Willowsford Farm market stand & Fling wrap-up: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
July 20, 2017 I’m not a food gardener myself, but I enjoyed the Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling welcome-event visit to Willowsford Farm, a 300-acre farm surprisingly located within a recently developed planned community in Ashburn, Virginia, about an hour’s drive northwest of Washington, D.C. After a lovely outdoor reception, ...
Japanese Garden and garden art at Hillwood Estate: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
July 18, 2017 I almost missed the Japanese Garden, my favorite part of Washington, D.C.’s Hillwood Estate. It was hot and muggy on the first full day of touring during last month’s Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling, and after exploring for about 45 minutes I retreated to the gift shop ...
Brookside Gardens and a Dougherty twig sculpture: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
July 13, 2017 One of our stops on the Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling was Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland, where I was smitten by a stand of Verbena bonariensis along a formal path. I didn’t end up taking many pictures at this garden but rather just strolled through it ...
Color-blended garden retreat of designer Barbara Katz: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
July 12, 2017 Opening the summer issue of Country Gardens magazine a few days ago, I felt an immediate jolt of recognition at seeing, on pages 10-13, one of the gardens we toured during last month’s Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling. It’s the garden of Bethesda, Maryland, designer Barbara Katz, ...
The whimsical woodland garden of Ellen Ash: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
July 11, 2017 Although the tree-shaded entrance to this Great Falls, Virginia, garden was elegant and restrained, I knew the owner would be a gardener with a sense of humor. How? Because at the driveway’s end I spotted, atop a pilaster, a statue wearing actual sunglasses. It was the first ...
Log slices, twig spheres, and other natural art in garden of Debbie Friedman: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
July 09, 2017 Though she lives and gardens in Maryland, Bethesda designer Debbie Friedman told us that she uses log slices, granite stones, and other natural accents to evoke the spirit of Mount Desert Island, Maine, where she enjoys vacationing. I visited her suburban garden during the recent Capital Region ...
Southern Gothic garden of Jeff Minnich: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
July 09, 2017 I didn’t expect to see a banana tree and sago palm in any of the gardens we visited during the Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling last month, but Arlington, Virginia, designer Jeff Minnich‘s garden is full of surprises. Reminiscent of a New Orleans cottage garden with picket ...
Peg Bier’s woodland garden of discovery: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
July 05, 2017 Near Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, during the recent D.C.-area Garden Bloggers Fling, we toured the garden of Peg Bier, who’s been designing and experimenting with plants here for 40 years. Peg’s charming yellow house comes into view at the end of a well-screened driveway. Plenty of sun gives ...
Smithsonian Gardens and U.S. Botanic Garden: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
July 04, 2017 As we celebrate our nation’s Independence Day today, it seems appropriate to share my pics of the Smithsonian Gardens on the National Mall and the U.S. Botanic Garden, which I toured on the recent Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling in Washington, D.C. A small posse of garden ...
Long views and classic garden rooms in Brinitzer Garden: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
July 03, 2017 Much as I love my contemporary-naturalistic garden, and enjoyed puttering in my flowery cottage garden before that, my next garden — whenever and wherever that turns out to be — is going to be more like this one: smaller, with formal garden rooms laid out along axis ...
Casa Mariposa, Virginia winery, & Merrifield Garden Center: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
July 02, 2017 Casa Mariposa With a garden called Casa Mariposa, you know it’s going to be welcoming to butterflies — and, as it turns out, all pollinators. Tammy Schmitt, head planner of this year’s Garden Bloggers Fling, bravely included her suburban D.C.-area garden on the tour. I say bravely ...
Blue fantasy in the garden of Linda Hostetler: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
July 02, 2017 I saw some truly wonderful gardens during the Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling last week, and one of my favorites was that of landscape designer Linda Hostetler in The Plains, Virginia. From the street you admire a handsome farmhouse-style home at the end of a wide, curving ...
English garden in Virginia horse country: Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling
June 29, 2017 Attending Garden Bloggers Fling is always a whirlwind of garden touring and socializing with other bloggers. I come home with ideas bouncing around in my head, as well as a sense of new connections made and friendships renewed — not to mention hundreds of photos to sort ...
Garden bloggers, let’s meet up at the Capital Area Fling!
January 12, 2017 Fellow garden bloggers, now that the holidays are behind us and before the fever of spring planting season begins, it’s time to make your reservation to attend the 10th annual Garden Bloggers Fling, hosted June 22-25, 2017, in the Capital Region, which includes Washington, DC, northern Virginia, ...