I can hardly believe that it is Memorial Day weekend!  May came and went in a flash.  I am spending my weekend catching up in the garden, writing my heart out for Leaf, and generally recovering from the rest of the month.   I am still culling through my images from my trip….wondering if I should have bought a hat from Pachacuti ….  I still can’t decide…I really liked the one at top right.   I’ve got so much more to share from my trip….but it will have to wait til next week.   For now, enjoy some of the interesting things that I have seen lately and have a great weekend.

• Dear Water House, I want to know more about you.
• Do you need a Gardening with Kids Tutorial….this one is wonderful!
• Summer is coming, how I am going to get it all done? Making Plans to go Hands Free and focus on what is important!
• These would be perfect for a garden contractor…..
• Who knew about hop shoots?
• Even though I’m still recovering from this last trip, This colorful map of Paris inspires more wanderlust.
• Let’s learn about Ramadan Lanterns… I want some in my garden.
• Did you see that I found my dog in light form! In in an all out hunt for the American version.

~R

Sometimes the story is more important the pictures.   Jihae Hwang’s Chelsea 2012 garden is just one of those times.   Besides the fact that the garden is a recreation of the still uninhabited De-Militarized Zone that remains after the Korean Conflict – a place which has over the years become a pristine sanctuary of native plants and wildlife, the building of the garden was still effected by conflicts that still weigh in Korea.

Jihae’s garden was to receive sponsorship from a government sponsored arts council, but a mere 4 weeks before the show, the minister overseeing this funding was jailed and the garden was left with no support.

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Dan Flynn of GardenLink  is an old friend of mine (he built a show garden for me nearly 10 years ago at Hampton Court) and he was working with Jihae to build this garden.   When funding suddenly stopped (due apparently to political turmoil), he and his team had been paid for only about half of the 220,000 GBP price tag.   With Chelsea countdown stress, Dan committed to getting this garden built and since he couldn’t afford to pay his staff to do the work, he put an ad on craigslist.  The post turned up a small army of volunteers who both wanted to be involved in the building of a Chelsea flower show garden, but also wanted to support the garden and it’s many messages about peace and healing.  Some came from many hours away and even put themselves up in local accommodation just to help build the garden.

Designers Statement:

The design highlights the tensions and lasting effects of the Korean conflict.

The barbed wire fence surrounding the garden creates a feeling of mystery and unease. Carefully considered installations feature the remains of warfare, including defensive walls, trenches and charred trees. The fence is hung with cans and bottles containing letters from separated families and friends to illustrate the sense of longing felt by people kept apart by the conflict.

The watch tower reminds visitors of the surveillance of the DMZ and also provides an observation point for the garden. A memorial chair (covered in ID tags) commemorates war veterans and victims. A stream flows through the garden, defying the barriers of human conflict and depicting the feelings of love and tension that the designer believes co-exist in the DMZ.

Dan and Jihae are still trying to cover the remaining costs of building this garden and are accepting donations here.  Perhaps you have a loved one who served and sacrificed during the Korean War conflict, or wish to offer assitance in name of peace (the spirit of this garden) or just generally, because your heart goes out professionally to good designers and garden construction people trying to do the right thing….you can make a donation to this garden here.

And BTW — Despite all odds, and with a crew that was found last minute via craigslist….Jihae Hwang’s Quiet Time: DMZ Forbidden Garden took Gold….and not only that, it also just won a President’s award from the RHS — a feat never before accomplished by a show garden. 

Designed by Jihae Hwang

Built by GardenLink 

More by Anne Wareham at ThinkingGardens about Political Gardens.

I’m back!  And I have so much to tell you all, I feel like I have this reservoir of stuff and I need to make sure the dam holds so that I can let each piece come out in its best more considered way.  So, continuing….

If you have any familiarity with the conceptual garden work of Tony Heywood, you would have instantly recognized his hand in this creation.   GlamourLands – A Techno Folly is inspired by Dorset’s Jurassic coast.   As part of the Fresh Gardens (another new section at Chelsea — and frankly one that I think was a long time needed) Tony and Alison took a conceptual approach to the idea of a garden and in particular, used the garden to convey that gardens and computer games can both help escape from reality.

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The colors, textures, creativity and the overall visual feast of  garden made it another favorite of mine.

I think it is tremendously important that if Chelsea is to continue to be the deservedly renowned show that it is, it needs to continue to evolve with the industry and embrace the full spectrum of designers so I am pleased that Tony will continue to be a part of the show.

From the RHS website:

Last year, Tony Heywood was the artist in residence at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Using the RHS colour chart, he matched the colours of more than 500 flowers including petunia and Narcissus displayed in the Great Pavilion and in the display gardens – 40 of them from the garden of Cleve West. This year, using a spectral analysis machine, paint company Dulux has recreated some of these colours in 300 litres of paint.

Tony’s next project is to pour this paint into a receptacle from a height and capture the paint on video as the colours fall through the air and mix together.

These videos will be shown in slow motion on nine screens next to the Fresh gardens. Tony has explained that at first sight it would appear that the screens are static blocks of colours but after watching them for a while the visitor will be able to see that the picture (or rather the paint) is in fact moving.

 

Well, we have something to look forward to next year!

Design by Tony Heywood and Alison Condie

Joe Swift created a beautiful space for his Chelsea garden where wood and wood tones take center stage.   The structures are beautifully finished modern arches of layered cedar wood — (which I would love to know how well they would weather in a real garden)… and the remaining stonework is interesting as well.   The garden features large boulders that have been horizontally sliced to enhance their natural texture and increase their interest.  ( I might have to give this a try sometime as this is a really interesting feature if you ask me)

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A diagonal layout helps to make the long narrow space that chelsea gardens tend to occupy seem bigger while also changing the sightlines through the garden and breaking up the space into separate areas.

The plants here are meant to be suitable for a dry garden and in shades of orange yellow and burgundy….my personal favorite is the Verbascum ‘Petra’.

But the most interesting thing about this project is the overwhelmingly fast build.  Check out this link to see how the construction went in in just 4 days!

Designed by Joe Swift

Sponsored by Homebase

built by Willerby Landscapes

Conversations around the post press day pub tables buzzed last night with bets on who would take Best in Show this morning at Chelsea.   Interestingly, most agreed that Cleve West wouldn’t win because a few beech trees in his hedgeline had failed to fully green up in time for the judging.

Everyone agreed it was lovely, but we were sure that this slight (but uncontrollable) fault would knock him out of the running.  I had picked Joe Swift’s garden for the winner (I will share that garden next) but I am pleased that the judges gave Cleve the prize and acknowledged that even in show gardens, mother mature trumps all and we simply must work within and accept her constraints.

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The Garden, sponsored by Brewin Dolphin, celebrates the the popularity of topiary. But while the topiary was a nice bit of structure, I really loved the loose planting and the rill.  Euphorbias and poppies are what seemed most predominant but there was alot more than that going on.

I find the planting lists of show gardens to be hugely interesting resources for finding new and interesting varieities and discovering mixes that I have never thought of.   Here is the list for this garden (from the rhs website):

Acanthus mollis ‘Rue Ledan’ Bears breeches
Aconitum ‘Ivorine’ Monkshood
Amsonia tabernaemontana var. salicifolia
Blue dogbane
Aquilegia chrysantha ‘Yellow Queen’
Granny’s bonnet
Aquilegia x hybrida ‘Green Apples’ Granny’s bonnet
Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Ruby Port’ Granny’s bonnet
Bupleurum falcatum Thoroughwax
Campanula trachelium Nettle-leaved bellflower
Centaurea phoenix hybrids Knapweed
Centaurea ‘Pulchra Major’ Knapweed
Centranthus ruber Red valerian
Cirsium rivulare Plume thistle
Crambe cordifolia Greater sea kale
Dictamnus albus Dittany
Digitalis lutea Yellow foxglove
Epilobium angustifolium ‘Album’
Rosebay willowherb
Erigeron karvinskianus Mexican fleabane
Euphorbia x martinii Spurge
Euphorbia wallichii Spurge
Geum ‘Lemon Drops’ Avens

Geranium pyrenaicum ‘Bill Wallis’
Mountain cranesbill ‘Bill Wallis’
Gillenia trifoliata Bowmans root
Heuchera cylindrica ‘Greenfinch’ Heuchera greenfinch
Iris sibirica ‘Gull’s Wing’ Siberian iris
Iris sibirica ‘Tropic Night’ Siberian iris
Lamium maculatum ‘White Nancy’
Spotted deadnettle
Libertia grandiflora New Zealand satin flower
Linaria purpurea Purple toadflax
Mathiasella bupleuroides ‘Green Dream’ Mathiesella
Meum athamanticum Spignel
Mukdenia rossii ‘Karasuba’ Red leafed mukdenia
Paeonia ‘Red Charm’ Peony red charm
Paeonia ‘Buckeye Belle’ Semi double peony
Seseli libanotis Moon carrot
Thalictrum aquilegifolium ‘Album’ Meadow rue
Trifolium ochroleucon Sulphur clover
Valeriana officinalis Common valerian

There are a whole lot of plants there that I don’t know well….how about you?  Any old favorites or new interests?

Garden Design - Cleve West.

Contractor - Swatton Landscape
Plants - Hortus Loci
Stone/Artefacts - Lichen Garden Antiques

Other Contributors
Orchard Dene Nurseries
Bamber Wallis Design

images by rochelle greayer

I know I have mentioned it before, but my garden really is a test bed for a huge variety of garden experiments.   I can’t help myself….perhaps it is the physicist in me….but I am always putting some theroy or method to the test in my own garden-y way.

Care to see the projects and the conclusions or ongoing lab trials I have currently going on?    Join me in the slideshow….

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Make sure you check out all my other GDRT cohorts and their stories of their own gardens.

Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In The Garden : Los Altos, CA

Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX

Mary Gallagher Gray : Black Walnut Dispatch : Washington, D.C.

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Deborah Silver : Dirt Simple : Detroit, MI

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA

Andrew Keys : Garden Smackdown : Boston, MA

I have been pondering how to bring you the wealth of garden inspiration that I am finding here at Chelsea.   The gardens are, as usual, filled with design inspiration, back stories, pretty plants, and modern ideas.   While I continue to organize my images and my thoughts, I think I simply need to stick with the obvious….go garden by garden.

The two most talked about gardens in the show are those by Cleve West and Diarmuid Gavin.  Cleve was again the winner of the best in show garden with his Brewin Dolphin Garden and Diarmuid Gavin has taken the gardening world’s breath away again with his towering Westland Magic Garden.

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Always controversial, some people simply hated Diarmuid’s Garden, but I think that at 7 stories tall (the tallest thing ever built at an RHS show) and with it’s overwhelming enormity and surprise at every turn, I couldn’t help but enjoy wandering through it.   It was a nerve-wracking experience that required climbing many tall, open and sometimes quite rickety seeming ladders. I was forced to leave my bag at one point because I was convinced it would literally be the death of me (causing me to fall off the giant contraption).

But the interesting thing about this was the relatively simple construction.  It was, in essence, just scaffolding with lots of rooms and spaces carved out of it.  It is not possible that is could never be a literal model of modern urban gardening (it was quite dark in the inner depths) but with some refinement, it certainly gives some thought to ways that small growing and living spaces can be maximized.

Personally, I couldn’t help but feel like I was somewhere around 10 years old visiting a modern take on Disneyland’s defunct Swiss Family Robinson house.  (remember that?)  And I don’t think I was the only one.  The 3+ story, rapid way out, slide had plenty of adult enthusiasts (little kids aren’t allowed at Chelsea).   After hearing many a scream as the descent was made, I opted to try and temper my ride with a little rubber sole foot braking….that was until my shoes came flying off and dropped fast.

The Westland Magical Garden was designed by Diarmuid Gavin.

All images by rochelle greayer (with the exception of the one where I am coming out the slide — shoeless….that gem was captured by Justine over at Notcot.  See her full post about the garden)

My days here are so full….yesterday I spent the morning in a garden identifying (as best I could) british weeds as part of a forest gardening/ permaculture design course….and then I spent the afternoon at Chelsea.

Today is press day at the 2012 Chelsea Flower Show and yesterday was the final build up day.  I took over 400 images as I wandered amongst the hustle and bustle of the show construction….and I am sorting and prepping them just as fast as I can….but here is a quick taste.

I’m off to see more…..

I read this morning that Chelsea Flower Show tickets are selling on Ebay for over 300 GBP (that is on the order of $500USD).

The unimaginable has happened….A flower show has outstripped demand for Cold Play Tickets.

The idea of this both shocks and frustrates me.  Much as I love the show….whoa….that is 6 times the RHS price!!!

But the show will wow and awe and inspire me like no place else.  It will bring together gardeners and garden lovers, the chic and the earthy, and simply the best in the business for 4 days, and it will be extraordinary.  And when I am not there, I can’t help but follow every minute online.  I would pay more than the ticket price…but what I don’t understand  is why this can all be so wonderful, when in other places (like here in the US) we are stuck with ho hum or even downright terrible events.  No one would dream of paying this kind of money for one of our shows….not that they should.

Here are some of my thoughts about how to start righting that wrong….

1) Organize a group of industry and event leaders — those that might be able to pull off organizing a show like this, to actually go and visit Chelsea.  We Americans need to know that Philly and Chelsea simply are not the same….not even close… and we need to understand that the bar can and should be set way higher.

2) Designers need to get better at selling themselves as the unique individuals that they are.  They need to be designers — creative, intense, interesting, challenging and celebrated people.   Much as TV makeover shows have a tendency to make me cringe –  primarily because they aren’t usually done in an engaging way –  (I think that  the designs are often benign, the personalities aren’t shiny, and the shows are all formatted in a too similar and formulaic way)  - we need more of them.  We need a few celebrity designers, growers, and gardeners that aren’t Australian or British imports…that are real, homegrown kick-ass cool people who inspire others to want to be the same.

3) More individual garden makers need to start to seeing garden making as a wonderful form of personal expression in the same way that they might see that in interior decor, art making, crafting, theater, fashion and a whole host of other ways that we express ourselves.   We need to stop talking about landscaping…but rather real personal garden making.

I know these are all tall orders…and I’m not sure how to begin to tackle them.  But I would love to start the conversation….and maybe together we can raise the discourse in the USA about garden making and design and we can start to evolve our shows and events.

I am curious, what do you think we need to do to raise the excitement bar and evolve events that are much more inspiring and interesting.   I think a population that has a greater interest in plants and the natural world and the industry surrounding it would serve our country well.   If you understand what it means to cultivate the land, you also grow a greater understanding of the importance of the uncultivated, the wild and the natural.  I think more people need to have a greater connection to our land and I think that from that we will have huge benefits in our health, our environment, our economy, and a knock on to many other areas as well.

So, what do you think we need to do as an industry and a population to inspire, grow and evolve the garden industry in the US? 

p.s. I am headed to London tomorrow to cover The Chelsea Flower Show and the Chelsea Fringe Festival!  I can’t  wait….it will be all Chelsea here for a while as I bring you along with me….

image from the Telegraph.

Some have an affinity for the tiny sweetness of the diminutive, but I (and my kin) seem to obsess over the monstrous, huge and gross enormity of the gigantea plants.

While in general, ‘gigantea’ means giant as in really large, it is sometimes in respect to the regular (so perhaps it is not soooo large when the regular version is small) — but often gigantea really does mean huge.  And that is where things get fun.

Like Colocasia gigantea (above)  and my own homegrown Miscanthus gigantea – which I swear you can watch grow.    I split the giant miscanthus that I got a few years ago into 5 plants this year.   We are all so excited to feel small amongst these towering plumes in the garden.

Check out my Latin Series Pinterest Board for more gigantea plants.

What’s your taste in extreme sizing?  Do you prefer the tiny or the tremendous?  Feel free to share your favorite.

image from Brian’s Botanicals  (where you can buy a baby Colocasia gigantea!)

When I was a new mom of a sweet baby girl — and we lived in England —  I had one of those new mom clothing obsessions.  I went all in on hedgehog inspired baby goods.   Adorable and seemingly so European (I told myself)….I loved the cute details that these small garden rodents brought to dresses, tights, hats…whatever.

So, last week when Roanne told me that you could adopt a hedgehog here in the US, I was instantly intrigued.   Now the last thing this family needs is another pet, but if I could infest my garden with these critters, I would soooo be tempted to throw aside all highly questionable ecological species introducing warnings and cultivate these charming garden guests.   Good thing they won’t survive the wild here so I’m not tempted with such insane ideas….but I’m nonetheless happy to know that should I need a hedgehog fix….it’s not too hard to come by.

Hedgehog breeders list.

image from the berry

There is something quite appealing about these simple shapes.  If I had an extra ~$2100.00 I would certainly buy three.  (Actually, I take that back….even if I had the $$, I think I’d only be in if we dropped a zero off the end).  So until there is a knockoff, my starling neighbors and I will have to admire these beautiful teak, lined with stainless steel, bird sculptures from afar.

Available at Garpa.

Images from Garpa

My MIL and FIL arrive from CA tonight, so this mothers day weekend will be especially mother-ly.   I am particularly grateful for this visit as it will allow me to depart for London next week knowing that my family will not have to endure the stress of a missing mom, chauffeur, chef, laundress, dog walker, chicken feeder, etc. etc.  I’m looking forward to an opportunity to focus on working and making a trip that revolves almost universally around gardens.   But before all that, its mother’s day and the weekend….I hope you all have a wonderful weekend with your mothers or those who you mother (or both).   Until Monday….

• I spent much of the day yesterday looking for a couple of great adirondack-like chairs for my garden…I found nothing….but now am wondering if I might be loving this instead.
• Love this post about cheap, easy and DIY-able outdoor kitchens.
• and this one for Sandbox ideas is pretty great too!
• I just can’t ever get enough of ephemeral fashion.
• Cretaceous Garden.
• I think I need this for my shopping lists…
• The Next Gen of String Gardens.
• My new (signed and #’d)  Charley Harper print that I scored yesterday (above) at Brimfield reminded me of these guys!

~Rochelle

Am I the only one who gasped when they lowered the thing out the window? This is gardening with nerves of steel for sure, but I love it and think it a fantastic idea for window gardeners!

Design by Barreau and Charbonnet.

I’m out today at Brimfield and while I am gorging myself creatively (huge antique shows held in giant muddy fields DO fill me up), I hope that these images fill you up a bit.

They are Fashion Designer Dorothee Schumacher‘s garden and menagerie (that animal house is TDF and I want nothing more than an exact replica of that garden oven!) — take by Todd Selby.

images from The Selby – where you can see many more equally fab pics. 

This is what Jamie’s patio look liked before she did this:

Everything about this makeover video is sparking my creative juices.   The video itself with the time-laspe coolness is reminding me to do the same (I actually figured out how to do it last year and played but never produced anything!).  The Budget — $1500 and 3 hours to put it all in place….

Then there is all the DIY projects to pull it together (see Jamie’s website for the full run down on the palette sofa, the tassel garland, the ombre died bedding and more.)

And the final product — WOW!  There is a family garden I want to hang out in!

see more in the gallery and over at Jamie’s website.

images from Prudent Baby.

Weeds are just hardy plants struggling to survive….trying to overcome the obstacles of being ugly, annoying, unwanted, and unloveable for some human deemed reason or another.  Right?

I can’t help but be a champion of the underdog, so I am coddling these two weedy babies.   Even though I have no idea what they are, I think they are kinda pretty, elegant in fact….so I have decided to adopt them and give them a place of permanence in my garden home.

(this one smells so nice ~ kind of clover-y)

I’m hoping this doesn’t turn into one of those adoption horror stories where eventually I will have to abandon them on a plane bound for Russia.

But in the mean time, can you help me name them?  I like traditional names….Latin is particularly nice.

I have a big garden so I am frequently overwhelmed by it.  But I reminded myself recently just how much can be done in tiny spurts of time. (I re-seeded my front lawn in the time it took my kindergartner to get his shoes on and get in the car to go to school).   It had me thinking….what else can I do in mere minutes.

Here are 5 more ideas (besides re-seeding and over-seeding grassy ares) that you can do very quickly.

1) Clean out a container, a raised bed, or anything you didn’t quite get to last year.  It’s all dead it comes away with the quickest of swipes.  Leave your garden gloves by the door so you are ready to go and you won’t have to wash up afterwards.

2) Turn the compost heap — I like to do this when I am just back from a walk with the dog, or yoga…I am already needing a little shower, I am all warmed up — why not add 5 more minutes of physical exercise.

3) Prune something — pick the thing that most recently finished blooming, odds are it is a good time to prune it.

4) Pick a Bouquet — You know whatever is blooming….

5) Clean the ashes out of the firepit or fire bowl….and if you only have a grill….clean the grill.  It will be ready for the next time you want to use it.

Anyone else have a quickie to share?

image from threads and snippets. 

Let me give you this little mnemonic for Fruticosa….The Knights of Ni.

Ok, if that doesn’t do it for you…then you will just have to remember that Fruticosa means shrubby (like shrubbery).   And the often encountered Suffruticosa also means shrubby but with the prefix ‘Suf’ which means ‘under or beneath’.  I am not quite sure what qualifies the fruticosas from the suffruticosas and so far, it hasn’t affected me.

Check my pinterest board for the Latin Series to see more ‘Fruticosa’ plants.

images Paeonia suffruticosa ’Zi Er Qiao’ (from Metropolitan Gardens — a fantastic blog I discovered this morning!)

It’s wedding season and for the first time in a few years I get to think about weddings.   One my main squeeze friends (you know the kind you talk to daily and have done so for a minimum of 15 years)  is getting re-married this fall and we are having so much fun working on the scheme of this fall beach wedding.   So, outside of my normal haunts I have been perusing wedding blogs a bit more than normal and I’m a little surprised at what I have been missing.

My favorite at the moment is Green Wedding Shoes…..check out some of the inspiration that I have found there….

I am finding boundless inspiration for plant partners by looking at wedding bouquets.   Also — can someone tell me what that white flower is that comes out the side of the left hand bouquet (cone-tail shaped with little flowers that bloom up the stalk) ?  I inherited it in my garden, I like it ok (though now that I see it in this arrangement, I like it more) but it is a completely awful spreading garden thug!  Has anyone else had this experience?

And then there is the ‘alter’ — where the couples make their vows.  Look how easy it is to create all sorts of garden scale ‘screens’ to give architectural interest to an area.

read more after the jump…

There are fun ideas for displaying food that can easily be altered to display other things in a garden (plants, containers, statuary, etc.).

and finally…. isn’t this the prettiest way to make a plain hall a whole lot more exciting.  String gardens at their best.

 images from Green Wedding Shoes.