The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.
Alfred Adler
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alfredadle122754.html?src=t_danger
The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.
Alfred Adler
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alfredadle122754.html?src=t_danger
For today, the first day of spring, I've decided to take a look back to last summer -- to a dry, warm day when I visited a fabulous Portland garden. One of my greatest regrets about not attending the 2014
Portland Fling was that I missed seeing fellow garden blogger Loree's
Danger Garden. I had seen it once briefly on a spring day that year, when Loree was still in the midst of sorting out her many tender pots for the year. (She keeps a large number of potted plants that aren't hardy to our climate, which she overwinters every year.) But that wasn't the same as seeing it at the height of its summer glory.
So when I heard that her garden was going to be part of the
2015 Green on Green Garden tour, I knew I had to get myself down to Portland to see what I had missed.
Here's what the blurb in the pamphlet said: Loree's edict is "bare ground equals room for another plant." Hardscape helps to control the "chaos." Few elements of the original garden remain, especially in the front garden where plants are chosen for minimal reliance on water and maintenance. A shade pavilion doubles as a greenhouse in the winter. Featured plants include dozens of containered succulents.
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| A talented hand at pruning has turned an Arctostaphylos, with its lovely red branches, into the sculptured centerpiece of the front garden |
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| And the foundation plantings are definitely not the same old, same old |
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| I was captivated by this stunning arrangement to the right of the front door |
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| I'm hoping some day to have fruit on one of my own cactus (I have two Opuntias that were gifts from Loree) |
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| This enormous Tetrapanax is another cornerstone of the front garden |
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| Loree keeps her edibles in the driveway in containers, along with several of her signature Agaves. |
Now we've gone around the corner into the back garden.
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| Loree's clever husband created this container with bits and pieces from the hardware store |
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| This bed in the back garden is a riot of spiky, prickly foliage, anchored by a tall, stunning Yucca rostrata |
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| A closer look |
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| It's mesmerizing! |
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| A glimpse beyond at the patio |
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| Every tiny detail, like this set of containers, was impeccably groomed and curated |
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| Every corner of the patio has its own arrangement of containers, organized by color -- lime green, orange, black, turquoise, gray and metallic silver |
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| A stock tank "pond' houses a lily with a mottled leaf and a pale yellow bloom (I don't know the other two plants) |
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| Interspersed throughout the garden are several of these narrow pedestals with funnel containers on top |
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| Peter The Outlaw Gardener also keeps most of his Podophyllums in containers, where they thrive like this one. |
This year I might dig a few of mine up and keep them in containers, where I can more easily control the amount of water they get. Mine always do fine in the spring, but by the middle of our dry summer, no matter how much I water the beds they're in, they start to flag and die back prematurely.
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| An overturned bucket with a hole in the bottom houses an Astelia |
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| A lime green circle pot from Potted hangs from a bigleaf Magnolia, with Hostas and a crowded clump of Syneleisis at its feet |
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| Metapanax delavayi further along in the same bed |
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| Loree, the queen of spiky plants, and her sweet dog Lila |
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| Lila, the true queen of the Danger Garden |
I was lucky enough to come at the very end of what must have been a long day for Loree and Lila, but they were very gracious hosts and didn't mind me staying past curfew. Fortunately, that also meant that I got to see the garden without a crowd.
Thanks so much, Loree. I know your garden this summer will be just as glorious!
