Barefoot Gardening

Editors note:  WordPress seems to be eating my spacing, so this post looks wonky right now. But I wanted to share the pictures tonight.

Vertical gardening has been a trend for quite some time now. It started as a space saver, but now it’s just… a trend. It still looks cool though, and there were many examples throughout the show. From a small column, to hanging containers, to the gold medal winner “The Living Room”, which once inside, felt a little like being in a castle with a moat.

Note the long line to get inside…

There was also a treehouse that appealed to my adventurous side. You have dinner or a glass of wine in a grown up treehouse in your garden

Clever use of corks to keep the soil moist…

Also, random whimsy – an metal armadillo…

And lastly… a chair by The Garden Teak that a number of us were quite fond of on Wednesday. I wish I had somewhere to put it. The back is a hammock style that conforms to you, and boy is it difficult to get out of.

There were quite clearly many more people attending over the weekend, especially on the final day, which made me regret forgetting my SLR on Wednesday even more. Nonetheless, I went back and took some shots of my favorite gardens to share.

The Salvaged Creole Jazz Courtyard is tied for number one in my book. The front porch was so inviting, as though some jazz musician had just stepped inside for another lemonade.

In the center of the courtyard, was a fountain with alligator heads spitting out strings of pearls. And off to the side was a tuba, also with a fountain of string of pearls.

My other favorite was a prehistoric garden with a giant t-rex hovering over a waterfall.

I took full advantage of the plant sales at the SF Garden and Flower show. I came home with a box full of unusual succulents and tillandsia (air plants), as well as a hypertufa pot for my alpine plants, and some stargazer lily bulbs.

I remembered I had some itty bitty raku vases from the 2009 Gilroy Garlic Festival, and paired them with the tillandsia on the etagere in the bathroom.  I had intended to give some of these plants as gifts in terrariums, but they are way too cute. I hope the vendor has more tomorrow.

I had originally intended to take a vacation day today and attend the flower and garden show. But I started my new position at Yahoo on Monday, so that didn’t work out so well. However, I was able to sneak out early enough to meet up with Fern from Life On The Balcony and Adriana from Anarchy In The Garden, who are both fabulous.

Since I didn’t think I would actually be attending today, I left my SLR at home, but I plan on taking it on Saturday. All of my favorite gardens appealed to and inspired my adventurous side. A treehouse, a dinosaur, and a castle with a moat, oh my! Also not to miss is the Creole Jazz Courtyard. No pics tonight, but there is plenty of time for locals to see it in person still. I will post more over the weekend.

I wasn’t brave enough to try and deal with the side effects (rust etc) of planting in tea tins. But I did finally put up cute tea towel curtains in my kitchen. And while that’s not entirely gardening related, I wanted to share them anyway, since they do compliment my windowsill garden. For the curious, the tea towels are Mummy2 by Tikoli.

Also, from left to right are a sun jar, two cow pots with lavender seedlings, a prayer plant, a venus flytrap, rosemary, chives, and aloe. I also usually grow basil inside, but I haven’t gotten around to it this season.

I‘ve been transitioning jobs, so I’ve not been posting as much as I would like to. I got home early today and had a bit of time to spend outside in the daylight. My jasmine is finally blooming, and it smells so amazing.  It’s far too nice to be inside blogging. But I wanted to share this.

I’m a tad anal when it comes to my outdoor containers complimenting each other. I also worry about unconventional containers standing up to the weather. But I am absolutely in love with this reuse of Twinings tea tins from Apartment Therapy for the kitchen windowsill.  I generally drink Harney & Sons, but their tins are equally adorable. Tea tins would also compliment the tea towels I am hanging for curtains. More updates upon completion of this new project.

While I’m still working on the layout, there’s no reason why I can’t post some content. My friend Keren and I went up to the SF Botanical Gardens for their plant sale earlier in the month. I took my SLR to do some photography while we were there. Though I can garden year round in Northern California, the budding magnolias are an optimistic sign of spring!

Also, hello folks from Gardening Gone Wild. This is my entry into this month’s “Picture This” contest.