March 24, 2017 at 2:09 PM (art, blog, design, floral, flowers, garden, glass, glass art, Glass Gardens NW, nurseries, plants)
Tags: art, blog, blooms, design, flowers, food, garden, glass, Glass Gardens NW, nurseries, outdoor, pictures, plants, sculpture, sustainable, vegetable garden, vegetables
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June 24, 2012 at 12:48 PM (art, blog, design, floral, flowers, garden, glass, glass art, nurseries, pictures, plants)
Tags: art, Ballard, event, food, garden, glass, outdoor, plants, sculpture, sustainable, vegetable
So my friend and garden guru Robin Haglund of Garden Mentors, Inc. called a few weeks ago to let me know her lovely garden had been selected to be part of this year’s Sustainable Ballard’s Edible Garden Tour . She graciously asked if I wanted to install some of my glass art in her garden for the tour and to help promote my art. I love doing these kinds of projects! It’s not every day that I can go into someone’s beautiful garden and add a little bling here and there. I do look at glass sculptures as jewelry for the garden and everyone loves to have some extra sparkle too.
The event was very well attended despite some rain showers midday. Here are a few vignettes from Robin’s garden the day of the event:
Container planting with a glass orb for decoration
Water fountain with more orbs for decoration
Glass floats in hot yellow. orange and red colors
Glass Icicle planting in Salmon and Gold
Do you think Robin likes it?
Actually Robin and her partner Bob liked the icicle planting and the trio of hot colored floats so much they decided to keep them and not let me take it down at the end of the day. I’m so happy when people love the placement and color choices so much that they can’t live without it! Thanks again Robin for the wonderful opportunity to promote my work in your lovely garden!
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April 30, 2012 at 6:14 AM (blog, design, floral, flowers, garden, nurseries, pictures, plants)
Tags: blog, blooms, cider, design, farmer, flowers, garden, market, nurseries, pictures, plants, produce, travel, vegetables, wine
Craig and I are both small business owners and that means finding time to take a whole day off from work for both of us at the same time is rare. But we managed to accomplish that yesterday and took a day trip to Port Townsend on the Kitsap Penninsula. We were lucky to not have to wait in line at the ferry in Edmonds and made it to Kingston just in time to stop for a lovely breakfast at the Granola Factory. They have a wonderful view of the water from their front porch tables.
They also have fantastic handmade pastries, muffins, brownies, granola, cakes, cookies and trail mixes. After sampling the different granola flavors we came home with a bag of Mirracole Morsels Gluten free Cranberry Pecan Granola – Yum!
Then we headed on to Port Townsend and headed to their lovely Farmer’s Market held Saturdays (April to December) from 9am to 2pm. They have over 70 vendors each week. Including a nice selection from 40 farms, 4 artisan cheese makers, 3 cideries, artisan bakers, espresso and coffee, herbal salves, soaps, arts and crafts, and local music. We picked up some local veggie starts and fresh vegetables. More information about the market is here: PTSM
While at the market we discovered Eaglemount Wine and Cider and decided to take a side trip to their tasting room just east of Chimacum. We sampled some of their ciders and one of their wines. We loved the ciders so much that we bought three different flavors to take home. The Pear (Perry) has a nice hint of fresh pears that are grown on their property. I fell in love with the Ginger Apple Cider which gave the Apple flavor a bit of a kick. And we both liked the full flavor of the Raspberry Apple Cider. All of the ciders are 8% alcohol and lightly carbonated. They use exclusively organic fruit, most of which is grown on their property. For more information here is their website: Eaglemount
The last part of our day was spent at Far Reaches Farm where we were delighted to experience SO many rare and unusual plants! Sue Milliken and Kelly Dodson do such a great job finding, propagating and growing their cultivars that it’s difficult to limit your choices to the size of your pocketbook! They also have a great shade display garden that showcases shady plants in a natural setting and gives you a good idea how the grown up plants will look
Here are some more closeups of some of my favorites from their shade display garden
Podophyllum delavayi
Great combination
My favorite
Looks prehistoric!
Fantastic contrast in colors
I love the greens!
So get ready for some more eye candy plant lovers….in my next blog I will show you my purchases from Far Reaches Farm!
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August 30, 2011 at 9:33 AM (art, blog, design, floral, flowers, garden, plants, Uncategorized)
Tags: design, flowers, plants, vegetable garden
We have been lucky to have incredibly nice weather this past weekend so I was able to finish up my new veggie patch! First we decided to move our small greenhouse up into this area so everything would be closer together and the greenhouse would be in a sunnier location. So that meant more digging up grass and weeds and leveling the soil in a 6′ X 8′ area. We laid cardboard and weedblock down before moving the greenhouse to it’s new location.
Greenhouse relo
Then I returned to finishing up the locations for the galvanized tubs. First I started by digging and leveling the soil and applying several layers of cardboard.
Then I placed weedblock fabric on top of the cardboard and placed 4 concrete blocks down to provide some more height to the containers.
Before placing the containers in place I drilled many holes in the bottom for drainage. Make sure to do this on top of a tarp or something that will hold all those sharp little metal flecks from drilling the holes.
Then I checked to make sure everything was still level and I collected empty plastic bottles to help fill some space in the bottom of the containers.
And here’s the filled containers planted with my fall veggie starts including beets, cauliflower, chard, leeks, and bok choy.
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August 22, 2011 at 3:39 PM (art, blog, design, floral, flowers, garden, glass, glass art, plants, Uncategorized)
Tags: art, blooms, flowers, garden, glass
I was approached by one of my customers a while ago and asked if I would help provide them with glass art for their annual fundraising event. I readily agreed since Bellevue LifeSpring (http://www.bellevuelifespring.org/index.php) does such wonderful work for needy families in the area. This year’s event was held at the lovely outdoor garden of Denise Lane in Medina, WA. Since many garden writer friends were at this same garden last year I thought you may enjoy seeing some more pictures a month later in the summer.
This was my most favorite part of her garden – a lovely secluded area with a grotto pond, waterfall and shade perennials.
Succulents in a broken pillar
Grotto Pond
Denise has added several art pieces throughout her garden and each one was sited beautifully and looked like they were a part of the garden itself.
Metal tree and birdhouse
Bird house and votives
Oh look it's some of my glass!
And here’s some more plant pictures – I don’t know the names of some of them but they were all gorgeous!
Black eyed Susan growing up a trellis
Happy Geraniums in full bloom
New evergreen growth
We had an uninvited guest attend the party as well – they didn’t really seem to care the garden was full of people! This video won’t post in wordpress but here is the link if you want to see: http://www.vimeo.com/28023447
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August 22, 2011 at 1:45 PM (art, blog, design, floral, garde, glass, pictures)
Tags: design, flowers, garden, vegetables
I am so lucky to have just over an acre of land in which to garden. When I first moved here the previous owners loved grass – long expanses of water guzzling grass. There were some garden beds around the perimeter of the yard but not a lot of inspiration in those beds – mostly northwest standbys of large rhododendrons, ferns and some fuchsias here and there. There were no ground covers which meant I spent endless hours trying to stay ahead of weed growth. Also there was no irrigation system anywhere in the garden. Apparently the previous owner would hand water the entire garden! Being a busy small business owner I had no time for hand watering and we installed a drip sprinkler system the first year we moved in. It has made everything so much easier.
We built three raised vegetable beds about 4 years ago and have enjoyed eating our fresh vegetables every year. Being vegetarians we eat more vegetables than those three beds and a few containers can hold. But we are lucky to have lots of area of full sun yard where only bad grass and weeds currently flourish. One area fairly close to the house is in full sun and is bordered by fence on two sides. After consulting with some garden pals and doing some research I decided to build a veggie garden in galvanized containers in this area.
I decided to tackle this project in stages and thought I could start with two galvanized troughs. My local feed store had a sale on the 4 foot diameter troughs that are 2 feet deep so I started by measuring and picking a site for two troughs.
Pre veggie patch picture - a mess of weeds and moss
Unfortunately the previous owners had used grass turf in this area years ago which made using my rototiller impossible due to the plastic mesh just under the surface. Took a little longer but I managed to get the top layer of weeds and grass removed.
A couple of hours later post digging - Ginger is exhausted!
Stay tuned for more progress soon! I need to level the area and find a friend with a truck to get these large troughs home!
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August 15, 2011 at 4:28 PM (garden)
Tags: art, blooms, flowers, garden, glass
On the 15th of every month avid gardeners across the country take pictures of what plants are blooming in their gardens. This is the first time I have joined with this tradition and hope to continue it. It’s a wonderful way to document your own garden throughout the year.
Japanese Anemone
Fuschia
Heronswood giant Thalictrum
Crocosima Lucifer
In my veggie garden this August….
Zucchini
Rhubarb!
I hope you enjoyed taking a peek at my home garden.
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April 21, 2011 at 8:39 PM (art, blog, design, floral, flowers, garden, pictures, plants)
We decided to take a small road trip last weekend and headed north to Stanwood, WA where the new Jungle Luv store is now open.
Jungle Luv store now open!
Edie began Jungle Luv as a locally owned company specializing in award-winning, sustainable plantscapes and floral design. She grew her business to the point where a retail location was the next logical expansion.
Edie inside her store in front of a gorgeous living green wall
Here are some pictures from the interior of her store
Gorgeous spring displays
Unique gift ideas
Floral Design Center
And here are some of the unique items I fell in love with when visiting:
Bird hangars
These were a set of adorable hanging cages that could hold hanging plants
Be sure to ask about their guerrilla gardening experience and get your very own F-bomb in the store! And if you are hungry on your way home we highly recommend stopping at Scandia Coffeehouse and Eatery for wonderful soup, salad, sandwich and coffee options.
So bring your gardening friends with you to this great new store in Stanwood and watch it grow! Located at 9922 “C” State Hwy 532 in Stanwood on the south side of the street near the Hamilton Smokestack. Jungle Luv’s website is http://www.jungleluvplantcare.com
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March 23, 2011 at 12:20 PM (art, blog, garden, glass, glass art, pictures)
Tags: art, blog, garden, glass, post, procrastination, schedule
Hello Gardening and Glass Artist friends!
I am writing this second blog in my lifetime about 4 months after the first one was completed. I am ashamed! I haven’t blogged in so long that I had forgotten my own password! Ouch! Too long!
It’s not that I haven’t thought about the “blog” so many times but there was always an excuse for not updating. Listening to the excuses in my head I realized that 99% revolved around the idea that I just didn’t have enough content to write a whole blog. Friends, fellow bloggers and frankly everyone I spoke to have been denying this excuse and most of them are denying it vehemently too! “See? That picture right there! That could be a whole blog in itself!” One of my good friends and blogger extraordinaire was encouraging me.
So here I am finally 4 months after my initial foray into blogging writing my second blog and admitting that I have been remiss in so many opportunities lately! But here I vow to make a change for the better (hopefully for you!) and keep at this blogging thing until it becomes something a little more second nature. And hopefully next time I sign into my own blog I won’t have to reset my own password!
So I now leave you for a hopeful short time with this picture to remind us of bright sunny days that are going to be with us very soon! Happy spring!
Bluebird in nest
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October 14, 2010 at 9:12 PM (Uncategorized)
Today I just completed a custom installation for a client. We have been working on this project for most of the summer in between our summer shows. My client has been wonderful to work with. She is an informed and dedicated home gardener with an electic sense of style. And she loves glass – the perfect combination!
My client’s garden area has a medium sized pond featuring a lovely waterfall front and center. She has several healthy and friendly koi who like to beg for food if you get close to the water’s edge.
At our first meeting my client did not have any firm ideas on what kind of glass sculpture she would like in her garden but thought she would like something in or around the pond area. After visiting and spending some time with her I realized that putting anything in the pond would require lots of maintenance and would obstruct the view of the lovely waterfall. So I proposed that we use the tree behind the pond as a “canvas” for some great glass pieces. She loved the idea and after discussing colors and making several sketches we had a plan!
For several years I have collaborated with a metal fabricator on custom projects that require metal structures. Unfortunately my metal friend relocated out of the area earlier this year so I needed to find a new collaborator. I was lucky to find Trent Warren of Warren Welding ( http://warrenwelding.vpweb.com/default.html ) who agreed to help out.
I made the glass pieces and worked with Trent to customize the metal frame that would hold the glass in place. We installed the glass a couple of weeks ago in the garden.
Each individual glass piece consisted of a main body color with an accent stripe that helped accentuate the movement in the glass. The heights of the pieces ranged from 14″ to almost 30″ tall. The metal stand was constructed and painted to match and disappear into the tree bark. Behind the tree the stand is mounted in over 400 pounds of concrete pad poured on site. The glass itself weighs over 200 pounds so we needed to have alot of counterweight on the back side of the tree.
I also installed lighting to accentuate the sculpture at night and while my client loved the colors at night she wasn’t as happy with the bright colors in the daytime. My client was upset with herself because she chose the original colors. Before starting the project I made three samples of the colors and she had them in her garden while I completed the project. The samples in her garden were positioned amongst foliage and flowers and she loved them. Unfortunately, when the pieces were installed against the tree bark she wasn’t happy with the vivid contrast against the bark.
So we decided to redo the sculptural pieces with more muted jewel tones in transparent glass instead of opaque. The colors are rich ruby red, emerald green and gold with a ruby accent stripe. She is much happier with this installation in both the daytime and a night.
Second installation
Many lessons were learned on this project for both of us but I’m glad that the main objective of having a delighted client was achieved.
So which color combinations are your favorites?
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