Other gardens, other places – Page 7

Save Heronswood

NY Times article this morning. Â Long story short: Â Burpee is selling Dan Hinkley’s gem of a nursery north of Seattle. Â It will only set you back $9 million. Â The Pacific Northwest Horticultural Conservancy is trying to raise money to buy it.

If you haven’t followed the Heronswood story, it’s caused a bit of controversy. Â Key quote from the article:

At Christmas, Burpee landed on The Seattle Timesâ€™s â€œnaughtyâ€ list along with North Koreaâ€™s leader, Kim Jong-il.

Many gardeners feel the same way.

Update 3//9/07: Â Garden Rant posting where in the comment thread I speculate about the value of the business as opposed to just the property.

Piet Oudolf pix

No secret. I’m a big fan of Piet Oudolf.

Tonight, I stumbled into Yolanda’s Dutch gardening blog, Bliss (lots of great images), where she posted about her October 2005 visit to Piet and Anna’s nursery.

About the only pictures I’ve seen of the nursery have been from books — real professional shots that make the place look too good. I like Yolanda’s better. It looks like a real working garden/nursery.

In the comments, Gloria from Chicago (visit her Pollinators Welcome blog) pointed to her album of pictures from Oudolf’s installation at the Lurie Gardens. As luck would have it, I had a two-day meeting about 10 blocks away just months after that garden was planted. It still looked a little rough. Great to see that it’s filling in nicely.

Here’s a one shot from Gloria’s album:

Oudolf, Lurie Garden, Chicago

Gloria wrote about Lurie Garden in Garden Rant in December, where she points to this slide show illustrating Oudolf’s idea of birth, life, and death in a garden. Lots of great dead plants.

Carol and Marc

This is Carol and Marc’s second season in the country, but you’d think they’d been gardening all their lives. Everything has a bit of an artistic touch to it.

carol and marc
The fire bowl doubles as a table. Ornamental grasses planted this year will encircle the area. Marc’s miscellaneous art projects are here and there.

Baxter scampers by the vegetable garden. An old baseball serves as the handle on the gate.

Marc’s latest project — a trellis too handsome to put plants on.

Update: Visit Marc’s website. He crafts unique bowls and more from intersting hunks of wood. They make great gifts.

Marcia’s Garden

Here are a few shots from my friend and co-worker Marcia’s garden. There’s a nice profile of her garden at: Explore Cornell Home Gardening

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Proof a vegetable garden can look good, too.

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Marcia’s main border, getting more light now that the Norway maple has come out.

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Yeah, our water gardens do look remarkably similar. She made hers first, if that matters.

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Hypertufa and some verbascums I gave her last year.