Garden Lessons Learned in Asheville

Garden Walk season is in full swing, including our local annual Master Gardener Walk which is this coming Saturday.  I always enjoy touring other gardens, and I often come home with some new ideas for plants I'd like to try or perhaps a creative way to use a "found" object as garden art.  But all too often I come home a little depressed.  I look at my own garden more critically when comparing it to others I've just seen--it's so small, it's not as tidy, it doesn't have a cohesive design, plants are crammed in too tightly, and on and on until I'm ready to throw up my hands in despair and start all over. 

However, that wasn't the case on my recent trip to Asheville for this year's Garden Bloggers' Fling.   I learned many lessons from the gardens we visited there that gave me a new perspective on my own garden.

"A Hedge Against Extinction" at the North Carolina Arboretum, 
which became this year's Fling icon.

For example, I learned that these weren't fingers reaching up to the sky, but a representation of trees.  See the green tips on each branch?  According to the artist, these either represent "all that is left or the beginnings of a new greening.  The answer is in the hands of those who tend the garden."

I also learned that garden bloggers always have their cameras ready for the next photo op:

Helen and sister Sarah of  Toronto Gardens checking out the poppies in Christopher Mello's garden.

Touring gardens with fellow gardeners is always a learning experience, because someone in the group can usually identify a plant you might be unfamiliar with and give some helpful advice on growing it.

Janet not only knows trees but also many other plants of the Southeast

But the most important lesson I learned in Asheville is that no two gardens are the same and that it's okay to bend the "rules" to reflect your own personal style.

Your garden might have unlimited space:

View at the North Carolina Arboretum

 Or it might be a tiny corner you have created:

Display at BB Barns in Asheville, a fantastic nursery and garden center.

If you like things neat and orderly, you can create a formal garden:

Quilt garden at NC Arboretum

Or you can let Nature be your guide, creating a haven for bees and wildlife:

An impromptu stop on the way home--this garden is not in Asheville.  Can you guess where we are?

If you want to pull every poppy in your garden that isn't blue, then no one is going to stop you.  The bees will love them, no matter the color:

In the garden of Christopher Mello, where he is cultivating a new 'Blue Pearl' poppy.

If your passion is growing vegetables, then go for it:

Raised veggie beds at Sunny Point Cafe where patrons know exactly where their food comes from.

But if you also love flowers . . .

Iris in front garden at Nan Chase's

 . . . there's no reason you can't grow  flowers and edibles together in your front yard if you so desire.

Nan Chase's front yard

A closer look at Nan's house which is sided with bark.

I also learned that sometimes weeds can be beautiful:

Swamp milkweed at NC Arboretum

And that it's good to take a break from the work now and then and just enjoy!

Anneliese serenading strolling bloggers at Haywood Community College's garden.

Garden art has always stymied me, too.  What will look good in my garden?  Where should I place it?  The gardens of Asheville taught me a few lessons as well.


You don't have to have a bold bottle tree if you're a little shy.  A smaller one can add a colorful touch just as well:

Smaller blue bottles on a smoke tree at Christopher Mello's garden.

You can have something specially made that fits your garden and house:

Bark planters on Nan Chase's porch

Or you can use materials you already have to create a unique work of art:

Fountain at Christopher Mello's made from scrap metal.

Metal cogs (?) lining the stairway at Wamboldtopia.

Of course, if you are really talented, you can create something unique and extraordinary, like a fairy mansion:

The creation of Damaris Pierce at Wamboldtopia.

There really are no rules when it comes to a garden.  You can follow ideas from famous garden designers if you want, or throw them out and add your own whimsical touches:

Wamboldtopia

If you love pirates and want to hang a skeleton from your rooftop,  why not?

Christopher Mello's "Shovelhenge"

Or if you want to create a gravel play space in the middle of your garden and call it "Dump Truck Park" or surround it with rusty shovels and call it "Shovelhenge,"  more power to you!

It is all in how you look at things.  

You see, the biggest lesson I learned in Asheville--an epiphany of sorts--was that every garden is unique, just as every gardener is a unique individual.  It is a lesson I probably should have learned long ago, having heard this principle many times.  But sometimes lessons must be taught and taught again before the student absorbs and understands the information.  It took seeing so many different gardens over a course of a few short days, each with their own special style, to realize that I don't have to copy someone else's garden and that my small and often chaotic garden is just fine.

Red Admiral visiting the coneflowers in my own garden today.

Whatever brings you joy . . . that is what a garden should be.

I'm linking this post to Plant Postings' garden lessons learned for this season. Thanks, Beth, for hosting this and inspiring us to reflect on the past season. This is also probably the last post specifically on Asheville I'm going to write (other than a very special "prequel" to Asheville one of these days).  If you'd like to see more of these gardens, you can check them out here; or, if you've been enticed by all the Fling posts to visit Asheville yourself, here's a handy link to plan your trip and explore Asheville's gardens.

ABC Wednesday: "Why I Garden"

Ideas for today's S post have been floating around in my mind for several weeks. Then I read about the contest at Idaho Gardener for essays on "Why I Garden." The two ideas seemed to mesh, so if you will bear with me, I have combined these two ideas in today's post. Many of the photos have been used here before, but they are some of my favorite scenes from my garden.





My kids think I am a little obsessed. One son finds it "morbid" that I plant flowers on the grave of my late dog Roco and his buddy, Max the cat. My daughter accused me once of "spending her inheritance" as she saw me unloading yet another trunkload of flats of annuals one spring. A non-gardening blogging friend once commented here that he admired my flowers, but they did seem like "a lot of work," implying--in a very tactful way, of course--why do you waste so much time on gardening? Yes, it's hard to explain to non-gardeners just what it is that motivates us to spend so many hours in the hot sun pulling out weeds while fighting off mosquitoes and getting our fingernails permanently caked with dirt. Until a few years ago, I would have been one of these people questioning the sanity of someone braving the cold winds of November just to get a few last tulip bulbs planted. But over the last few years, as I have spent more time in the garden, gardening has become so much more to me than just a way to dress up the outer appearance of my home with a few pretty flowers.

The garden for me is a place to find Serenity. Spending time admiring the beauties of nature creates a feeling of peace and tranquillity that I rarely find anywhere else.

The garden is also a place where I can enjoy Solitude. I am alone with my thoughts, free from the noises of the city or the blare of the television inside. I listen only to the music of the songbirds as they perch above me.

Of course, I am not always alone. But my companions are the kind who make no demands on me but simply enjoy my company.





For many people, the garden is a place to find Solace. My best friend remembers her daughter as she walks through the garden, her spirits uplifted by the appearance of dragonflies and the fluttering of angel wings.

I have been very blessed that my family has not experienced such tragedy, but I understand the healing power of the garden. A small plot with cheery blooms helps me ensure that a faithful companion will not be forgotten.

The garden is also a reminder of Thoreau's exhortations for Simplicity. There is joy to be found in the simplest of creatures.

I can pause in my work to delight in a butterfly flitting from blossom to blossom or the antics of a bee frolicking in pollen.

Even weeding has its benefits. Working in the garden is one of the best Stress-relievers I know. There is nothing quite like hoeing or pulling out nasty weeds to get rid of one's anger or frustrations.




On the other hand, growing vegetables is not as enjoyable to me as growing flowers--it's more like real work. But it gives me a great deal of Satisfaction to harvest what I have sown, not to mention being able to have the freshest vegetables available to serve my family. Crunchy green beans and red, ripe tomatoes from the garden far excel anything you can purchase in the store.






There is satisfaction, too, in seeing flowers blossom from the seeds I have sown. Sometimes the resulting combinations are pure Serendipity.

Spending time in the garden makes one even more aware of the changing of the Seasons. As much as I complain sometimes about the weather, I thoroughly enjoy living in an area where there are four distinct seasons. From the emergence of blossoms and leaves in the Spring . . .

. . . to the Snow-laden branches of winter, I marvel at the beauty of Mother Nature.

Over the last two years, in particular, I have matured as a gardener. No longer dazzled by just the blooms of flowers, I have come to appreciate much more the changing Shape and Structure of the garden. I can see the beauty in yellowing foliage or dried seedheads, or the change over time from this blossom . . .

. . . to this Swirling Shape.

While my children do not share my passion, at least two of my grandchildren are eager to spend time with me in the garden. Whether we are watering newly planted seedlings or counting caterpillars in the fennel, the garden gives me a chance to Share some memorable time with my grandchildren.

Keeping up with the garden is work, to be sure, but it doesn't feel like work. And not all my time is spent looking downward to the soil; I have ample time to look Skyward and enjoy the brilliant blue skies of a Sunny day.

Not everyone shares the same interests, and not everyone enjoys gardening. I do understand. But for me, gardening has become so much more than planting flowers and waiting for them to bloom. Very simply, the garden has become my Sanctuary.

"Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher."

--William Wordsworth

I hope you will check out Mary Ann's gardening contest, and do visit other entries in this week's ABC posts on the letter S.

I am posting a day early this week, because by this time tomorrow I will be like many of you, up to my elbows in pie dough and turkey innards--hopefully not at the same time:) I hope that all of you enjoy this holiday weekend with family, friends, and good food.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!