It’s a little over three weeks since we opened our garden for the Garden Conservancy Open Day. All the paperwork has been handled, the money sent, and everything’s tidied away. Yet the garden keeps getting better and better. So I thought I’d give you a virtual tour. I’m going to break the tour into sections, [...]
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The Countdown has Ended: BEEN A LONG TIME COMING, GONNA BE A LONG TIME GONE
I was up at 5:30 on the Garden Conservancy Open Day. I went outside and heard the birds’ dawn chorus while I dragged hoses around to everything that was newly planted. The weather report predicted our first day in the nineties. (Most years we really do have a summer in Oregon; it just starts in [...]
Last Days: SO MANY JOBS, SO LITTLE TIME
The old adage, “Ninety percent of the effort is in the last ten percent of the job,” proved to be correct in the days before The Garden Conservancy’s Open Day. Here’s the work list I created on Tuesday. All of us have taken great satisfaction in checking off tasks. Much of those hand-written extras came [...]
Four days to go: IT’S ALMOST SHOWTIME—Tips for making any garden ready for its closeup
The countdown is in earnest. I walked around the garden with a notebook yesterday morning, writing down every last thing that needs to be done before the Garden Conservancy July 7 Open Day, and the list is daunting. It ranges from hauling the last fir bark for pathways to tying up the wayward yew that [...]
12 Days to Go:TWO IDEAS I’VE BORROWED FROM FLOWER SHOWS
I love flower and garden shows. I’m crazy about them. As well as attending them, I’ve helped build display gardens, I’ve given talks, I’ve written about them (Sunset’s Secret Gardens—153 Ideas from the Pros) and I’ve even judged them. So when I knew my garden was going to be open for The Garden Conservancy on [...]
19 DAYS TO GO: LIVING WITH THE CRITTERS
Our garden is in the country. Although we have a Eugene, Oregon address, we’re five miles south of town, surrounded by oak groves and Douglas fir woods. This location is shared by, among others, foxes, raccoons—they line up when the grapes are ripe—turkeys, an assortment of songbirds, chipmunks, and squirrels. Getting the garden ready for [...]
23 Days to go: LET’S HEAR IT FOR ANNUALS
Two weekends ago, I was on yet another nursery tour. This one was an all-day bus trip sponsored by Avid Gardeners. I’m hunting down fillers for those inevitable spaces left by fading spring bulbs. I’m working on the big spruce up before The Garden Conservancy‘s July 7 Open Day. It’s only in the last two [...]
33 Days to go: IN DEFENSE OF LAWNS
The grass is finally up in the round garden. The silver and red Bird Scare Flash Tape generously given to us garden writers by Ed Hume—thanks so much, Ed—has worked brilliantly, constantly moving and dancing in the slightest breeze. But whether the long green stubble will be walkable a month from now for The Garden [...]
34 Days to go: WHY I HATE WEED CLOTH
With less than a month to go until the Garden Conservancy July 7 Open Day, I’m, madly filling in spots in my borders with all my new plant purchases. That sounds easy—just dig a hole and pop it in, right? Well, that’s fine in beds that have seen active service for several years. But I [...]
40 Days to go: THE (NEW) OREGON TRAIL—on the hunt for choice and unusual plants.
Oh boy—a specialty nursery tour. Last week, my friend Ann Murphy, Marketing Director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries, invited four of us—garden writers and landscape professionals—to explore the Cascade Nursery Trail. I’m preparing my garden for the July 7 Garden Conservancy open day, so this was a perfect time for plant acquisition. Oregon is [...]
