Tag: Garden Design
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Winter, Winter Garden, Winter Garden Design, Winter Gardening, Winter Solstice
Solstice Season in the Secret Garden
Solstice Season in the Secret Garden  First snow. Powder swirls about the Secret Garden, dusting peaks, tracing lines and filling every crevice. The forest, enchanted, drifts softly off to sleep . . . Winter bares her beautiful bones Article & Photography copyright Michaela Harlow at The Gardener’s Eden, all rights reserved. All content on this […]
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Upon a May Night . . .
 An Evening Stroll to the Secret Garden, through a Carpet of Wild, Blue Woodland Phlox (Phlox divaricata) Awake before the dawn this morning —listening to the forest come alive with the songs of hermit thrush and the yelps of young fox— my mind drifted back to yesterday evening, and a few stolen hours in the […]
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Autumn Color in the Garden, Autumn Garden Design, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Plants for Light Effects, Trees, Trees for Fall Foliage, Wildlife, Woodland plants, Woody Plants
Autumn’s Kaleidoscopic Color Wheel: Glorious Patterns & Back-Lit Beauty …
 Purple Beautyberry, Smokebush and Maiden Grass Make a Brilliant Grouping (Callicarpa dichotoma, Cotinus coggygria and Miscanthus) Though it Often Spreads Aggressively, North American Native, Hay Scented Fern (Densntaedtia punctilobula) is a Gorgeous and Durable Ground Cover for Tough, Shady Spaces. Taking My Cue from Mother Nature, I Like to Position this Autumnal Favorite Where it will […]
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Dahlias, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Garden Paths, Paths and Walkways
Weaving Garden Dreams into Reality: The Art of Designing a Landscape …
Sketching with Dahlias for Color Inspiration Rainy days are studio days. I’ve been indoors on this wet Labor Day, working on a bulb order for a garden I designed and planted last week, and putting together preliminary sketches for two upcoming projects. My painting studio doubles as my garden design space; filled with all of […]
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Ferncliff, Front Yard Gardens, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Paths and Walkways, Secret Garden at Ferncliff, Secret Garden Room, Secret Gardens, Summer Flowering Perennials, Wildflowers and Meadows
The Play of Sunlight and Shadow: Through the Secret Garden Door …
Golden Flowers in a Pool of Sunlight: Through the Secret Garden Door … It’s a busy, busy week here at my studio. With two large garden designs, and three smaller projects shifting from dream to reality, there’s much work to be done behind the scenes. I must confess that paperwork and numbers are not terribly […]
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Building, Celebrations, Public Gardens
Honoring National Public Gardens Day – And Breaking Ground on My First Public Garden Design Project…
New Beginnings at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center and Marlboro College in Vermont… LaRock Excavating at Work… Today is National Public Gardens Day, the second annual celebration of a day set aside to honor the importance of community gardens throughout the United States. Over the past year, I have occasionally written about public gardens in […]
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Artful Garden Objects, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Garden Paths, Garden Visits, Inspirational Gardens, Sculpture
Design Inspiration: A lesson in planning, editing and restraint… my visit to the private garden of Phyllis Odessey and Peter Mauss.
~ The Stone Garden House sculpture, by artist Dan Snow, at the  Mauss~Odessey Garden Beautiful, isn’t it? Visiting this magical garden last weekend, created by my friends Phyllis and Peter, was truly inspirational. Phyllis Odessey is an incredibly talented garden designer with a knack for making large open spaces seem both intimate and calm. Her […]
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Ferncliff, Garden Design, Perennial Close-Ups
Romancing the Garden: Indigofera…
Indigofera kirilowii, laden with raindrops Poetic. Indigofera absolutely glows in the damp, darkness of rainy days and the shadowy, low light of early mornings and late afternoons. This is a romantic flower; reminiscent of castle-bound heroines and hidden, walled gardens. The weeping form and cascading flowers create a slightly wistful, but classically beautiful presence. Although […]
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Garden Design, Garden Paths, Garden Visits, Inspirational Gardens, Public Gardens, Travel
Finding Inspiration in Public Gardens … The Bridge of Flowers, Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts…
Above, The Bridge of Flowers viewed from the bank of the Deerfield River. Â Below, a gravel path leads through The Bridge of Flowers in June… Visiting public gardens has become something of a luxury for me over the past few years. I am a professional gardener and designer, and the busiest season in my line […]
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Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Native Plants, Plant Spotlight, Woodland plants
June Flowering Shrub Spotlight : Our Native Mountain Laurel, Kalmia Latifolia
Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia, ‘Pink Charm’) in a naturalistic planting between boulders… One of the great native shrubs of North America, mountain laurel, (Kalmia latifolia), is also a beautiful and versatile garden plant. Â With nearly 100 cultivars ranging in size from the diminutive, (12″ high plants suitable for small spaces and rock gardens), to the […]
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Artful Garden Objects, Bowls, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Pots, Sculpture, Urns and Vessels
Sculpture and Artful Objects in the Garden…
Every now and again, I encounter a place in a garden where something seems to be missing. Usually, the space is calling for artful punctuation. I have discovered that sometimes the design element  I am looking for in a garden isn’t a plant at all. On occasion the smooth terra cotta surface of an urn, […]
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Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Garden Maintenance, Garden Science, Planting Techniques, Vegetable Gardening
The Art & Science of Designing a Vegetable Garden…
Creating a beautiful and bountiful potager A vegetable garden can be an incredible source of pleasure. Â Every sunny morning, my four-legged companions and I take a walk to the potager where we enjoy each other’s company while I sip my morning coffee. Â I like to start my day listening to the mocking bird and watching […]
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Garden Design, Plants for shade, Woodland plants
Beauty in the Shadows
Glaucidium Palmatum Native to Japan, this beautiful perennial prefers light shade and rich, moist earth. Â Glaucidium Palmatum is hardy to zone 4 and can reach 16-24″ in height. Â *****
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Garden Design, Garden Maintenance, Garden Science, Plants for sun, Roses
“That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet”….. Shakespeare
Selecting and Siting Roses in Cold Climates Damask, Moss, or Gallica?  Modern, Old or English? Call them what you will, many gardeners fall in love with roses early on, and the infatuation never ends. The moist, velvety petals and heady fragrance of this fabled flower are powerfully seductive.  It is easy to to understand the allure […]
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Garden Design, Garden Design Photos
May at Ferncliff …
Blooming in the garden this week… woodland phlox, daphne, sweet woodruff… Â Â and more bulbs. Â Fragrance fills the air … Garden design and installation: Michaela H Stonework by Dan Snow ***
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Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Shade Gardening
Designing a Quiet Vignette for a Shady Garden…
Image â“’ Michaela at TGE – No usage without permission Perhaps because I grew up in a bright, sunny home with the bold and colorful flowers my mother chose for her garden, I have always been intrigued by the opposite. Â The allure of the shady nook on a hot summer afternoon is very seductive to […]
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Ferncliff, flowering shrubs, Garden Design, Garden Design Photos, Garden Paths, Ground Covers, Native Plants, Planting Techniques
Designing for early spring garden interest: the first act in a dramatic garden year…
Early Spring Entry Garden Designing and planting a garden for all seasons reminds me a bit of theater. From the moment an audience stands at the entry of a garden, an opportunity exists. When guests emerge from their cars, or step inside a gate, what will they first notice? In early spring, perhaps the […]
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