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.

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

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. 

Patron saint Fred Sanford:

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

2012 APLD Conference Peninsula Garden Tours, #1

Our group started out our Peninsula garden tours with a stop at Bernard Trainor's well-published garden with curving concrete wall and wide spilling water feature. I was really happy to get to see this garden after seeing so many photos of it. We entered through some well-made steel gates. The house itself was very beautiful. The large windows reflected the garden nicely. 

The front garden has groves of Arbutus 'Marina' which are underplanted with swaths of mounding grasses. Apparently they have had trouble with dieback on some of the Arbutus 'Marina'. It is a hybrid tree with one of its parents being the notoriously hard-to-grow Arbutus menziesii, from which it gets its pretty red peeling bark. Arbutus 'Marina' is a good bit easier to grow than A. menziesii, but I guess it still can have issues from time to time. 

Check out these fantastically gorgeous front doors. Also in the front entry is an insectary from Flora Grubb. I'm curious about how these expensive bug houses will age. How long will they look good? Will the owners still keep them around as the bugs that they were made for inhabit them? They will inevitable look unkempt with cobwebs and broken down organic material as the bugs start to use them as homes. I kind of doubt people will want them next to their front doors then. 

The path continues around the side of the house. I like the way the red in the stone picks up the red bark of the tree trunks. The plantings are a study in muted simplicity. I love gardens that use a subtle color palette. I find it very relaxing, with the interest and excitement found in the combining of textures and shapes. 

The back patio is surrounded by the well-known curving concrete bench. In addition to the relaxing plant palette, the slowly overflowing water basin gives a sense of peacefulness to the space. I love the crunch of gravel underfoot, which naturally slows one down as well. The resin table and bench add a nice pop of color. 

A nice transition from the house leads one to the simple rectangular pool. I love the detailing, especially how the spa fits into the shape of the pool. 

Past the outdoor kitchen is the attractively screened utility area. Walking around the other side of the house leads you under a beautifully branching oak to complete the garden tour. A very lovely garden, I was so glad to get to see it in person.