View full sizeWife comes around to husband’s view of topiary.ONE PLUS ONE: A British couple with two different approaches to garden design compromised with a melding of formal and casual.
The husband wanted the garden formal, with “elements, such as an
Italianate pond and, good grief, some topiary,” writes Leigh Bramwel in
The Star. “Once I’d have thought no, absolutely no topiary, not in this
messy subtropical landscape, but in the past few months I’ve seen quite a
few examples of using topiary in a casual landscape design, and I have
to admit it looks quirky, funny, interesting and charming.”
FLOATING UPRIGHT: The donation of a kayak for a display at the Northwest Flower Garden Show turned into an almost-vertical garden at the Agua Verde Paddle Club and Cafe in Seattle. I don’t think it quite qualifies as a green wall because it leans about 70 degrees rather than 90. But why not bend the rules? The seat and hatches are planted with Agave parryi v. truncata and assorted sedum and sempervivum.
GARDENING AND THE SCRIPTURES: Joe Liro, a professor at Austin Community College, is reminded of his faith when he is working in the garden. “Gardens, herbs and spices — the Scriptures are full of references to them. Adam and Eve lived in a garden. God spoke to Moses from a bush. (In the Pulitzer prize-winning, two-part play “The Kentucky Cycle,” Austinite Robert Schenkkan writes that the bush was not really burning. What Moses actually saw was a bougainvillea in full bloom. An easy mistake.) The Magi brought spices for the infant. Years later, Jesus prayed in a garden and agonized there, “watering it with his tears.” He was buried in a garden, the garden to which the women returned to anoint him with herbs and spices, only to discover that Jesus lived.”
— Kym Pokorny
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