Judy Lowe, of the Christian Science Monitor, posted a review of Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways yesterday entitled “A tiny garden house of your own.” You can read it here:

An excerpt:

“Debra Prinzing’s book, “Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways” (Clarkson Potter, $30), showcases 28 little retreats that anyone with space and money can construct in the backyard.

As William Wright’s photos show, these aren’t prefab repositories of old shovels and mildewed garden gloves, but stuff of dreams – stylish shelters and studios, even pavilions for garden entertaining.

Because it’s so well-written and beautifully photographed, this book has earned a permanent place on my bookshelves. I’ll be leafing through over and over, dreaming of the possibilities.

Debra’s blog, Shed Style, has become must reading for me, too, to keep up on this trend.

This is the second time this month I’ve had the pleasure of saying, Thank you, Judy!

Like many freelance journalists, I receive a lot of “goodies” in the mail. I love it when garden, design, and plant books arrive for me to review. And of course, I appreciate “plant booty” — those boxes sent by growers who want me to trial their new introductions (although it’s uncanny: the boxes of tiny annuals, perennials and the like inevitably arrive on the hottest day of the week when I’m away from home, making it very hard to quickly rehydrate and revive the contents once I return!).

Press kits abound (although many are now sent electronically), and since I belong to countless horticultural societies, I also receive colorful monthly newsletters. Hand-written notes from friends are highly valued, as are checks from publishers (yeah!).

Today, as I was trying to organize the piles in my office, I pulled out a few of the items in my In-Box that caught my attention. Here’s a list:

Personal notes come first:

My friend and former co-author Mary Robson, a faithful letter-writer, jotter of quick notes, and all-around dear friend, dropped me a note with a nice little story: “. . . an incident you will appreciate,” (she wrote). “I stayed over at a friend’s home, in their garden-shed turned guest house. And what should be on the bedside table – of course, your book. She bought it to show guests! Warm thoughts, Mary.” [Oh, I love it. . . Stylish Sheds as bedside table reading! Thanks for the imagery, Mary]

With a SUNFLOWER STAMP, no less, Julie Schoenfeld, she of my auction-planning days, sent me a lovely hand-written note on letterpress stationary from Snow & Graham. We recently enjoyed a Malibu breakfast catch-up/gab when Julie brought her son from Seattle to Cali so he could attend the same summer camp of her childhood. As a memento of our sunflower obsession (see my “Stamps for the Gardener” post on August 21st), Julie tucked a book of the current sunflower postage stamps inside her note. She knows I’ll use them! And her sweet sentiment cheered me up with wonderful memories.

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 I’m standing with Richard Turner, editor-in-chief of Pacific Horticulture magazine. We’re volunteering at the 2008 NWFGS in Seattle, visiting with Dawn Chaplin, formerly a fellow board member of Northwest Horticultural Society and a great garden-touring pal (she’s now a Whatcom Co. Hort. Society board member).

The press release just arrived in my in-box, and it announced the 2009 Northwest Flower & Garden Show’s theme. It’s only six months away – and I’m already excited! The theme: SUSTAINABLE SPACES. BEAUTIFUL PLACES. I like it! A lot!

The Northwest Flower & Garden Show, created by my pal, the talented and visionary Duane Kelly, today announced its 2009 theme:

“. . . (the) show will place a major focus on gardening materials and techniques that are good for the environment,” said Duane Kelly, chairman and founder of the annual event, now in its twenty-first year. “Show goers can expect to come away with a number of great ideas that conserve resources such as water and soil while, at the same time, making their gardens more self-sustaining and easier to care for.

“During the past year, organic gardening and vegetable gardening have grown in popularity thanks to the public’s keen interest in doing what’s best for the environment.  The movement has also gained traction with consumers seeking homegrown fruits and vegetables that not only taste better but reduce ever increasing grocery bills.”

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Commemorative “Gardening-Horticulture” stamp, 3-cents, issued in 1958 (from my father’s stamp collection – mint condition)

I know we’re all dependent on the Internet for swift correspondence, but I, for one, am still a huge fan of the hand-written letter. It’s not just the pen- or pencil-inscribed words one writes that matter. Think about other non-verbal cues we convey. Beyond the thoughts communicated by careful penmanship, there is also the selection of paper, note card, or greeting card that implies volumes of meaning. Even the color and type of ink sends a full range of sentiments.

I cherish hand-written notes. I have collected shoeboxes-full of them, saved by year, since the 1970s when my dearest and best childhood friend, Lori, and I started writing to one another after my family moved from New England to Portland, Oregon. I have the cherished love letters, the newsy updates from my mother, the thoughtfully-written narratives from another Lori in my life, who lives in Europe (she is known for excellent choice of paper, as well!). And then there’s Paula, who still jots notes with an old-fashioned ink pen (I just received one as a gift, so perhaps I’ll try to do the same). These “snail mail” versions of human communication trump the Internet on any occasion.

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Graduated in size from tiny to large, a row of ornamental concrete orbs caught my eye at the edge of a path. We toured this lovely landscape on the Sawtooth Botanical Garden tour in July.

“Treat nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere, the cone, all in perspective,” Paul Cezanne (1925)

“Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. . . . “ Black Elk, an Oglala Sioux (Hehaka Sapa, 1961)

Cobblestones are embedded in a circular pattern to create a beautiful, uncomplicated lawn terrace in the Yakima, Washington garden of Kim Brewer and Rick Main

The image of a circle pleases the eye. In the garden, shapes that are rounded, organic, and sensual resonate as “good design.” They are visually satisfying, emotionally seductive, artistically whole.

A perfectly round lawn, measuring about 14 feet in diameter, provides plenty of space for children to play in a well-designed urban garden (Langstraat-Wood design)

Circles also appear tidy, if that sort of thing matters to you. They can be formal, but circular shapes are also very contemporary-looking. For a fresh statement in the landscape, think about how you can apply or incorporate a rounded feature. With all the squarish blocks of architecture that occupy one’s life, the circle is a nice, soft antidote.

The reflection of arched openings in a stone bridge creates the suggestion of repeated circles. This is the “Jade Ribbon Bridge” at The Huntington’s new Chinese Garden

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A true-blue grouping (left) in Sunset Magazine’s test gardens; Silvery succulents (right) thrive in ice-blue containers for a satisfying grouping at Longwood Gardens, 2006

Ever since I relocated from Seattle to Los Angeles, nearly 2 years ago now, I have relied more than ever on container gardening. With a confounding, on-again, off-again irrigation system that will cost the equivalent of a year’s grad-school tuition to completely repair, and with rock-hard soil that endured years smothered by the previous owner’s idea of weed control (black plastic sheeting covered with red lava rock “mulch”), I’m desperate to grow plants in spite of unwelcome conditions.

But where? And how to keep them alive when it’s too hot and dry for anything but succulents to look good?

The answer is a container garden. Gardening in a container is like one-stop shopping. Maybe we should call it “one-stop gardening.” Here are some of the best reasons for gardening in pots:

Why grow a container garden?         

•  Move plants and architectural interest above the ground’s surface:  You’ll enjoy beauty closer to eye level, as in this cool vintage vessel that caught my eye at Chanticleer Gardens in Pennsylvania (2006).

 

 

 

Edible and Accessible: Lettuces and herbs thrive in pots, like this over-sized terracotta “strawberry” pot at right – measuring 48 inches tall, created several years ago by the designers at Emery’s Garden in Lynnwood, Wash.! At left, ornamental peppers and kale in a pot at Longwood Gardens are food for the eyes.

 

 

Define a focal point: Signal the entrance to the garden, such as with these two glossy Asian pots that contain lush golden hostas. Mounted on pillars, they announce: “Come this way,” a way that’s made more enjoyable because this portal leads to the gardens of David Lewis and George Little, Bainbridge Island artists.

 

 

Provide a natural perimeter: Anywhere in the garden, such as at the edge of a deck or patio, pots can act as a verdant “wall” to contain, deter, protect or enclose. I particularly enjoy seeing three identical pots, lined up as a formal barrier – it’s plant-filled architectural interest. Here, at the edge of Peter Norris Home & Garden’s parking lot, these giant iron urns hold gold-streaked phormiums (left). A trio of fern-filled pots defines the edge of a formal planting scheme at Robert Dash’s Madoo Garden (right).

 

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‘Elvis’ and ‘Nico’ are the Pleasure family’s Belgian Tervurens. They’re enjoying the warmth from the overhead heater, as they lounge in their blue pavilion in a San Francisco backyard

Driving behind a Volvo on the Ventura Highway the other morning, a bumper sticker caught my eye: “I love dogs and I vote.”

Not exactly sure what that means, but it started me thinking about the character of a dog owner. And about a funny comment my friend Lin Su made at our Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways book launch party here in Los Angeles.

“I think you had a requirement that everyone included in the book must have a dog in their life!” she maintained. Wow, what a thought. Bill and I didn’t exactly write a canine clause into the scouting notes, but perhaps subconsciously, we were drawn to animal lovers.

There is a sympathetic relationship between people who raise and care for their plants and people who raise and care for their pets. Beloved and cherished, our dogs are often the most patient and forgiving family member in our lives. Our “Zanny” (pictured, left) is certainly the cream of the crop – a rescue Lab, blond and cheerful – found wandering the streets of Yakima, Wash., at six-months of age….brought to an animal shelter in Snoqualmie. My husband Bruce discovered her photo on petfinder.com in 2002 – and she has lived with our family ever since. What a sweet companion and thoroughly accepting of any love she receives, often giving more than we ask of her.

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July in Southern California dishes up a haze of purple in every hue. I recently snapped a few photos to capture the floral bounty around us.

It’s the weekend; time to be lazy and enjoy a little eye candy. So here we go:

Lavender-blue agapanthus cascades down the hillside in my neighborhood

This time of year, AGAPANTHUS takes over our “East Hills” neighborhood. Seattle gardening friends, eat your eyes and hearts out! When I first visited this neck of the woods, in spring 2006, I was blown away by the appearance — shall I say ‘explosions’? — of lavender-blue agapanthus blooms on every corner of town.

“Okay, I guess I can live here after all,” I thought. I mentioned loving this plethora of agapanthus to my friend Nan Sterman, a California native and author of California Gardener’s Guide, Vol. 2.

“Oh, Debra, they’re gas station plants!” she exclaimed.

As I’ve said before. . . one woman’s gas station plant is another woman’s rare collector plant. Imagine describing it as a commonplace “filler” for the corner convenience store! I know of a few passionate souls in Seattle who willingly forked over $15 for a 2-inch Agapanthus ‘Blue Heaven’ cultivar from Heronswood (or, elsewhere spent $20 to $40 for larger pots of this pretty purple South African native). And then. And then. Well, if my efforts were at all representative, there was the breath-holding that occurred through the wet, chilly winter months, as we pretty much realized the true-blue agapanthus wasn’t going to emerge in great shape the following spring. Like many tender perennials, well, they were pricey annuals. Or, they were in need of massive amounts of pampering, such as potting up the fleshy rhizomes and moving them indoors for the winter.

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I think many of us have experienced that frequent voice whispering in our ear, offering words of wisdom, advice, encouragement and humor — just when we need them. For me, and for many of her beloved friends, that voice belongs to Linda Plato. “It’s all good,” was one of her favorite sayings. Or, her shorthand version of that phrase: “Good times.”

Garden designer, horticulturist, Anglophile, educator, editor, writer and friend, Linda and her bon mots live in our memories and our hearts. Long before cancer took her young life on December 4, 2005 (at the age of 37), Linda’s witticisms and wry look at the world were a source of humor and happiness to me.

She wrote some of her funniest pieces anonymously as the Garden Curmudgeon for “Garden Notes,” the Northwest Horticultural Society’s quarterly newsletter, for which I was editor. Linda later followed me as editor and continued as the GC, often quoting the OGC (the Original Garden Curmudgeon). It took some people years to figure out that she was GC and her dearest friend Greg Graves was the OGC. The columns are collected on the NHS web site.

I’ve been thinking lately that I wanted to write a “Linda’s on my Mind” piece. And over the July 4th weekend, her husband Bruce Forstall sent me a good reason to. Bruce and several family members and friends have sponsored a memorial park bench to commemorate dear Linda. Located in Kirkland, Wash., not too far from Linda’s former design studio, the classy bench will provide respite and peace to many. The logo on the plaque, a container with a triple-ball topiary, is the one Linda designed for her business cards. Her saying,  “It’s All Good,” also appears. (Photos here: courtesy of Bruce Forstall).

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