My county’s wonderful public garden just celebrated 40 years, so what do they do? They invite everyone for some family fun in the garden AND a Beach Boys cover band, so what’s not to like? Nothing much in these photos of gorgeous structures – a gazebo, a teahouse and a pool. The mid-summer portrait.
One of the highlights of my whirlwind 5 days in Los Angeles this past week was hanging out with designer/TV host Shirley Bovshow, and getting to see her own garden. Not only is it well suited to the Southern California climate, but edibles are incorporated throughout in ways that are totally beautiful. I can’t describe the plants she’s growing – they’re mostly foreign to me in Zone 7 – so I’ll let the photos do the talking. There’s also a video tour of her back yard online, and any suggestions you can give about garden videos, please weigh in with a comment on YouTube.
The amazing "before" photos are right here – don’t miss ‘em! They show that her back yard used to be plain and flat, one big open space with some crappy lawn and not much else. And here’s Shirley’s photo collection with even more before-and-after combos.
This last one is the narrow side yard, which used to be nothing but ivy and the view of a chain-link fence. Now it’s an outdoor kitchen/potting shed/veg garden, with plenty of seating along the walls of the raised beds.
Check out this sea of salvia at Chicago’s Lurie Garden! Gorgeous, and awfully close to sustainable (its irrigation system is rarely used). Design by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, plants by Piet Oudolf.
More from the gardens of Chicago coming soon to this blog – and about 50 others, thanks to the second annual Gardenblogger Spring Fling. For now, gotta run. We’re off to see the garden of Rick Bayless, one of this city’s most famous chefs.
To see a video of the sunny, open part of the back garden, click here.
You may remember that I gave up on my chimnea because I’d only used it twice in 10 years and it was just taking up space on my deck. The plan was to stick it in a border and cram it full of plants.
Well, here’s what I tried first. With the chimnea upright I had to fill it completely with soil so it would support the trumpet vine planted in the upper opening. But how do you keep the soil from spilling out the lower opening? With the very, very awkward use of wire mesh and landscape fabric. As if that weren’t bad enough, after punching holes into those layers and cramming these sweet potato vines in the opening, it became crystal clear that there was no way to keep them watered, and they’re not exactly succulent. So, next bright idea?
Ah, that’s better. First because it looks more natural (to me) but also because it’s plantable. So here the trumpet vine’s coming out of the larger opening on the right and nothing’s crammed into the smaller opening on the left.
Now if you’ve ever grown trumpet vine you already know it can be shall we say problemmatic if not massively invasive? Yeah, I know it’s native but I’ve never seen such angry feedback about a plant in my life - see for yourself. So I’ll be keeping an eye on it.
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Andrew Bunting has a long career in horticulture (for such a young guy) including 10 years as curator of the famous Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College. He recently shared the story of his garden’s makeover – into the stunner you see here – and it just made me want to see it in person. So next month I’ll be taking a little horticultural road trip, a two-day whirlwind tour of some major gardening destinations in Pennsylvania – Andrew’s own garden, the Scott Arboretum itself, the Rodale Institute headquarters and growing fields, and the growing and breeding fields of Knock Out roses. Can’t wait.
Enjoy these shots of (top two) his front garden and below, his back yard. Click here for my notes of Andrew’s talk, and an amazing before-and-after pairing of his front garden.
