Party Time for Hummingbirds!

Zzzzzzzzzzip. Zzzzzzzzzzzzip. Yes it's that time of year when hummingbirds can be seen, heard and enjoyed daily as they flit from one flower to the next. Like most gardeners I used to rely on hummingbird feeders to entice them but quickly transitioned to adding flowering plants that provided a natural food source and habitat to support…

Read More

Serenity in Seattle; my favorite display

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…

Read More

Taming the Front Garden

Eek! Where would you start? Pruning the overgrown rhododendrons and camellias? Removing towering, diseased conifers? Hauling away a pampas grass the size of a Volkswagen? Well maybe, but the biggest problem was actually the driveway, assuming you drove a vehicle larger than a Mini cooper. Besides some areas that were crumbling away, it was extremely difficult…

Read More

Captivating Ideas from a Petite Garden

I wrote a post recently for my other blog Fine Foliage (co-authored with Christina Salwitz) called The Ones That Got Away. You see Christina and I are on the final countdown for our new book with Timber Press (due out 9/2016) and scrambling to get as many mouth watering ideas photographed and written up as possible, but…

Read More

Naked in the Garden with Jamie Durie

As I pushed open the door to the nail salon the phone rang. "Hi Karen? Jamie here. Jamie Durie." Realizing my much needed manicure was going to have to wait I hastily ducked back out and rushed to my car where I had a notepad and pen handy just in case this happened! I had been trying to…

Read More