Monday, March 10, 2014

2012 Asheville Garden Bloggers Fling - Day 1, morning

Oh hey. What's up? It's been awhile. Hope you all have been well. Me? Oh, well the last couple of years have been kind of crazy. We sold our house, bought a new one. I've been growing my garden design business like mad, raising a kid, raising a dog. And in my spare time last year I was working with a great team, organizing the San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling. It's all been a lot of fun but I haven't had much time to share things on this blog. I've been posting a lot on my Instagram feed but camera phone photos are terrible and I miss my big girl camera. It's time to haul that DSL monster out again and start sharing photos of my new garden, not to mention all the other fun plant-y places I go. But first things first - I'm an orderly person and I feel the need to pick up where I left off - Asheville. Right after I got back from the Asheville Garden Bloggers Fling things went coo-coo for cocoa puffs so I never got to post any photos from my visit there.

So, let's take a trip back in time...the year was 2012 and we'd just exited the bus for our first tour, Christopher Mello's garden. Now it was my understanding that this was not only Christopher's garden but also a site that hosted gatherings and creative events for youths. It was certainly a very playful garden - not only all the Tonka trucks but the playful color combos in the plantings, the recycled bits of rusty machinery and all the vibrant bottle trees.

001shovel circle

01dump truck park

1tonka_trucks2magnetic_disk3golden_hops4baby_head

5blue_bottle_tree

6steel_shard_ball7rusty_planter8terra_cotta_pathway9ring_toss_tree

10larkspur_babies

These are the blue poppies that Chris had selected and seems to have stabilized the color. I wish I had gotten some seed. 

11blue_poppies

12mello_blue_poppy13purple_leaf_peach14purple_foliage15shovel_border

16pink_campanula

17green_bottle_tree

18thinking_encouraged

19rusty_bits

20blue_bottle_maple21hulu_hoops

22lots_of_treasures

23_dish_gardening

23_plants_art


The next garden we visited was of a similar vein, combining gardens with a place to be creative. The Burton Street Community Peace Gardens were created from an abandoned lot and allowed neighbors to grow veggies in raised beds and provided a safe space for kids to explore, create and learn. I have to admit I found the recycled-multi-media sculpture/play areas endlessly fascinating. 

2river_of_plastic

3_bee_crossing4_decorations5_airplane_shrine6_dolls

Patron saint Fred Sanford:

7_saint_fred_sanford

8_ax

9_earth_oven10_strange_assortment11_car_cross12_car_cross

13_mystic_dreams

In the next post I'll cover our mid-day visits to two eateries and the pirate wonderland Wamboldtopia. 


3 comments:

  1. OMG...so happy to see a post from YOU! This was an enjoyable trip back in time, sad to have missed this Fling. I must admit though I am super excited about that little tidbit you threw out about visiting your own garden and sharing what you've been up to...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yay, glad you're back! What a time trip to see pics from the Asheville Fling and all those crazy-colorful, recycled gardens.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Haha this is great! I still haven't put up photos of Asheville…you make me think about still doing it! You got a lot of nice ones. Good memories, those gardens. Glad you're posting again.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.