Big Ideas From Small Gardens ~Buffa10

Last summer a friend asked me if I could leave my garden....here for the post. Back then the notion of selling the house and leaving C&L was just a tiny possibility out there in an unknown future. The lovely gardens we visited during Buffa10 have nudged that idea to the forefront ... After all, I am an 'une femme d'un certain age' and feel ready to decrease heavy garden chores. I am also aware of a longing for a change~An urban garden in Nashville would be a big change from my acre lot in the 'burbs! Maybe, I am more ready to have a smaller garden then I thought. One with beautiful native plants and flowers complimented by evergreens shrubs and fun garden art. Gardens as attractively designed and as well thought out as the Garden District gardens didn't seem postage sized to me. In fact, they didn't seem all that small when you looked at what the gardeners have been able to incorporate into yards the size of many two car garages and suburban patios. In the photo above you can clearly see a well designed and intimate seating area that sat next to the fence lined driveway. There's plenty of space for a containerized Tiger's Eye Sumac, gorgeous burgundy leaved dahlias, Verbena Bonariensis and those spectacular monardas we saw in many of the gardens. The monardas in the above garden were tall enough to act as a privacy screen from the rest of the garden. Very nice.
There was so much color, variety and interest packed into the gardens that it was easy to imagine myself tending them! It wasn't long before I was visualizing how to go about creating intimacy and visual excitement at Clay and Limestone.
Could I create the room effect we saw in Buffalo through the use of colorful shrubs around my own paths and curves.
Would limbing the trees allow more light into the garden~Oh, to have those delicious sun loving perennials!
Could adding some vertical lines and 'different' focal points fit in the staid 'burbs of Nashville?
I don't know what will come from these musings, but, I left Buffalo energized and excited to start.


~and that's big!


xxgail

Buffa10~The Garden Bloggers and Those Gardens!

I was wowed with this planting
of monarda and lilies

Since those early days of blogging and
my first Garden Blogger Spring Fling in Austin
blogging has been as much about the community
as it has been about sharing my garden thoughts and observations.Meems/Hoe and Shovel and Helen/Toronto Gardens chatting.
Isn't her hat wonderful!


And there was plenty of both at Buffa10~
Kylee/Our Little Acre and Dee/Red Dirt Ramblings


Starting with appetizers at Elizabeth's,
the gardens in her neighborhood,
Some of the gang at the Twentieth Century Club

delicious meals,

walks to and from
the neighborhood garden sites
and traveling on the bus

We were good little 'do-bees' and lined up to get on the bus!

Gave us plenty of time to discuss the gardens,
catch up with one another,
meet new people and
talk, talk, talk about plants,
designs and everything in between!

I felt like I was in an English garden

It was a joy filled weekend for me!
Relaxing, yet invigorating.
My spirit was renewed and
my head is filled with marvelous ideas!

The long view is just as spectacular!

The conversations were wonderful.

Not once did any one's
eyes glaze over!
Don't you love and
appreciate plant geeks!

Had it not been raining
we would have been sitting to chat

I'm not sure how I can thank
Elizabeth and Jim
for the absolutely perfect weekend.
It was all delightful.

Buffalo's idea of a 'hell-strip'

The Gardens~

Frances/fairegarden and Diana/Sharing Nature's Garden

The friends~

Susan/TheBikeGarden

Even a little rain couldn't dampen our spirits!


The famous Mike Shadrack
and his namesake hosta

I hope that by sharing these photos
you’ll get a taste of the experience
and attend the next Garden Blogger Fling!

Where ever it will be held!

xxoo
gail