Fantasy in Carmel

A Tolkien inspired garden from the California design firm, Arterra Landscape Arcitects, brings a bit of fantasy as well as tried and true landscape principals to the project.

 Integrating both technology as well as art, the garden is not only visually stunning but environmentally sustainable.....something noticable in all of the firms creations.....

Tree Protection, soil conservation and water conservation are all integrated into the design. Ponds and planted roofs slow water infiltration as well as a cistern to store underground water. The whole project makes not only a wonderful habitat for its owners but the local wildlife as well.

If you would like to add a more Classical feel to your garden please contact me for further information at mwhite841@verizon.net

Peony, Iris & Lily

Watercolors by British Artist Marie Burke

January's Dreams

image seed savers exchange

If you would like to add a more Classical feel to your garden please contact me for further information at mwhite841@verizon.net

vegetable gardens

Once again, I have been asked to start work on a few new designs for vegetable gardens......the dead of the winter seems to bring out the vegetable garden in most clients....maybe all those wonderful seed catalogs spilling out of the post each morning.....

In any event I came across this contemporary design by the landscape firm of  del Buono - Gazerwitz  for the 2008 Chelsea Garden Show.  A British based firm Tomasso del Buono  (Italian) and Paul Gazerwitz ( American) both worked for Arabella Lennox-Boyd before starting their own firm in 2000 in London. 

To quote the partnership "We like to think we don’t have a fixed style but favour clean lines, playing with scale and proportions, beautiful materials, unfussy detailing and giving our gardens a strong structure to support more, softer planting. When possible, we like designing bespoke furniture, gates and containers." 

 All is evident in the use of simple strong  contemporary shapes  to juxtapose the billows of nature's bounty. Not your typical vegetable garden by any means, but a series of "rooms" to not only garden in but entertain in as well. What could be better.

Cliff Maiden

image via la paisajista

  Lewisia cotyledon a evergreen perennial alpine, also known as "Cliff Maiden" is a native to Oregon and California.  Only 12" in height, it flowers from spring to summer, producing as many as 50 flowers on one stem. Given sun and a well drained location, this tiny treasure works well in most rock and succulent gradens.

Downton's Rose

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For Downton fans, Season 4 brings with it a new rose, Anna's Promise. 

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California rose breeder, Weeks Rose has signed an exclusive agreement to create a series of Downton Abbey Roses.  Anna's Promise, the first in the Downton series is a grandiflora growing to a height of 6' with a fruity fragrance and a color combination of golden tan, pink & bronze. 
Anna's Promise is due for an early release this fall, but will have an official coming out in 2015.
According to Weeks marketing manager Karen Kemp-Docksteader,  the rose is a pink with a bronze reverse, elegant and sweet just like the character it is named for. "Our Downton Abbey Roses will be elegant, beautiful and romantic, but also surprisingly dramatic and tenacious....just like the show and characters that so many have come to love." If you pop over to Redneck Rosarian's blog you will not only be able to hear the podcast interview they did with Kemp-Docksteader, last October but also get some great rose growing tips as well.

Product Information:
Class: Grandiflora Light: Full Sun to Partial Shade Bloom Time: Summer	Size: Bareroot Zones: 4-10 Height: 4-6'

As I ponder why the character Anna was chosen first and why a multicolor rose, I wait with "bated breath" for tomorrow night and the beginning of yet another season.

2014

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GROW in 2014

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More sharing, more caring, more understanding for the New Year


f you would like to add a more Classical feel to your garden please contact me for further information at mwhite841@verizon.net