The Late Show Gardens: A Bleak and Beautiful Future

This will be the last post on the show at Cornerstone last weekend, and I wanted to share two more gardens that seemed to explore a similar theme.  The main material used:  rust.  They created a post apocalyptic feeling, but with a twist.  As if Mad Max decided to take up bluegrass music.  First up, we have this fabulous "garden" created by Ben and Kate Frey.  I love how they took dinky container plants which typically are stacked on top of each other at garden shows to create a feeling of fullness and spaced them out to make them look even more pathetic.  I hope this was on purpose, because it sounds like I'm insulting them!  It left me feeling that the only thing missing was a harsh wind and tumbleweeds.

The Hermit house comfortably seated about five people and Ben was gracious enough to give a house tour of the approximately 6' x 6' space!  All I kept thinking was, 'How did they find all this cool rusty stuff?!'

Gary Ratway and Mike Lucas's Renewal garden was another one of those 'Where did they find that?!' kinds of experiences, as their rusted propane tanks stole the show with their old-modern look that seems to be so in as of late.  I love how it speaks of bioremediation:  planting specific plants that can help clean toxic soils.  The grasses springing up from the crushed gasoline tanks made me feel as if the garden was found that way after the ocean receded to reveal an old submarine subjected to the whims of nature.

 

All in all, what a cool show!  I feel so refreshed and ready to spring forward with all my new ideas and inspiration!

The Late Show Gardens: Happy Happy Inspiration

Here are a few images I wanted to share from the Late Show Gardens at Cornerstone.  There are some wonderful blogs out there also diligently reporting the show (it's so hard traipsing around pretty gardens, taking lovely photos and showing them off to your friends!  Sigh.) which I link to here:  Michelle's Garden Porn site contains much to see from the show and Alice's Bay Area Tendrils Garden Travel does also!  Check out their photos and play by play of the Grow Melt Project,one of my favorite gardens.  However, I must have been delirious from the heat as I did not capture one pixel of it on my camera!

The photo above I found so sweet, as the hanging balls are pomegranates strung from thin wire.  So simple, so festive!  If it hadn't been 90 degrees, I would have sought out some mulled wine to put me even more in the autumnal mood!

 

 

I just couldn't bear to leave out the greyhounds.  So regal!  I wanted to put garlands of roses around their necks and a milkbone at their feet! They were for sale at one of Cornerstone's shops.

The photo is a tidge sun-bleached, but these metal balls inspired me to make a few out of wood and perhaps experiment with the form a bit.  Wouldn't they look great with clematis ligusticifolia climbing over them?

The Late Show Gardens: Future Feast In the Garden of Flow/Accumulation

What an amazing time!  The Late Show Gardens provided a much needed field trip and gave me an opportunity to meet some talented and friendly folks who all seem to geek out over plants as much as I do (in most cases, even more!)  If you are not familiar with Cornerstone, it is a playground of avant gardens designed by some of the most notorious landscape designers and architects of our day.  Among other things, the show featured some new gardens based on the theme of sustainability.  Something about the end of the world really seems to bring out the optimist/pessimist in us, but some gardens really succeeded in composing an aesthetically pleasing, thoughtful composition.  My favorite is pictured here.

Patrick Picard and Suzanne Biaggi created this incredible cor-ten table planted with a 'salad' of lettuces and sage and is set with Heath Ceramics, of course! 

I especially appreciate that they accomplished a fresh and modern aesthetic without having an overdose of grasses, unlike many of their counterparts.  I love grasses, but everything in moderation...

This view looks through the massive stone sculptures at the head of the garden where a water feature splits the table and spills over the edge into a puddle of stones at the other end.

I'll post various bits of inspiration I saw throughout the week.  So much to see!

Will I See You There?

I'll be heading out to the Cornerstone gardens in Sonoma this weekend for the Late Show Gardens. Sounds like tons of fun, with many speakers sharing their knowledge of sustainability, gardens as art, and of course using native plants.
If any of my readers (hi, Grandma) and fellow garden bloggers are planning to attend it would be a great opportunity to meet up!