Thursday, August 28, 2014

Pollinator paradise and fun for people too...

It's rare Andrew accompanies me to a Hardy Plant Society of Oregon function but somehow I managed to talk him into attending a presentation given by Annie Hayes, the Annie in Annie's Annuals. We sat next to the owner of this garden, Karen, and he struck up a conversation with her. Shortly after that she started working at my "neighborhood" nursery, Garden Fever, and we've been chatting ever since. That's how I happened to score an invite to her and her husband's open garden and studio event earlier this month...

I should also mention Karen is a garden designer and owner of Calendula Garden Design.

Her house colors have me wishing we'd gone with a bit of a lighter brown so we could have charcoal and green trim.

Her husband's work appears throughout the garden, and yes, I liked it. You know I'm not a fan of GARDEN ART but these heads didn't scream ART, they seemed to belong and added to the overall vibe of the garden.

This photo does not do this plant justice, this Grevillea victoriae was huge, it kind of scared me (since I've got 3 planted in my garden). Karen also said she'd pruned it way back recently too, since it was starting to make the neighbors nervous.


Detail of the side gate, the glass insets add a nice flourish.

And the same gate is repeated on the other side of the house, which is actually where we entered the back garden.

Look at those vintage chairs!

And of course the deck "skirt"...

The garden is filled with flowers and edibles, truly a pollinators paradise.

I'm not sure how I managed to photograph these artichoke blossoms when they weren't swarming with bees, maybe I sneezed right before I took the photo?

Did you notice the bags hanging from the tree in the last photo? They're protecting the fruit, if I remember correctly against codling moth.

How many gardens feature a working studio with kiln? Not many.

Pretty nice eh? I meant to take a few photos of Karen's husband's pottery but wanted to ask first and thus forgot.

Just beyond the studio is a sitting area/fire pit with the coolest chairs, which I also forgot to ask about.

Make that cool chairs and a table.

Yes this (very private) tub does get used.

Looking back towards the house from the studio.

Let's explore the garden...

Potato tower...

More garden faces...

And Karen's signature wine bottle edging. If you click on over to her website you'll see a small night-time photo of the bottles illuminated.

Thank you for letting us visit your lovely garden Karen!

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

19 comments:

  1. Thanks for showing us Karen's fab garden. I love bottle edging, love it around the firepit too! That deck skirt is cool as well.

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    1. Lots of great ideas to steal, or err, borrow right?

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  2. Edibles and pollinator plants planted to all look very ornamental, very nice! You can clearly see the creative flair of the pair, with the pottery kiln simply reaffirming the obvious.

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    1. Such a cohesive design too, I'm not sure if my photos showed that very well.

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  3. Nice! a terrific garden. those faces would creep me out though, especially the one that looks like a doll's head, however, they are creative and beautifully crafted

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    1. So the baby head as decorative item "fad" hasn't found a home with you?

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  4. A garden with scads of personality. I especially like the potato tower.

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  5. Love the bottles, especially lit up. I've long been wanting to do something with wine bottles...

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    1. Do it! I'd love to see what you come up with.

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  6. I think the deck "skirt" in this garden is the most creative one I've seen. I like the bottle edging too - I did something similar in my old garden but it didn't look nearly as good.

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    1. Do you have photos? I'd love to see it!

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  7. The bottles around the fire pit (love the cracked pot!) are marvelous and the edging is cool. What a fun garden! Thanks for the tour!

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    1. You are oh so welcome, it's a tough gig, this garden blogging thing.

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  8. I love the heads, this garden has a lot of character. I've seen chairs and tables (and all sorts of furniture actually) here that look exactly like those - they're made of old cut up wooden boats. I also really like that gate with the glass pieces inset.

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    1. I asked Karen and hers are made of old boats too, interesting.

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  9. Nice garden. I like the succulents growing out of the deck skirt and the house colors are sharp!

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  10. great garden. love the heads, though they're a little on the heebie jeebie side. And the house color scheme is dynamite.

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  11. This looks like a fun garden to explore, accompanied by all those shrunken heads! I like the creative use of metal pipes as skirting on the deck, and the chairs and table are eye-catching too.

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