The Garden Buzz

Escaping Winter, Almost: Savannah Getaway

If you're a regular reader you know my daughter's a grad student at Savannah College of Art and Design, otherwise known as SCAD, and that I visit whenever I can. This winter I count myself very lucky to spend two months here in beautiful Savannah, escaping the Minnesota winter and all that entails.

The often-photographed fountain in Forsyth Park                       The Garden Buzz

I guess it's ironic that this Minnesota winter, unlike last year's record-breaking one, has been relatively mild and pretty much snow-free! And in the past few days, it's already been summer and winter here with me walking in a 13 degree wind chill this morning. It's so funny to see Savannahians in Ugg boots and parkas.

Still I'm excited to be "living like a local" down south. I'll be back to my usual courtyard-snooping and square-sitting, and sharing my photos soon.

I hope to explore and share more pictures of nurseries and historical gardens too. Can you believe it, the camellias are already blooming! 

I've got lots of garden writing work to do while I'm here. And my daughter is starting her thesis. Let's hope we can be disciplined enough to get our work done and a little fun too.

The journey down here included Henry-dog and the trip was not without it's moments. My car decided it needed a new differential the same week we were leaving. With winter weather to avoid and a wedding to make too, we went with plan b and drove my husband's smaller car, mailing our clothes ahead.

It's a two-ish day trip if you push it, but with the dog, we made it in three, with time for Hannah to visit friends at Mizzou and then a little time for good food in picturesque Franklin TN, where you never know if you might run into Jack White or Ryan Gosling. We didn't, but it's fun to imagine them hanging around in this cute little country-western village just outside of Nashville.

Henry-dog isn't the best car tripper. He likes to whine about not getting to sit in the front, bark at strangers and stand up the entire time so as not to miss a single thing. The rest of the family insisted he would settle down, but two days in, we braked at a pet store and bought a little something called Comfort Zone. It's a spray that mimics the pheromones produced by nursing mother dogs. Miraculously, it calmed Henry down quite a bit. Not enough to lay down for more than 30 seconds, but enough.

I am pleased to say that Henry's recent stay at "boarding school" has helped him to control his enthusiasm and contain, as Hannah describes it, his "zest for life", in order to be a proper Savannah-walking-dog now that's he out of the car. This is important since Savannah is extremely dog-centric and you'll learn the locals not by their name but more than likely by their dog's. 

Meanwhile here's what I saw in the rear view mirror for 3 days.

Poor baby.

 

 

 

 

Stump the Garden Blogger: Plant ID Please?

It's not often I run into a plant I can't identify. Especially an edible.

During our visit to the Slow Food Garden in Indianapolis, they challenged us to identify some of the unusual crops growing in this urban setting, no problem though, I know what okra and peanuts look like, even when they are growing with a backdrop of skyscrapers.

Funny, that later on in the trip, it would be a restaurant kitchen garden that would stump this garden blogger.

On our last evening in Cleveland we ate at the charming Lolita in the Tremont neighborhood, an offshoot of the popular restaurant, Lola. There by the patio grows a lovely potager with tomatoes, eggplant and lavender among other things. On the left hand side of this photo is the vegetable (perhaps fruit or herb) in question.

It has large leaves and a small green pod that resembles a small unripe tomato. I'm sure I could eventually ID this mystery plant. However I just returned from visiting my son's new school and still have two more kids and their accompanying crap to leave at schools across the country. I'm hurting for time.

Stay tuned for unexpectedly fascinating garden stories from Cleveland (who knew?) and the Garden Writers Association symposium in Indianapolis.

Meanwhile, what the heck is it???

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. 

 

 

Garden Touring Between Tornadoes

It was a dark and stormy night...

Actually it was a dark and stormy late afternoon, disembarking from the coach, we ran to the front door of the mansion as lightning crackled and thunder boomed. The candlelight flickered as we entered the grand foyer. Haunted house, murder mystery setting? No, just all in a day's work of an intrepid garden blogger.

Garden2Blog has been exciting so far, just as much for the opportunity to go garden touring with P Allen Smith and two dozen garden bloggers, as for the weather. The first night we were evacuated to the ballroom while the winds whipped around the downtown hotel. Did anyone notice my pajamas under the leather jacket? I tried to accessorize with a quick scarf.

Tornadoes have killed 8 Arkansas residents this week. Weather warnings,sirens and such have punctuated the visit, making for a dicey trip out to Marlsgate Plantation today.

The dapper man in the pinstripe blazer apologized for the power outage and assured us that we could all seek shelter if necessary in the cellar of his 1840's home. Otherwise we were treated to icy peach Bellinis and delicious cookies. We were allowed to wander at will through the dim rooms filled with antiques, taxidermy and art. Cut glass in the form of punch bowls and chandeliers glimmered reflecting the flames of the tapers. Such hospitality, the kind only southerners offer.

The enormous red blobs parted on the radar like the Red Sea, two tornadoes turning away from our little group. We took a quick whirl through the boxwood gardens and back to the coach.

I'll be blogging about the other gardens soon, but somehow I know the trip to Marlsgate will stick in my mind long after I have forgotten those. 

 

 

Garden2Blog: P. Allen Smith's Invited Me Over, No Foolin'

 

Well, me and about 20 other garden bloggers.

Now I really will have to learn what to call him. Is it P. or Allen or P. Allen or Sir or just Al? Perhaps I should go with Mr. Smith.

I'm so lucky to have been included in this talented group of garden bloggers to join P. Allen Smith at his breathtaking Garden Home Retreat at Moss Mountain in Arkansas for Garden2Blog on April 26-27. I appreciate him making room for a "northerner" and a relatively new blogger like me at such an illustrious event.

Garden blogging has opened up so many new avenues for me in my mission to inform and inspire. And this is just one more of those fortunate occasions for which I am grateful. 

According to Mr. Smith, "I'm looking forward to welcoming everyone to the Garden Home Retreat and getting to know individuals in the online gardening community. It's such a creative and knowledgeable group coming to visit. I can't wait to see what shakes out of our time together."

I'll probably be the one shaking at the chance to meet one of my horticultural heroes after reading and re-reading his books, in addition to hearing him speak several times. In fact I visited the retreat with a Master Gardener group when it was still under construction. Can't wait to see the finished (although a garden is never finished) results.

I have long been a fan of his soft-spoken way of communicating time-tested design principles along with the simple joy of creating a Garden Home. You can bet I'll be taking notes.

Add to this, I get to put faces to names of fellow garden bloggers, including a couple of real live wires in the world of garden writing. Allen promises that, "Our Garden Home partners have got some great workshops cooked up for everyone, and I think we're going to have a lot of fun. I don't want to give away too much, but let's say there's nothing wrong with a little competition among friends!" Hmmm, I wonder just what that means? I'm sure it will be a hoot.

"Garden2Blog" is going to be a fantastic opportunity for us to come together and not just talk about trends and ideas, but also establish an ongoing dialogue of information-sharing within our industry."

I'll be sharing all this with you as it happens. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile check out the current list of attendees:

Along with me, Rhonda Fleming Hayes at The Garden Buzz

Adriana Martinez  Anarchy in the Garden

Andrew Key Garden Smackdown

Annie Haven Manure Tea

Ben Ford The Thrifty Landscaper

Beth Phelps U of A ex

Brenda Haas BG Garden

Dee Nash Red Dirt Ramblings

Fern Richardson Life on the Balcony

Helen Yoest Gardening With Confidence™

Jacqueline D’Elia Southern Post Journal

Janet Carson U of A Home and Garden

Jean Ann Van Krevelan Garden to Farmer

Jenny Peterson J. Peterson Garden Design

Kaylee Baumle Our Little Acre

Kerry Michaels About Container Gardener

Laura Mathews Punk Rock Gardens

Mike Lieberman Urban Organic Gardener

Robin Plaskoff Horton Urban Garden Web

Shawna Corondo The Casual Gardener

Shirley Bovshow Eden Makers Blog

Stephanie McCratic Evolved Mommy

Steve Bender Grumpy Gardener

Teresa O’Conner Seasonal Wisdom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Porch Scenes from Savannah

It's sand gnat season, and most everyone in Savannah, tourist and local alike, is trying to sneak a discreet scratch on the those tiny but demanding bites. You see the quick and furtive moves no matter where you are around the city. Well, there had to be something wrong about this place. 

If you sit for long, they'll fly up your nose or worse, since noting the places they've gotten me. So we keep moving, from square to square, and street to street, touring all these stunning homes and gardens soaked in so much history. We'd love to stop and sit a spell on some of these fabulous porches. But we'll settle for pictures.

Enjoy... 

Window Boxes of Charleston: Doable Anywhere

Forbidden from photographing the interior gardens on the Glorious Gardens Tour in Charleston, (see the last post) I went a little nuts noting all the beautiful window boxes. Perfectly legal to take pictures from the street. For those of us further north, lots of great ideas for when we get to plant ours. Enjoy...

 

The Accidental (Garden) Tourist

Escaping the St Paddy's Day insanity of Savannah, my daughter and I landed in Charleston without any preparation or planning; with nary an internet search between us, both of us too busy writing on our respective writings, to seek out suitable things to do.

Lo and behold, the Glorious Gardens of Charleston Tour, March 17.

We proceed to buy the very expensive tickets and head that way. I know not to start at Garden #1, so we go for #7, because it's closest to where we park due to raw and blistered feet from the previous day's wandering. 

This tour is so civilized; men in straw boaters guide you along the narrow and picturesque streets and 'alleys", while soft-spoken women with that indefatigable southern poise and self-possesion welcome you into the garden gates with a horticultural tidbit, "this lovely scent is a tea olive, our answer to lilacs", or some personal note, "this garden is meant for their children". 

Except for Garden #7. We are early and the hostess asks the few of us where we are all from and makes small talk. Then she heaves a sigh, casts a glance at my big Canon camera and asks me if I know that photography is not allowed inside the gardens. My incredibly crestfallen face says no.

I start talking fast, "I'm a freelance garden writer, I do a garden blog, I..." She tells me that it is actually a South Carolina state law, enacted after enterprising thieves came on tours, photographed and ebayed garden art and ornament stolen to order.

She shows me the line where private property begins and photography is not permitted.

She sighs again and says, "Come with me..." and I follow her to the garden through the narrow entry. She kindly but sternly tells me, "One photograph". Garden helpers are all over the central fountain and I moan, but all she says is, "They'll just have to be in the picture". I turn forty five degrees and take a shot. 

I have seen prettier and more impressive gardens, but the idea of forbidden fruit heightens my interest. And then after we have viewed the garden with the other tourists and go to leave, she says something to me, but I only catch the words "Mrs. Whaley".

Like I said, we arrived without doing our homework, "You mean 'the Mrs Whaley''?"

"Yes, this is her garden."

"Excuse us, we will be going back in." Re-entering I tried to imagine the gracious parties amid the flowers and foliage with the trickling of the fountain mixing with the tinkle of ice cubes and cutlery from ladies in crisp cotton.

I didn't realize I had just been in the legendary Mrs Whaley's garden, of the book fame "Mrs Whaley and her Charleston Garden". A plantswoman, gardener, and social hostess of her time and ahead of her time. Noted landscape architect Loutrel Briggs designed her garden in 1942, yet she had made it her own re-arranging plants to her taste and venturing beyond the limited plant palette of most southern gardens.

Sometimes it is not the garden but the gardener that makes the magic, recreating an Eden of their own.

Mrs Whaley's Garden                                                        The Garden Buzz

 

.....More Charleston garden photographs (all perfectly legal) coming soon. 

 

The Almost Secret Gardens of Savannah

When it comes to dressing, style mavens and mothers have strongly suggested for years, that one leave something to the imagination. In this time of TMI, there's even a smart-chic blog called Always a Lady that kindly advises young women on the art of elegance, poise and putting some freakin' clothes on.

A little mystery goes a long ways. This same concept applies to your garden.

I've known of this design principle and experienced it before; with a twist on the path or a tantalizing backyard gate. While walking the streets and squares (pronounced in two syllables as squay-ahs) in the historic district of Savannah this week, I became even more convinced of the power of promise.

Set an obstacle between me and a beautiful garden and I become the nosiest-Nancy. There I was sticking my eye up to the crack in the boards of a garden door, poking my camera lens through the fretwork and filigree of an ironwork fence, searching out a thin spot among vines. The tighter the view, the more determined I was to take it in; anxious to see yet another secret garden of Savannah.

They don't disappoint.

All that business about enclosure, framing the view and focal points. All that stuff about symmetry and serpentine lines. All the fuss about foliage when flowers are few. These small spaces are some of the most successful and satisfying gardens I've ever seen.

Enjoy the view without all the embarrassment, I took care of that already. The things I do for my readers...

 
 

 A little tease...                                                           The Garden Buzz

 
 Then the full view...                                                          The Garden Buzz

 

 
 A sneak peak...behind the Juliette Gordon Low home                   The Garden Buzz

 

Red Leaf Banana Trees at each corner by the fountain                    The Garden Buzz

 

 

These adorable lambs greet visitors...and snoops                           The Garden Buzz

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: September 15

When you get a message from the hotel valet parking guy, you kinda know it's not going to be good. Especially when they say the manager wants to speak personally with you. "We tried to move your car but it shakes and says 'reduced engine performance', maybe bad gas?"

So it looks like I get to spend some extra time in Dallas, when I was sooo looking forward to making my way home. Yes, I drove. I was visiting old friends along the way.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day will have to be about what's blooming in OPG. In case you haven't heard that term before, that's "Other People's Gardens".

Fresh from all the fascinating garden tours during the Garden Writers Association 2010 Symposium. The gardens at this time of year were less about blooms and more about foliage, hardscape, structures, garden art and whimsy. But here's a few flowers...

Okra flower with ants at the Stonewall Jackson Elementary School Garden where every child has a plant of his or her own!   The Garden Buzz
 

Yellow water lilies in the fountain at the Rister-Armstrong residence where they were not only gracious enough to let us tromp through their unique, charming, lovely, (I could go on and on) garden, but their equally adorable, stylish, beautiful (I could go on and on) home, carriage house and pavilion.  The Garden Buzz

It's very early as I post this, gotta be ready to call the dealership about my little red rover. I hope my sad story falls upon sympathetic Texas ears. Texas has been great, but for now, I wanna go home.

Special thanks to Carol of Maydreams Gardens for hosting GBBD, yet again. Hey Carol, I didn't realize who you were when I met you the other day! Well, I am a "first-timer"...