wild enough to eat? A buffet table of cake-shaped arrangements by floral designer Albert Graves of Bloemen Decor. You can have your cake, but you might not want to eat it, too. Not if it’s one of the tasty designs above by Albert Graves at 2014’s Canada Blooms. What a cool centrepiece that might make […]
Do these stepping stones above the water call to you? What draws you through a garden? The answers pop up again and again as – in the midst of another January coolth-wave – I look longingly through garden photos. Certain garden features give me what I call “come-hither looks.” Come here, they say, irresistibly. Walk […]
The Wave Garden in Richmond Point, California, overlooking San Francisco Bay. Is it essential for a garden, a serious garden, to always start with a plan? And if we don’t have a plan, should we say, “Oh well, nothing’s written in stone”? In June 2013, I visited a garden that began with no real plan: […]
Instead of framing a parterre with boxwood (Buxus) hedges, how about using feather reed grass (Calamagrostis) instead? Unlike box, it will change through the season. Don’t you love how the soft foliage here allows these bulbs to shine? Grasses have been the big thing recently. I’m not talking about puny little turf grasses, but statuesque […]
White and weathered, the Cabots’ home is centuries younger than New France, yet seems to pre-date it Whether you enjoy 28 acres, as the Cabot family has at Les Quatre Vents, or 0.06 acres, as I do, it’s good to consider how your garden works with your architecture – and how your architecture works with […]
One of a series of willow arches around the kitchen garden of Domaine Cataraqui, Québec A couple of years ago, we wrote about living willow fences. You can build just about anything out of willow – it’s a tree with a great determination to grow! This summer on a visit to Québec City, these willow […]