The contrast of a flowering fruit tree on a winters day is like a chocolate and vanilla swirl ice cream. A perfect combination. The simple beauty and cheery enthusiasm of these flowers set against a cool, gray afternoon doubles up as both cozy and enlivening. Fleeting and irresistible. Bringing these flowers inside is a like a [...]
Archive for the ‘Ideas’ Category
March 9, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: BEE, Ideas, Inspired
Social Tagging: Beauty of Fruit Trees • Fruit Trees in Bloom • Spring Flowers
Filed under: BEE, Ideas, Inspired
Social Tagging: Beauty of Fruit Trees • Fruit Trees in Bloom • Spring Flowers
September 14, 2012 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: DESIGN, DISCOVER, Gardens, Ideas
Social Tagging: Design a Rain Garden
Filed under: DESIGN, DISCOVER, Gardens, Ideas
Social Tagging: Design a Rain Garden
This place is so much fun, you might just overlook the rain garden, smack dab in front of you. Or rather you see it, you just might not realize it’s anything other than an eye-catching flower bed. Look closely as you follow the stone path leading through the cosmos. You’ll find a drain with grate [...]
July 12, 2012 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: DESIGN, DO, Gardens, Grow, Ideas, Tips
Social Tagging: Container Gardening • grow a garden • Raised Bed • Should a garden be contained? • Urban Farm
Filed under: DESIGN, DO, Gardens, Grow, Ideas, Tips
Social Tagging: Container Gardening • grow a garden • Raised Bed • Should a garden be contained? • Urban Farm
The opportunity for “deckening*” is at hand, right out my door. However I’ve never loved growing plants in pots, at least not as a sole point of interest. In fact, when I get to the section on the latest container garden arrangements in nearly any and all gardening publication I hastily skip to the next [...]
February 16, 2012 by Emily Murphy · 1 Comment
Filed under: BEE, DISCOVER, DO, Garden Love, Grow, Ideas, Inspired
Social Tagging: Beauty and Utility • feed yourself • Gardens for food and beauty • Grow Flowers • OPIUM POPPY • Papaver somniferum
Filed under: BEE, DISCOVER, DO, Garden Love, Grow, Ideas, Inspired
Social Tagging: Beauty and Utility • feed yourself • Gardens for food and beauty • Grow Flowers • OPIUM POPPY • Papaver somniferum
I started my New Year’s resolution early, direct seeding these poppies, Papaver somniferum, in October. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but they’ve been on “my must” plant list for over 20 years. Pathetic, maybe. Horribly distracted, probably. I was botanizing common garden weeds with taxonomy friends when they first caught my attention. They were [...]
July 26, 2011 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: DESIGN, Gardens, Ideas, Perspective
Social Tagging: Design a Garden • Dr. Michael Mesler • French Potager • Humboldt State University Botany Department • Parsimony
Filed under: DESIGN, Gardens, Ideas, Perspective
Social Tagging: Design a Garden • Dr. Michael Mesler • French Potager • Humboldt State University Botany Department • Parsimony
Dr. Michael Mesler, my plant taxonomy professor at Humboldt State University, likened simplicity to parsimony. When examining computational phylogenetics (a complicated subject) he taught us that the phylogenetic tree with the fewest evolutionary changes was most likely correct. “Thus,” he would say, “the simplest answer is usually the best answer.” While the study of the [...]
April 10, 2011 by Emily Murphy · 1 Comment
Filed under: DESIGN, DISCOVER, Garden Love, Gardens, Gardens, Ideas, Plans, Planting, Profiles
Social Tagging: Everything British • garden design • Gardens to Visit in the UK • Gertrude Jekyll Planting Philosophy • Harold Nicolson • Kent • Virginia Woolf • Vita Sackville-West • William Robinson
Filed under: DESIGN, DISCOVER, Garden Love, Gardens, Gardens, Ideas, Plans, Planting, Profiles
Social Tagging: Everything British • garden design • Gardens to Visit in the UK • Gertrude Jekyll Planting Philosophy • Harold Nicolson • Kent • Virginia Woolf • Vita Sackville-West • William Robinson
We were on holiday in the UK this very month last year visiting friends. There wasn’t much time to research points of interest before leaving, in typical fashion, we planned to travel only weeks before departing. However, I’d been there before and quickly formed a must-do list. Visiting gardens was on the top. Sissinghurst Castle, [...]