Archive for the ‘Flower and Garden Shows’ Category

Dear Carol,

I know that you host a monthly Bloom Day event there at May Dreams Gardens, where gardeners share their monthly in-bloom reports.  I usually don’t participate because of 1) inattention, 2) lack of blooms 3) fear of competition 4) nothing particularly interesting to say and 5) general busy-ness.

But after suffering through nearly 30 inches of snow here in Southern Maryland, I am most impressed with this bloom. Therefore, I will break with my years-long tradition and participate in Bloom Day.

pansy

Whoever started using “pansy” as a word to insult someone has never grown these wonderful little flowers. They are hearty, hopeful and a joy to see under two feet of snow. I have to say, “Hello, pansy!”

Your gardening friend,

Robin

Robin

Mar 27
2008

Green Dogs

I don’t think I’m particularly obsessed with things being perfectly trimmed and even in my garden…

I always tell people that a little bit of wildness breathes life into a greenspace. This philosophy also happens to make it easier to justify the times when I don’t exactly get everything done to perfection in the garden. There isn’t time to do everything and to do it well, so a laissez-faire policy seems to work as well as any to justify what I do (or don’t do).

So I have to wonder if I have the discipline and patience to accomplish a topiary. Can I do all that training and trimming and spritzing and pinning? Do I even have the time?

I may have to give it a try. I have fallen in love with green dogs–topiary dogs.

Take a look at this pooch from the Philadelphia Flower Show, accomplished with multiple varieties of ivies. Some are solid and some are variegated. See the little pine needle sprigs for his whiskers?

topiary-dog.jpg

There was a whole topiary dog park at the flower show, complete with the obligatory fire hydrant. Some were sniffing and some were playing. I thought this fellow lolling on his back for a tummy rub was clever.

topiary-dog-2.jpg

Since I adore dogs, I think a nice green dog would be a wonderful addition to my garden. And I have extraordinary patience with my real dogs. Perhaps that would transfer to a topiary dog.

Wait. What’s this?

sarahs-leafy-tail.jpg

Nice try, Sarah, but topiary dogs are green, not brown.

sarah-with-green-feet-web.jpg

Um. Okay, you’re partly green now. But you’re still not a topiary dog.

Robin

Garden and food writer Robin Ripley is co-author of Grocery Gardening and has a cookbook in development. Bumblebee is about her life in rural Maryland, her garden, cooking, dogs and pet chickens. She also blogs about food and chickens at Eggs & Chickens. She is on Twitter @robinripley. Welcome! Thank you for visiting.

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