As I mentioned in a previous post, Nigel and I went down to Portland for the weekend to attend the
Yard, Garden and Patio Show, a three-day garden show that happens every year at the Portland Convention Center. The best highlight of my day was actually having lunch with a group of garden bloggers -- Loree of
Danger Garden, Ricki of
sprig to twig, Ann of
Amateur Bot-Ann-ist, and my garden touring and plant buying buddy Peter of
The Outlaw Gardener and his non-blogging partner Tom. Unfortunately, I neglected to ask our waiter to take a picture of all of us, so I don't have any evidence of the wonderful, fun meal we had.
Instead, I thought I'd share some of the photos I took at the show. I had only made it to one afternoon of the Seattle garden show a few weeks ago, so I was itching for some inspiring display gardens. Interestingly, the showcase gardens at the YGP show were all walk-through gardens, which you seldom see at the NWFGS. It's always keep out, and look but don't touch. Another big difference that surprised me -- many, if not all, the gardens at the YGP show included lit firepits!
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| Although the plants weren't particularly exciting, I did like this knock-your-eye-out orange wall. |
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| I loved these rusty wavy panels with flames in front of them. |
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| Somehow -- perhaps dye in combination with a black liner -- they had made the water dark enough to give a great reflection of the dancing flames |
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| This interesting structure was the centerpiece of this garden |
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| The repurposed multipaned windows were not structural, but were just hanging free from chains |
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| The mossy tablescape inside was cool, but left very little room for actually using the table |
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| I thought this was a nice, abstract design for a water feature |
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| It was situated directly underneath a moss- and vine-strewn pergola |
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| I liked this view of the pond, firepit and bench on the patio |
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| While it's interesting to do both fire and water in one, the enormous ugly gas line feeding the fire does nothing for me |
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| Although I like the metal screen with cutouts, as well as the seating and the firepit, they kind of overdid it by including a second fire element |
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| A cute hobbit house, covered in moss and ferns and poppies, but the tires seem out of place, like they wandered in from a different garden. Are there cars in Hobbiton? |
I've considered a few times the possibility of installing a firepit of some kind in my garden. Nigel and I used to go camping when our son Iain was young, and I have great memories of sitting around the campfire. But I just don't think we'd get enough use out of it. What do you think of fire in the garden?
