Growing, Sowing and Arranging Flowers by Jane Wrigglesworth
Well, I wouldn’t mind this in my own backyard. A whopping big comfy chair surrounded by lush green ground cover. Shown here is a “cascade of terraces” at a New York city apartment. Which goes to show, even city-dwellers can enjoy the outdoor life. The blurb for this award-winning design says: “A view of the first floor garden reading nook from the upper terraces reveals a texturally rich and diverse material palette.” Lovely.
Photo from Garden Design.
Was anyone lucky enough to visit this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, held from May 22-26? I wasn’t, but I’ve been trawling the internet to find images from the winning gardens. There seems to be a resurgence of topiary, with all sorts of plants being used, from buxus to taxus (yew) to ilex (holly). There were all manner of clipped shapes, including lollipops, cumulus-like clouds and pyramids. There was quite a bit of bling too in the form of sculptures and art.
If you want to see more, check out these sites:
Studio G (top two images come from here)
Shoot Gardening (the next two photos come from here)
The Telegraph (bottom two)
Who’s going to this year’s Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show? If you’re heading across the Tasman, we’d love to see your photos! The show is held each year at the Carlton Gardens, right in the heart of Melbourne. This year it’s on from March 28th to April 1st, so there’s still plenty of time to get your tickets and plane ride sorted. It’s a brilliant show too – lots of fabulous landscape designs, floral designs and great garden inspiration. The only bummer is you can’t bring it all back on the plane with you.
Bunting in the garden. How very cute! Image comes from here.
No room for growing roses in your garden? Take a leaf out of this gardener’s book and grow them upwards. An arching arbour is the perfect means for growing roses vertically. Position it to straddle a path or entranceway for a romantic look.
The climbing rose grown here is ‘New Dawn’. Photo from Veranda
Lookie here! There’s a brand new garden festival in town. The Garden Design Society of New Zealand and Newmarket Rotary have joined forces to present the inaugural Auckland Garden DesignFest, which takes place 19-20 November, 2011. The festival showcases 24 gardens around Auckland, all professionally designed, and many of which have never been open to the public before. The designers will be on hand in the gardens to chat to visitors. Proceeds go to three great charities: KidsCan, CanTeen and Ronald McDonald House Auckland. Here’s a sneak peak at some of the gardens.
Tickets can be pre-purchased for $40 (entry to all gardens) from Palmers garden stores in Auckland, or online at iticket for a small fee. Or it’s $5 to enter a single garden at the gate. Tickets can also be purchased at the event for $50. There’s a full-day bus tour option too, for $120. The bus tour includes lunch plus guided commentary and a bonus visit to Highwic House at the end of the day – complete with a tour of the house and a glass of wine.
For more information, go to the Auckland Garden DesignFest website.
Short on space? Grow your herbs in baskets, or utilise that awkward slope with a retaining wall garden. Large-space gardeners might as well go the whole hog.
Images: herb baskets from House to Home; retaining wall garden designed by Jamie Durie and featured here; Martha Stewart’s herb garden; and the lovely Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens.
I love the look of this garden (a Chelsea Flower Show winner back in 2009), with its myriad groundcovers and a smattering of ‘up’ plants. The tall white spiked plants are Eremurus ‘Joanna’ and the striking black irises are Iris chrysographes. Some of the other white flowers we can see are verbascum and stock (matthiola). The Daily Telegraph garden, designed by Ulf Nordfjell, won best in show that year. If you’d like to see more, click here for a virtual tour.
