{"id":71819,"date":"2016-03-29T11:28:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T15:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=71819"},"modified":"2017-08-15T19:44:45","modified_gmt":"2017-08-15T23:44:45","slug":"a-garden-with-irish-wolfhounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=71819","title":{"rendered":"a garden with Irish wolfhounds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><big>In Georgina Reid&#8217;s piece on Michael Cooke I found my antipodal soul-mate garden.  Georgina (<a href=\"http:\/\/theplanthunter.com.au\/\">The Planthunter<\/a>) visited the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelcooke.com.au\/\">garden designer<\/a> at his home on the Central Coast in New South Wales, Australia for <a href=\"http:\/\/thedesignfiles.net\/2016\/03\/michael-cooke\/\">The Design Files<\/a> this March.  Reading Michael&#8217;s blog on his design practice, the plants &#8212; aloes, palms, crepe myrtles, strelitzia, bougainvillea, russelia &#8212; are <em>very<\/em> familiar.  This could easily be home.  And those Irish wolfhounds have been running through my imagination for a very long time.  Always in slow motion, of course.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/march2016\/Peats_Garden_Final-900x1200.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\" photo Peats_Garden_Final-900x1200.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My family will vouch for my long-standing crush on Irish wolfhounds, which dates back to a childhood friend&#8217;s mother who bred these magnificent dogs.  Occasionally, she&#8217;d let them loose to run in packs in an nearby empty field at the end of our cul de sac where she also trained and exercised horses.  There is nothing like watching one of these dogs at full run, their long limbs effortlessly pulling forward to swiftly cover ground.  As kids we&#8217;d try to run with them but a few tumbles taught us to just get out of their way, stand back and admire.  If I pass you in the street with your Irish wolfhound, be prepared to be delayed while I greet and admire your majestic friend.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/march2016\/Peats_Garden_Slide15-600x800.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\" photo Peats_Garden_Slide15-600x800.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Michael has two Irish wolfhounds.  Horses too.  And an empty field nearby, or paddock as he calls it.  My childhood is being reenacted in New South Wales.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/march2016\/Peats_Garden_Slide12-600x800.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\" photo Peats_Garden_Slide12-600x800.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dogs, horses, and dragon trees too.  <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/march2016\/Peats_Garden_Slide4-1240x800.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\" photo Peats_Garden_Slide4-1240x800.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Because I recently acquired one, I&#8217;ve become sensitized to sightings of doryanthes, the Giant Spear Lily.  My little one is Doryanthes palmeri, which eventually grows larger than Doryanthes excelsa, which flank Michael&#8217;s front door.  D. excelsa has a taller flower stalk.<br \/>\nNote the envy-inducing xanthorrhea, the grass tree on the right. More photos by Daniel Shipp at <a href=\"http:\/\/thedesignfiles.net\/2016\/03\/michael-cooke\/\">The Design Files<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p><\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Georgina Reid&#8217;s piece on Michael Cooke I found my antipodal soul-mate garden. Georgina (The Planthunter) visited the garden designer at his home on the Central Coast in New South Wales, Australia for The Design Files this March. Reading Michael&#8217;s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=71819\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[112],"tags":[4468,4473,4472,4474,4470,4469,2583,4471],"class_list":["post-71819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-garden-visit","tag-central-coast","tag-doryanthes-excelsa","tag-doryanthes-palmeri","tag-garden-designer-michael-cooke","tag-georgina-reid","tag-nsw-australia","tag-the-design-files","tag-the-planthunter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-iGn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71819"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79882,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71819\/revisions\/79882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}