Serenity in Seattle; my favorite display

By Karen Chapman | February 23, 2016 |

While most visitors to the 2016 Northwest Flower and Garden Show were jostling for position to photograph the large display gardens, I found myself drawn to the smaller City Living  exhibits. Each designer worked with a 6 x 12 space defined by pavers to represent a high rise apartment balcony. The criteria was that all materials…

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Fragrant Fall Favorites

By Karen Chapman | October 14, 2012 |

Many of you enjoyed last week’s post on the katsura tree, loving its caramel apple scent as much as I do. Did you know that there are also several shrubs and perennials which spice up the fall garden with their fragrance too? Glossy abelia (Abelia x grandiflora) is a somewhat sprawling shrub with tubular white…

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Priceless parsnips

By Karen Chapman | July 23, 2012 |

  "there are perfectly good stores where you can buy parsnips you know”………… …….so commented  a  dear friend who couldn’t quite wrap her head around why we were spending many months and more than a few dollars to construct the Taj Mahal of vegetable gardens. If you’ve been following this blog for a while you…

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Friends

By Karen Chapman | July 15, 2012 |

I love to visit Larry and Connie’s garden in Redmond, WA. Apart from the guaranteed hugs (and a homemade cookie if I time it just right) I know I will be met by a wonderfully exuberant garden. It’s a sort of English-garden-meets-Pacific-Northwest, which isn’t surprising when I tell you that I was the one who…

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