A Short Hiatus
Hey everyone! Sorry it has been a few days since there was a new post. I’ve been up to my eyeballs in the Antiques & Garden Show of Nashville for the past week. After working on the show in various capacities for nearly 15 years, I had officially “retired” and was looking forward to a nice, quiet year when I could just go and enjoy the show with no responsibility–just walk the floor, look around, maybe shop a little and visit with friends I only get to see once a year. But they had an unexpected opening in the garden area sort of late in the game, so we (Monarch Landscape Company and I) stepped in to fill the gap.
The show’s theme this year was “Sustaining Beauty” and was all about being ec0-friendly and green–the theme of many shows these days. Our topic was water and water conservation–you’ll notice a cistern for water collection and if you look closely at the sidewalk, it is made from a new type of permeable brick paver that allows water penetration and filtration, cleaning up runoff water from driveways and parking lots before it re-enters the groundwater system.
Because we were brought in so late in the game on this one, I decided to stick with what we know best and create a “gardeny” garden rather than doing something more modern and contemporary that involved a lot of construction, which I may have been inclined to do had we had a little more time to plan. Tradition paid off this time–people really seemed to enjoy the garden–and we won the “Rosemary Verey Award” for Best Interpretation of the Theme!
Rosemary, for those of you who don’t know, was one of Britain’s greatest gardeners. Her gardens at Barnsley House are famous around the world. Rosemary is no longer with us, but I had the good fortune of getting to know her when she visited the states on several occasions, so I’m very proud to have won the award that bears her name. It will have a special place on the shelf!
I’ll be back to posting on a regular basis starting immediately. I hope you’ll tell your gardening friends about the blog. The website is getting a nice amount of traffic these days and I hope to keep it growing. On the blog, I’m really going to focus on new and unusual plants as we get into the late days of winter and early days of spring, so I hope you’ll keep visiting and bring your gardening buddies along for the ride! I’ll be back again soon!
