Gardening inspiration

Visiting interesting gardens, reading great gardening books (the thoughtful ones), and learning first-hand digging and planting, and moving plants - that's what makes gardening fun. It's a lifelong journey, whether we're passionate about organic gardening, native plants, and wildlife gardening (like me) or have enthusiasms for specialty plants and collectible plants.

There's inspiration everywhere, if you look for it. I find natural landscapes a continuing source, of course, but that's what inspires me to plant and garden.

Bumbling across wonderful garden vignettes, created by talented gardeners, is also inspiring. I love the way my colleague's Kathy's new pathway planting looks this fall in the morning light. Wonderful.

The Hosta Garden was lovely with the fall color highlighted by the morning light.

Creative gardening and gardens

On a long return loop through an unfamiliar neighborhood after a Farmer's Market visit, I noticed an unexpected gem of a garden.

Asheville, North Carolina is full of interesting home gardens in the older neighborhoods downtown, maybe because they have limited space, but this one was a standout.

I need pictures of this garden, I thought.

Returning in early afternoon, I was fortunate enough to chat with the gardener, who was doing some clipping in a lovely shrub border.

She said they'd been there 18 years, and started with a blank slate (lawn, no doubt) around a lovely historic house.

Her early inclinations towards flowers and cutting gardens have now focused on foliage textures and colors; her combinations of conifers, other evergreens, and herbaceous plants were really lovely.

I loved the red-stemmed dogwood that highlighted the entrance to a old-brick path.