Gardening and Gardens

The last stop on the Garden Blogger's Seattle Fling tour was to the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island, just east of Seattle, across the Puget Sound. The private and public gardens we visited in Seattle were beautiful but the Bloedel was truly spectacular.   The Reserve's 150 acres were filled with quiet trails through woodlands and landscaped gardens, including a Japanese Garden, a Moss Garden and Reflection Pool.  The Bloedel Reserve was once the home of Prentice Bloedel and his wife, Virginia, who resided on the property from 1951 until 1986. He was deeply interested in the relationship between people and the natural world, and the power of landscape to evoke emotions ranging from tranquility to exhilaration. You can read more about the Bloedel Reserve here .  True to Seattle's reputation, it rained the entire day we were at Bloedel, but somehow the wet and the mist added to the beauty of the landscape. My favorite was the...

It's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day! Here's what's growing and blooming in my garden this month. It's been a rainy past few days here in western Long Island, but at least I got to photograph a few of my plants while the sun was still shining. The Black-eyed Susan's have finally bloomed. I just love their cheery yellow with the dark center. The purple Salvia has really done well in these boxes and their darkness is a nice contrast to the lemon-yellow Zinnias. Every time I look at these impatiens, I am still in awe that these were from cuttings I made. Look how full and lush they are! The Morning Glory vines have really taken off and trying to grab hold of anything they can climb on. I love the shade it provides from inside the house and the way it looks from the outside. I planted a mix of seeds, so the flower colors range from a deep purple to pink to a deep blue. So pretty. The ferns in the shady area of my backya...

In my last post, I showcased some of the private gardens I visited while attending the 2011 Garden Bloggers Fling in Seattle, WA.  A nice contrast to these was some of the great public gardens, arboretums and parks in the Seattle area. Here are some of the highlights I enjoyed: Dunn Gardens Dunn Gardens is a beautiful spot and currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Located in Seattle's Broadview neighborhood, it was once the summer home of Arthur Dunn and was originally landscaped by the Olmsted Brothers in 1915. The Olmsted firm, established in 1858 by Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), designed some of the most notable urban parks in the United States, including Central Park in New York City, the capitol grounds in Washington D.C., and Boston Commons. The Olmsted Brothers liked to work with the natural topography of the site in their designs, and tried to incorporate as much of the native vegetation and surrounding landsca...