Laura Spector’s art falls into the category of Modern Master — I don’t put too many things or people in the category, but she certainly qualifies.  Her pieces are beautiful celebrations of woody vines and branches that create some of the most beautiful garden furniture and arbors I have ever seen.  Make sure to click through to her website to see other pieces of her work that are for the interior of the home too.

Thanks Louise for sending me the link!

Podere Palazzo is the tuscan farmhouse vacation home of Chicago based designer Patrizio Fradiani.  The home is rent-able for a holiday stay in Tuscan region of Italy.  My friend sent me the link from designtripper when I recently mentioned my trip later this year to Italy.   It is a lovely place — and while it is a bit south of the route I will be traveling, the gardens are certainly worth a mention here for their relaxed mix of modern and traditional styling that seems quite at home in the beatuiful hills. I do wish that this were an option for our trip!

The hilltop garden is full of berries, grapes, berbs and even a rare variety of olive brought north from the island of sicily. There are of course the steroetypical but perfect spindly cypress but also a flock of sheep, and the odd wild boar to keep the garden lively.

Click through the gallery to see more.

This morning, my good friend emailed me about this tree cathedral that is being inaugurated tomorrow (September 4th 2010).  I think even without greenery — this may be end up being a stop on our tour.

image from wired.co.uk

The Tree Cathedral is located outside of Bergamo, Italy, on the slopes of the Arera mountain, and is the creation of famed Italian contemporary artist, Giuliano Mauri.

Giuliano Mauri, is a ‘natural architect’ who died in May 2009. The structure was his last work, to signify the International Year of Biodiversity. It stands 21 metres tall, with five aisles and 42 columns. It’s 28.5 metres long and 24 metres wide, and has been built from 1800 firs, 600 chestnut branches and 6000 metres of hazel branch that’s been weaved into the design. 42 beeches have been planted inside, which will grow over time to provide the roof to the structure, which remains open to the rain for the time being.   Here are some interesting images of the making of the cathedrale, but with all good gardens, I am excited to keep an eye on this one and see how it matures with time.

Joseph over at Greensparrow Gardens has a keen eye for the quirks of gardeners and designers (which he incorporates into his cartoons).  Happily (or embarrassingly) I can relate to far too many of his weekly doodles.  I am so pleased that he took me up on my offer to guest here, and create a unique cartoon for us.   Does your garden look like the former or the later?….mine is the later for sure — I wish it were the former, but suspect that may never happen unless I give up my clients. How to get over this, I simply don’t know….

From boring and bland to chic and sleek — it is almost hard to believe this is the same house.  The silver blue and sage green textural planting is sharp against the natural wood siding.  It would have been so easy to keep the ornamental trees and go for an update, but the complete re-think of this space is very imaginative and I think very successful.  Designed by Laughlin Design in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The pallets create a potato growing heaven on one side and compost on the other.  The strawberry pot decorates the center.  The various and sundry plastic containers hang to give more planting space and even the edges of the pallets serve to hold little pots of dangling plants.  It’s rustic and resourceful and utterly charming don’t you think?

Click through to see more detail or take a visit to Catholic home to read more about how it was created.

I am forever trying to find the quirky and unusual often with some frustration.  Either I can’t find or I do and it doesn’t perform.   Thats usually when I check at Loomis Creek.  They have the plant — which feeds my determination to get the item because now I know if will work, — or they don’t, when I usually decide I should let that one go. They are like a quick online litmus test for my plant choices.

As they move to the pacific northwest, for new adventures, I and their neighbors in the Hudson valley will surely miss them.  For now though, I am scoping out my already full fall schedule to see when I can make the couple hour trek to Loomis Creek and pick up some final treasures before they are gone at the end of the season.

Urban Rooftop gardening is is quite vogue but while the reality of actually creating such a garden can be daunting (think hauling all that dirt to the roof) – this garden is quite inspiring because it literally looks like someone went through the apartment building and picked up all the stuff that would have gone down to the curb and instead took it up to the roof to create this quirky but appealing mix.
Found over at urban garden casual.

Crinkle Crankle Wall. What is that?  I love the names for things in gardening and garden design.  My husband is forever accusing me of making things up — the latest Latin…kirenshoma palmata (he thinks I made that name up), now this morning…crinkle crankle walls….No, I am not making this up.

image by the vintage cottage

Other names for it are ’serpentine walls’ or ‘ribbon walls’ which are perhaps somewhat more descriptive.  But in many places (particularly in England) they are Crinkle Crankle Walls.  They are also found in the Netherlands (having thought to originate there in the 16th century) where they are called slange muur—snaking wall.

image by *Notes

Crinkle Crankle walls have curving lines following a serpentine path rather than a straight line. This layout gives the construction added strength and does away with the need for buttressing.

image by bluesoccerelephant

It has been used in conjunction with growing fruit as it is thought that the curve of the wall traps and radiate the rays of the sun, which assist the fruit in growing.

This type of wall is more resistant to toppling than a straight wall; so much so that it can be made of a single thickness of un-reinforced brick and so, despite its longer length, can be more economical than a straight wall.

It feels to me like the home of an artist.  Artists seem to crave color and incorporate it into their spaces in an interesting and unexpected way.  I personally find the fake blue of some chlorinated pools highly unappealing and the antithesis of refreshing, but here it is part of the color scheme and I can look at the pool as a design element in a colorful environment rather than an unnatural chemical bath.

The fence treatment with the corten steel panels are also really drawing me in….only seeing the space from these pictures, I still have the desire to walk over to them, touch them and follow them around the corner to see where the fence leads and what it feels like to be surrounded by these interesting pieces.

This seems like a deeply personal space that can only be created by a designer who is partnered with  a homeowner who really got involved in the design and had a wonderful vision to add to the process.

Design by Sundrea Design Studio in Tuscon Arizona.

(Whoa! her 80’s hair is spectacular!!)

Owning of one of these makes me feel like I am an old school New Englander.   For my hilly, rocky, up and down garden it makes easy work of moving around debris, plants, mulch and whatever I need.   I just ordered new tires and I expect to find that operating the cart with actual inflated tires that stay on the rims will be even easier.  And the best part of the Garden way — when I look out my window and I see it parked here and there all around the garden, it actually looks nice and gives a sense of a gardener at work and, even in the fall, it pulls me forward with a sense of anticipation for what it will do next.

You can buy one — and I highly recommend it for anyone with anything but a tiny garden – at amazon. (Carts Vermont Model 26 Garden/Yard Cart).

By the magic of google adwords, I discovered a new supplier who will be getting a bit of my business.  One Stop Poppy Shoppe has come into my life at a rather serendipitous moment.  Not one to grow flowers and  things (other than vegetables) from seed, I nonetheless experimented with a few things this summer to great success.  Sometime in late June I installed a new bed in my own garden and given that I planted lots of small shrubs (I can be patient for them to become big  for the sake of saving a buck), I have lots of open area where one day shrubs will fill.  So taking advantage of the extra room that will not always be there, I decided to throw in some seeds for plants that I love, have a hard time finding, but have never grown.  The two things I experimented with were Castor Beans (Ricinus communis) and California Poppies.   With a 100% success rate — even with a late planting, I currently have a new flush of orange flowers and the huge beautiful leaves of the Castor Bean are inspiring me for next years container plantings.

So with my growing confidence in growing poppies from seed (in usable quantities for design work), I am urged on to try greater and more interesting varieties.  Poppies are among my favorite flowers and while sadly they kinda suck as cut flowers, there is nothing better than a midsummer field full of poppies and white daisies.

When google somehow took a guess at thinking I might be interested in the One Stop Poppy Shoppe, they found a good match.  With over 50 varieties of annual and Perennial Poppy seeds available, I have added this Wisconsin supplier to my short list for seeds.

When I was in England, there was a big trend for blue poppies.  They were quite the fashion about 6-7 years ago in the UK (perhaps they still are?) – It is a trend that has not quite caught on in the same way here and I wonder if it is yet to come.  I am still quite obsessed with blue and white and I think I will try all the blue varieties that are on offer  (Meconopsis Lingholm, Meconopsis  horridula prattii, Meconopsis Betonicifolia)  as well as the pretty white woodland varieties.  Have you tried to grow blue poppies and do you have any advice to pass along?

I remember thinking as I wrote, how easy it would be to make a more refined version (in fact I think I said that in the post) — well someone else had the same idea…and made this ultra sleek (but super cheap)  garden….

found at apartment therapy

Here are her beautiful and inspiring results….

She has a full set of instructions for each on her website.  Here, here, here, and  here are the links to all the projects you see above and below.

Imagine a Water Tower turned into a hotel — I think of a ball shaped thing on legs like you see dotted across the midwest of the USA- and I scratch my head at the thought.  The Dutch however have different types of water towers.  They look like this (castles) and a few years ago, after spotting the beautiful building in an image of the town in 1930’s the creators of this amazing hotel decided to give the building new life.

No longer surrounded by water, the creation of The Hotel Augustus and it’s landscape, recreated an opportunity to  surround the premises with water and nature.  After renovation, the river Vlij now flows again, the water tower/ hotel is surrounded by gardens and the original pumping station has been converted to a restaurant and a market-café.

Sited on the spot where the water basins for Dordrecht’s water tower were located, a formal but quirky  garden was created.
They “envisaged a garden that would do justice to all the images that the thought of a garden evokes. A garden that supplies food, a garden that is a feast for the eye and delight for the nose, a garden that reflects the changes of the seasons, a garden where sun and moon, wind and water, air and rain can be felt. A garden that makes you feel uplifted and humble at the same time. A garden that reminds you of all the promises and possibilities that lie ahead. A garden that inspires the cook and that in turn is
inspired by the kitchen – the cook and the gardener, the gardener and the cook.”

There is an entrance garden, a vegetable garden for fresh produce, a garden full of berries, a hothouse for grapes and a greenhouse. A Giardino Segreto (Secret Garden)  in which you can disappear or even stay the night (there is a hotel room in the secret garden), a copse to roam about, an orchard with apples, pears, plums, cherries and last but not least an Italian garden.

I yearn for projects like this and take enormous inspiration from it.  From the quirky formal garden to the business model of creating a hotel and landmark that flows directly from the land and whose main feature is the landscape, I am contemplating how my own little slice of land can be put to better use.

Japanese gardens are so collected and for an average homeowner, simply unachievable.  But this Japanese styled gardens seems full of ideas for getting the look in a achievable sort of way.  The day bed is so simple to construct and yet perfectly appropriate and full of style.

click the pictures below to see more images.

found via zainteriora

Called ‘Pile Isle’, I found this via GardenBeet. It is designed by Elena Goray and Christoph Tönges.  It has  no glue or nails and is simply held together with  stainless steel belts.

While I was traveling in Canada, I had a couple of “whoa, stop the car!” moments.  I found some really great little gardens that I took lots of inspiration from.   This one was such a pretty compilation of olive, orange and yellow (three of my favorite colors in the garden) and I think it shows so well how effective design can be when you limit the color palette.

This hanging basket was airy and ethereal in a way that seemed to perfectly fit this space and is easily my favorite thing — and to tell the truth, combined with the orange painted corner brackets, where what made me stop the bus in the first place.

I have rounded up a variety of hanging garden seats.  They are top to bottom in price (some cheap and some very expensive) and where available easily I have included the pricing.   I hope you find this useful.

And don’t forget — one of my all time favorite hanging garden seats….the pink fermob balancelle chair that I featured last spring.

From top left, found at Minor Details, Now at Home, Amazon. $89.99, The Garden Gift Box, Archiexpo, Acrylic Bubble from LA Furniture Store. $1199, Raw Studio, , Steve Myburgh metal garden work, Target. $59.99, Anthropologie, Buy $777.59, Instructables DIY Pallet hanging chair.,Patricia Urquiloa

Oh — this garden makes me want to go to Australia.  Created by Landart, this coastal garden features native plants to tie in with the surrounding natural bush.  Although it is clearly a hot dry place, the harsh landscape seems soft and serene here don’t you think?