Category Archives: garden visit
Longwood Gardens Miscellany
Such an awful moment, when a recent vacation begins to drift off into the mists of long ago and far away. Only a couple weeks ago, but the travel mojo you came home with is already smothered under to-do lists. … Continue reading
Dustin’s Ballsy Totems
These stacked spheres are currently the stony exclamation points embellishing Dustin Gimbel’s Southern California garden/design laboratory/plant nursery. Dustin has described his fascination with the geologic anomaly of concretions on his blog non-secateur and how his obsession with them led him … Continue reading
Fall Salvias at Longwood Gardens
Longwood was full of “firsts” for me: My first Dutch Elm, the last lone sentinel remaining of a row of elm destroyed by Dutch Elm disease. My first Cornus kousa. My first Copper Beech, Fagus sylvatica. But amongst all these … Continue reading
Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens is vast, over 1,050 acres, and also very old. From Wikipedia: “What is now Longwood Gardens was originally purchased from William Penn in 1700 by a fellow Quaker named George Peirce (1646-1734). Although it started as a working … Continue reading
Dutch Wave Breaks Over New Amsterdam
At the Battery, Piet Oudolf has written another glorious fall chapter to the story of the renaissance of urban gardens in New York City. Here at the Battery Bosque, the emphatic sweep of plants is at times even more dramatic … Continue reading
The High Line in Autumn
Crocus sativus, the saffron crocus I first became intrigued by the High Line when it was in its derelict state. I’d read a New York Times piece about an abandoned elevated railway in Manhattan, its purpose as a rail line … Continue reading
Posted in garden visit, MB Maher
Tagged Crocus sativus, Jane Jacobs, Piet Oudolf, The Great Gatsby, The High Line Park
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On the Evening of October 3, 2010
A single brugmansia bloom dangled while Evie groomed. The rest of the unopened buds were jettisoned in response to high temperatures. That same evening, the ‘Siam Ruby’ banana unfurled an enormous solar panel, daring the sun to do its worst. … Continue reading
Posted in garden visit
Tagged ' Brugmansia 'Charles Grimaldi, Evie the cat, Musa 'Siam Ruby'
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Rust Never Sleeps: Recent Work by Dustin Gimbel
Congratulations to Dustin Gimbel of Second Nature Garden Design for the recent write-up in The Orange County Register on his landscape design work at a Huntington Harbor, California, home. If pets are chewing or foot traffic stomping your prize succulents, … Continue reading
Posted in garden ornament, garden visit, MB Maher, succulents
Tagged Cindy McNatt, Dustin Gimbel, MB Maher
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Some Good News
If newspapers had come in two editions this past decade, one edition with only good news, the other edition with not-so-good news, the good news edition would have been slim indeed. Flung by the delivery person who always aims for … Continue reading
Urge to Travel
Three very good posts recently on reclamation and repurposing of industrial sites, as well as public spaces, even if only temporarily, as in the case of the forest made of the Champs-Elysees. From the Huffington Post 8/24/10, which includes mention … Continue reading