About a month ago I was lucky enough to co-lead a garden-centric tour to Portugal & Galicia for The Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. HPSO has a robust garden-centric travel program, where the tours are often less expensive than similar options because the tour leaders do their work as volunteers. It was my first time doing a tour for HPSO (but not the last!), and…
There’s been much said about the garden being a sanctuary — a place that provides solace. And I believe we each make a garden for ourselves that’s simultaneously a reflection of who we’ve been, who we are and who we want to be. It’s nostalgia, remembrance, hopefulness, aspiration, belonging, community, nurturing, experience, learning, and embrace all in one, constantly-changing package. Something wonderful about the garden…
I haven’t done a sponsored post on this blog yet, and that’s still true of this post! I recommend these gifts not because I have any association with the people who create these things (with a couple of exceptions, which I’ll note below*), but because I use them myself and think they would be great gifts for any gardener in your life. And these gifts…
Over this summer I was lucky enough to visit the garden of a blogger I’ve been following for a long time: Chickadee Gardens. I’d met the gracious and generous Tamara, one of the garden’s owners, previously and that just made me want to visit her garden more. Lovely people tend to make lovely gardens! It was a warm, clear summer day for a garden visit,…
Earlier this year I visited Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania with my mom, and I wrote a blog post about their various gardens. In addition to their gorgeous outdoor displays, there’s a conservatory there to rival any other that I’ve seen (and I’ve been to some good ones). Honestly, you could spend an entire day just visiting the conservatory gardens without seeing anything else! The conservatory…
After a very hot end-of-July I’m writing this while enjoying a cloudy, 68-degree afternoon where it doesn’t feel like being in a convection oven outside. Yay! My constitution isn’t designed for heat — I get grouchy and easily overwhelmed — and am happiest when we don’t get over 85. When it’s too hot we close up the house and turn the A/C on, and I…
I know we’ve had some super hot days here and there, but I’ve really been enjoying the weather this summer. My memory may be faulty, but the stretches of days in the mid-to-low 80’s during the day, with under 60 at night, this summer have been unusually (at least in recent years) plenty — and that’s my kind of summer weather. Warm enough (but not…
I’m lucky to live in a city filled with wonderful gardeners, and my own neighborhood of southeast Portland is filled with some lovely gardens. When I walk the dogs, I plan my route based on what gardens I want to visit that day, and this last time I brought along my camera so I could show you some of my favorites along a particular route….
Hard to believe we’re already approaching the summer solstice! I was away for about 10 days in May, which was a rough time to be leaving the garden. Happily, not too much happened in my absence. And it’s been blissfully cool since my return. I feel like that’s about to change next week, so I’m soaking it up now since it won’t be back until…
I recently spent some time on the east coast, and one of the things I did was meet up with my mom for a tour of some gardens just west of Philadelphia. We stayed near Media, PA, which is a cute suburban town where the outskirts have a distinctly rural feel. My mom and I share a love of gardening, so it was a great…
I’ll be away from my garden for a little while soon. And it’s the time of year when new things are happening in the garden daily. The Ceanothus blooms are just beginning to pop, our Trachelospermum is going to burst into bloom any day, and the first of the rose buds has colored up. I’m going to be visiting some beautiful gardens while I’m away…
We’ve reached the point in the year where the windows are open more often than not, sunscreen has taken up permanent residence on top of the dresser, and it’s been possible to go without sleeves. The patio umbrella is out, and eating meals outside can be a regular occurrence. Basically, it’s all the stuff I dream about longingly in January! And the garden has responded…
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