Don't be fooled. Inside this thin coating of sweetness is a fiery core of total insanity.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Portland Yard, Garden and Patio Show

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!

Although the plants weren't particularly exciting, I did like this knock-your-eye-out orange wall.

I loved these rusty wavy panels with flames in front of them.

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

This interesting structure was the centerpiece of this garden

The repurposed multipaned windows were not structural, but were just hanging free from chains


The mossy tablescape inside was cool, but left very little room for actually using the table



I thought this was a nice, abstract design for a water feature


It was situated directly underneath a moss- and vine-strewn pergola

I liked this view of the pond, firepit and bench on the patio

While it's interesting to do both fire and water in one, the enormous ugly gas line feeding the fire does nothing for me

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

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?