The Garden Buzz

P. Allen Smith on Getting the Most From Your Garden Tour Experience

I recently had the opportunity to ask noted garden expert, P. Allen Smith about getting the most from your garden tour experience. And...it just so happens our 2011 Hennepin County Master Gardener Learning Gardens Tour is this Saturday, July 9 from 9am to 4pm.

It's a chance to see ten beautiful gardens designed and maintained by our own Master Gardeners offering great inspiration and information. Hands-on demonstrations at our Education Stations will provide the latest gardening techniques and innovative ideas to make your garden a success.

As an added bonus visit the Sabathani Community Garden where Urban Gardeners are making a delicious difference in their community.

Even if you can't come to our garden tour here in Minneapolis, his suggestions apply to all garden tours regardless of location.

As a seasoned veteran of 185 garden tours just in England alone, I think he qualifies as the voice of wisdom when it comes maximizing your garden tour enjoyment!

  

For tickets go online to http://hennepinmastergardeners.org/ For tickets day of tour go to Garden #1 at 5024 Park Avenue S., Minneapolis MN 555417

 

Garden2Blog: Hanging Out with P. Allen Smith

It's not everyday I get to hang out with a celebrity. But first, P. Allen Smith would gently correct me; he considers himself foremost a teacher, and shies away from the glossier term, that has indeed made so many of his garden visions a reality. 

I was lucky to have a chance to spend a few days with about two dozen other bloggers for the first of hopefully many Garden2Blog events with the noted garden designer and personality. Here's just a little of what I experienced!

The mighty oak in front of the Garden Home Retreat

I hate to use the phrase "boyish good looks", but can't find a suitable substitute to describe him. In his trademark blue, he presents a disarming southern charm with the smallest touch of weary aloofness. It's forgivable as you see him work, constantly on for the variety of cameras that record his every word and move.

P. Allen Smith talking about water features and garden geometry for Garden2Blog

He delivers his lines with a believable freshness and good timing, as when he relates that his grandmother told him the P in his name stood for "potential". And he's not above poking fun at his fame, when he calls out in a nasal tour guide impression, "New Dawn Rose Alert", as we frequently pass huge masses of the ubiquitous, blushing pink climber that he introduced to Little Rock. 

New Dawn roses at the Arkansas Governor's Mansion in Little Rock

This is no garden variety-type HGTV star, there's a gravitas behind the brand. Coming from generations of nurserymen, he has the hands-on knowledge combined with the historical depth and breadth from his study of classical gardens in England. 

An allee of alliums at P Allen Smith's Garden Home Retreat

As he shows you through the home it becomes quickly obvious that the myriad books artfully placed on round tables are not for looks. Weighty tomes covering garden design, politics, culture and history among others inform his living and gardening. His concept of Garden/Home integrates indoor and outdoor living spaces in such a way to increase your enjoyment of both by blurring the lines.

One of many library tables laden with books at P. Allen Smith's Garden Home Retreat

I found myself thinking while following him through the gardens at his "Garden Home Retreat" on Moss Mountain in Arkansas that is was perhaps a little like being able to peer into the thought process that went into the making of Jefferson's Monticello. In fact, there are nods to the horticultural hero at every turn, like the octagonal pavilions flanking the strolling gardens. His twist being the vegetables and fruit trees sitting upfront with ornamentals.

Looking past the art studio to the pavilion and orchard beyond

I found it especially fascinating to see the holistic approach to design throughout, even the tool sheds were a thing of beauty. Interior and exterior colors, like tinner's red, butter yellow, lichen green with deep dark brown bark all reflect the surrounding environment for a harmonic feeling.

Small kitchen gardens fronting the tool sheds where we sheltered from a few storms

Sustainability is evident in all aspects of his farm and gardens, however it's pragmatic rather than nostalgic. Composting for soil amending is a given. While heirlooms are grown, he feels that hybrid plants that perform well with the least intervention are in keeping with the mission. Even the breed of sheep and poultry that forage picturesquely in the pasture are chosen for production and hardiness.

Buff Orpington poultry sharing the pasture with Dorper sheep

As he looks to the future, the next garden goes back in time and then forward. He is developing a historical rose garden featuring a time line of American roses, from the Charleston legacy of noisette varieties that he cherishes  all the way to new low-care Knockouts. 

P. Allen Smith with rose garden plans

During the entire time we were tested with dangerous to merely annoying bad weather. Allen shepherded us through all the event with a gracious and unflappable ease. We were treated to fabulous food including many of his recipes and even eggs from the farm. His staff, and they are many, were efficient and helpful too.

I ducked out of dinner for a moment to look over the bluff to the Arkansas River after the storm

Putting faces to names of all these talented bloggers was a great experience. So many backgrounds and so many different angles! .

Anxious to increase his exposure and presence with social media, I like to think that he's making an effort to partner with and harness the power of bloggers. In fact, he's now blogging too. I didn't feel any pressure to put a face on anything I didn't agree with. I felt comfortable with the information I was given and will be sharing in the future. It's not going to be all P Allen all the time of course, but I'll be posting more pics and tips from the event.

Let me know if you have any questions about or for P. Allen, post them in the comments section and I'll do my best to answer!

Careful partnering with sponsors like Corona, Proven Winners, Garden Safe, Bonnie Plants, Stihl, Berry Nurseries, Jobe's Organics and Laguna Pond Pumps has made the construction of this Garden Home Retreat possible, only proving that he is an astute businessman in addition to artist, interior designer and chef.

P Allen Smith with the Berry (yes, that's their name)representative offering blueberry tips and treats

Meanwhile I didn't so much drink the Kool-Aid as the blueberry lemonade. I've tried hard not to gush, but it's hard not to admire P. Allen Smith for the Renaissance man that he is. 

 

 

We Could All Use Some of that 'Barbara Walters Lighting'...Even Our Plants.

You've all seen Barbara Walters on her specials making some celebrity sob, while sitting under that soft-focus peachy-pink twinkly light. We gardeners can't lug around a camera crew to make us look good every moment, but we can choose and place our plants to take advantage of the sun's "camera angle" to benefit their "best sides".

This time of year the low autumn sunlight takes on the color of weak tea, that twice-used teabag shade of pale gold. It flatters our gardens as they eke out their last bits of beauty before winter sets in. Yet it all really starts in August, when the light is "unlike that of any other time of year" according to Faulkner when he wrote "Light in August".

With a little planning, you can achieve this backlighting effect for next year's garden, and it's just not for fall, spring's tenuous light can work wonders with spring bulb flowers like tulip and iris. But right now I am marveling at the stained-glass glow of my heucheras at sunset. The trick is plant them with their backs to the rising or setting sun, and better yet within view of your window.

 
Two of my favorite varieties for this are "Peach Flambe" and "Obsidian"; Flambe is one of the better orange-tone versions of the common coral bells, its color deepens as the season cools. Obsidian's foliage resembles deep purple, almost black taffeta, and catches fire as the sun goes down. Even a ground-cover of "Purple Palace" back in my previous garden took on a special look as the sun lowered.

 
Other shrubs and perennials with colorful foliage and more translucent leaves can be just as striking. Smoke bush and Japanese maple come to mind. Check out this Solomon's Seal, set on the crest of a hill facing west. Who would have thought?

 
Solomon's Seal The Garden Buzz

Finally, ornamental grasses with their sparkling plumes are the obvious candidate for this particular lighting, like Miscanthus Morning Light (the clue is right there in the name) and Feather Reed Grass, or Panicums with their red and orange blades like flames licking the prairie.

 
Karl Forester Feather Reed Grass     The Garden Buzz

It's time to start thinking of next year's garden design. I suggest starting a notebook of ideas or an online list of plant combinations and their placement, while this year's garden hasn't been relegated to the compost heap of our memory. With the holidays coming and then the giddy excitement of spring you are apt to forget or get caught up with the frenzy of flower choices in 2010.