Monthly Archives: July 2012

I am going to The Netherlands and Belgium!

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G A R D E N S, Personal, Uncategorized | Tagged , ,
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I thought next week would never get here, but after such a busy summer it came faster than expected. I am going to The Netherlands and Belgium with the Perennial Plant Association (PPA) for a 14 day tour of 25 gardens, nurseries and flower shows. It is what my wife is calling the ultimate plant geek tour, but I am the ultimate plant geek so could not be more excited.

Here is a sample of the places we will be visiting during the tour, but expect for me to be posting crazy my recaps images.

The Brussels Flower Carpet, created from 750,000 tuerous begonia blossoms – Image from here.

The Castle Keukenhof, peak season is March – May to see the blooming blubs. Image from here.

The Garden of Dina Deferme, Image from here.

Mien Ruys Garden – 70 years of personal experimenting and designing by garden architect Mien Ruys. Image from here.

I will attempt to keep the blog fresh with a few pre-planned posts while I am gone, but will have access to email the whole time if you have any questions etc.

Arial Landscapes by Cameron Davidson

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art, Book Recommendation, Green wall, Uncategorized | Tagged ,
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I stumbled across the image of hedge rows below on Pinterest earlier this week and fell in love. The image was taken by photographer Cameron Davidson and was an outtake from an Hamptons shoot he did for Vanity Fair back in 2007. Landscapes are even beautiful from above as walking through. I found the image for purchase from here, (I ordered a print for home).

Another amazing image from the Vanity Fair shoot is Ann Bass’ estate. Both images feature vivid greens and impeccable landscape maintenance.

You can read an article with Cameron about this shoot along with his technique here, and the source of the images above are from here. Here are some additional landscape images from Cameron, but he also has a books of images from theChesapeake Bay, Washington DC and Chicago.

Above two images from here.

Quick trip up to Michigan

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Inspiration, Personal, Uncategorized | Tagged
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This weekend we made a quick visit up to the Northern Detroit area to pick up something for a client at Detroit Garden Works. We decided to make it a little vacation and stayed the night outside Birmingham and visited some family in Northwest Ohio. Both Allison and I love the area of Birmingham for food, shopping and walking the neighborhoods. Here are some photos from our trip.

I love this gate, we need to finish the fence around our house yet this summer and this design is perfect to allow my wide mower through, yet a balance of modern/traditional to match the style of our house.

 

Also we stopped over at the Kresge Foundation building again to see how the natural gardens where holding up in the drought.

We visited the foundation with the perfect lighting. Here is an image of what I believe is Rudbeckia maxima, which were spread throughout the area.

These are photos of all the different textures around the Kresge Foundation.

 

We spent a lot of time at Detroit Garden Works visiting with Deborah and Rob and seeing all the amazing items they have in their store. If you live in the Detroit area, this coming weekend is their garden cruise touring landscapes by (or friends of) Deborah. I highly recommend you go and be completely inspired.

Our final stop was visiting Allison’s family’s farm in Northwest Ohio. James visited last summer during the planting season was was able to ride along while they planted a few rows. This year he actually got to drive a tractor.

After the Storm – Firewood

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Inspiration, wood walls | Tagged , ,
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Images: 1, 2

Just over a week ago, Ohio experienced a major storm that brought down trees and branches in almost every yard. Our house made it through with only a few small branches, but our neighbors and a few clients were not so lucky and lost complete trees. The clean up of tree limbs can be dangerous and labor intensive (especially in 100 degree temps), but the benefit is firewood for up coming cool fall nights.

 

Cutting the logs into uniform lengths and stacking will allow the wood to dry out and be perfect for firepits or winter fires. There are a lot of great unique ways to store your wood, but just keep in mind the further from the house the better since can attract termites. Here are some amazing landscapes using unique firewood storage solutions.

Images 1,2,3,4,5

You don’t need to build such an elaborate structure for your wood storage, there some great smaller storage solutions or you can even go old school and just pile in a covered area.

Images 1,2,3

Disclaimer for Ohio and Michigan Residents: You are unable to transport your firewood outside of the county due to the infestation of Emerald Ash Borer. You can still burn your own firewood at home with no issues.

Patriotic Exterior Decorations

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decorating, Holiday | Tagged , ,
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Every Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day I plan to bring out the patriotic decorations and decorate the house, but those holidays are normally very busy times at client’s homes and I never quite get the decorations up.  I am hoping this year is different, but we will see.

To get you inspired, there are lots of great images floating around pintrest for patriotic decorating.  Here are a few that I found and liked. We have a 48 star flag that I plan on hanging from the front porch of the house like the images below. Due to the location over the front door, this is something you can really only due on the day of celebration.

Image Sources: 1,2,3,4

There are a lot of alternatives to hanging the standard flag on the flag pole or stand. The great thing about american holidays that you can use the same decorations for at least 3-4 holidays and can leave out all summer long if you wish.

Image Sources: 1,2,3,4,5,6

Here are some great products to recreate the looks above. I personally love the “Don’t Give Up the Ship” flag that was flown  by Commodore Perry during the Battle of Lake Erie. It has personally connection to Lake Erie and Perrysburg, OH (named after Perry) and is a different take on patriotic celebration.

Image Sources: Flags from The Flag Lady located here in Columbus Ohio. Bunting from Grandin Road and Vintage 50 star flag from Etsy.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Fourth of July, that includes getting your power fully restored to get out of the heat.