Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Wednesday Vignette; my Cracked Pots haul

The annual Cracked Pots event at McMenamins Edgefield ("Cascadia’s longest-running reuse, reclaimed, and upcycled artwork event") was held back on July 9th and 10th. The show seemed to have a great turnout. However, all the people milling about made for impossible photos, so I only got shots of the garden, none the artwork.

I'll share garden photos tomorrow, but in the meantime this is my simple, but fabulous, haul.

Sadly none of the sempervivum were named. I believe the green/lavender one is Sempervivum 'Lilac Time', a favorite that I rarely see for sale. I carried them to my car—parking is in an adjacent field—in a small trash can lid I picked up from a reuse vendor for a buck. It's only 13.5" where as the ones I've planted up with bromeliads and carnivorous plants are closer to 20"...can't wait to figure out what I will do with this one!

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Weather Diary, July 30: Hi 80, Low 60/ Precip 0

Wednesday Vignettes are hosted by Anna at Flutter & Hum. All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

The rock garden, at Rancho Cistus

Earlier in the month I wrote about my visit to Linda Wisner's garden Flicker Farm, on Sauvie Island. That was my last stop as part of the official HPSO Study Weekend, and I made sure to leave Linda's in plenty of time to visit Cistus—also on the island—before they closed. I hadn't shopped at the nursery for quite some time, but my real reason for visiting was to see the new rock garden Sean and Preston had put in...

Of course visiting at 4 pm on a bright sunny afternoon doesn't really allow for the best photo opportunities (see Sean's Instagram account, link above for that).

The shadier side has a mix of things...

Including several Lupinus albifrons x lepidus.

And Echium wildpretii...

But the sunny side is all spikes...

Well okay, not all spikes, but close...

The advantage of owning the nursery is starting with specimen size plants.

Those rocks weren't just hanging around though. Wouldn't it have been fun to see them dropped off and arranged?

Knowing Sean doesn't wear gloves I found myself wondering if he did these plantings himself.

Agave 'Royal Spine'? Or something else entirely? I'm going with something else, if only because of hardiness.

Agave utahensis?

Agave leopoldii, maybe?

Are you enjoying my guesses? Or are they annoying you? Sean was right there as I was snapping photos and I could have asked him...but sometimes it's better to just get lost in the beauty.

Mangave 'Whale Tale', I believe.

And I think these are part of the “Tim Hanis Western Treasures” collection at Cistus, I planted a couple back in May (here).

I definitely hope to share future updates of this fabulous planting, as it grows and matures.

Agave parrasana 'Meat Claw' (?)

The Agave ovatifolia did not appreciate being planted out in a very hot, sunny day, thus the sun-scald spots.

My last photo of the rock garden, note the sun loving fern...

...before heading into the nursery and enjoying spikes there too...

I took photos of several of the tags, so I could identify the plants. Then I got them all confused. It was a very long, hot, day.

Fabulous though, aren't they? I mean assuming you like spikes.

And you wouldn't be here if you didn't, right?

Weather Diary, July 29: Hi 83 Low 60/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Monday, July 29, 2019

The Garden in Concourse C

Mid-June we flew into the Denver Airport, Concourse C specifically. Since we were in Denver to attend the 2019 Garden Blogger's Fling, gardens were on my mind. Yet I would have completely missed this odd airport garden had Andrew not spotted it...

Maybe calling it a garden is a bit of a stretch, but those are plants, and they are real.

Naturally I turned to Google to find out what it was all about.

Turns out the installation—which dates back to 1995 and "mimics ancient ruins alive with plant life and flowing water"—has been a bit of a maintenance nightmare according to airport officials "who want to be rid of the needy artwork". They say the garden "leaks, attracts pests, and “creates a hazardous situation for passengers.”" (source)

The desire of airport officials to remove the garden ran into push-back from arts advocates. The original work was made possible by a Denver policy that sets aside 1 percent of every major construction budget for art, those advocates see the garden as "a significant piece of the city's artistic identity that needs to be preserved." (source)

Photos on the artist's website (Michael Singer Studio) show a much lusher garden than the one I saw last month.

Another story I found, dated July 2017, had the headline "City Approves Deaccessioning Michael Singer's Interior Garden...With Stipulations"

Yet I visited two years later and the garden is still there...

There doesn't appear to be any flowing water however.

At least none visible to the causal viewer. There must be water available for the plants, unless maintenance staff uses hoses to irrigate.

The work has two sides, divided by an open air space below where passengers catch the train to the main terminal. All the photos above, and the one below, were of one side.

This is the other side...

I didn't even notice that airplane in person, it wasn't until looking at my photos that I saw it.

So what's your opinion of the garden?

Do you think it should be saved?

Do you think it even qualifies as a garden?

I rather like it. It's odd, a little austere...

But a nice change from the usual airport fast food and quick grab and go shops.

Weather Diary, July 28: Hi 85, Low 60/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.