Urban hillbilly chic defines Edwards Forkner Garden: Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling
Lorene welcoming 70+ bloggers into her Seattle garden on Day 3 of the Fling
In a post on her blog Planted at Home, Lorene Edwards Forkner, a co-planner of the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling, catchily describes her gardening style as urban hillbilly chic: “I love to work with what is already right on hand. And if your basement looks anything like my basement – you’ve got a LOT to work with. Hands-on, can-do/make-do, fresh, playful….There’s a wonderful frisson between the rough and the beautiful that the garden embodies with grace.”
We garden bloggers aren’t always as hard to wrangle as cats. We were a rapt audience for Lorene.
Lorene’s garden is small compared with the other private gardens we’d seen, but there’s a sense of drama at curbside thanks to some overscaled plants, like the Stipa gigantea shown in the top photo. Lorene has planted up every inch of her sloping lot, and color brightens the scene, from red poppies…
…to a rainbow of sweet peas…
…to shrubs and sedges with golden foliage.
The bright Seattle sunshine made everything glow.
Lorene asked us to mention her new book, which is coming out soon from Timber Press: Handmade Garden Projects. Most of the projects detailed in the book were made in her garden, she told us. I assume this cool gabion tower is one of them. It marks the entry to her garden.
Gabion-style furniture in her back garden, including this curved bench around a firepit, invites relaxation. It’s a fun idea for Lorene’s gentler part of the world, but I couldn’t help thinking it would be like creating a condo for snakes and scorpions in my part of Austin. This is one project I’ll admire from afar.
Wire fencing rolled and secured, rocks, and a piece of tempered glass—an easy side table.
As you enter the back garden, the low path takes you to the firepit and Adirondack seating. The high path takes you up to a travel trailer folly (shown below) and a planted row of stock tanks that screens the garden from the alley in back. In between, a generously sized island bed and, accessible from both paths, a small deck built under poles hung with lanterns and prayer flags.
Looking back from the top of the garden.
The tiny deck is perched above the garden but feels cozy thanks to a tall screen of plants and an espaliered apple tree.
A vintage travel trailer is Lorene’s “cocktail cabana” and personal getaway.
Inside a wall is papered with maps, and comfy cushions offer a great nap spot.
Edibles mix with ornamentals in Lorene’s garden, and she’s quick to repurpose castoff objects, like these shovel heads…
…and an old metal chair, into garden art.
This is a great idea to get more height with a planted pot: pop a smaller one (of the same design) on top, and plant them both. They are charmingly (and economically) mulched with shards of broken pots.
Another fun display, especially for those who like a little formality: a mini-parterre garden in a child’s red wagon.
These were just a sampling of the creative decorative projects she had on display.
We bloggers were, as always, snapping away, gathering fodder for our blogs and other garden writing. Here are three excellent photographers in our group: Jim of Compost in My Shoe (the only male blogger on the Fling this year), Dee (red hair) of Red Dirt Ramblings, and Barbara of Mr. McGregor’s Daughter.
Life is indeed a party in Lorene’s garden, and my thanks to her for welcoming us!
Next up: The final private-garden visit on the Fling, the color-rich Farley Garden. For a look back at my post about Pike Place Market and the mountain coming out, click here.
All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Wish I could have been male #2 up there in the “Emerald City”. Very nice gabion tower and firepit seating…good point, as in Abq scorpions, snakes, centipedes, vinegaroons, and other assorted lovelies would hang out in those features ready to play, though probably not in daytime. But, then it would be too hot to sit outside…quandries…
This garden was so much fun. I wished Lorene was my neighbor because we have plenty of “junk” to work with, but my imagination needs a good nudge to use it attractively. I can’t wait for the book, Handmade Garden Projects.
Anybody have an ID on the that yellow flower?
Another fun garden tour. Love that mini parterre, great idea to add formality where it wouldn’t fit otherwise.
Interesting to see the different views of the same garden from each blog. Wow, 70 bloggers means I’ve got a lot more reading to do.
What fun! And, what a fun garden. Richard loves the “cocktail cabana” and wants one! LOL
Wow! What a trip to think back to that busy time from the comfort and quiet of my garden (& trailer) today. It was a pleasure to have Fling participants in my garden and it’s been a real treat to read everyone’s various perspectives in follow up posts. Thanks so much Pam!!
p.s. Jen, the yellow flower is oenoethera missouriensis – a form of evening primrose that seeds about my garden and fills the night air with frangrance. uuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Very nice, but ALL I could think about when I looked at the photo of the gabion-style seating was “I’d never have the guts to sit on that. There MUST be snakes in there!” YIKES!!!!!
I can see that it is an oenothera, now that you’ve shown me that. Not sure it’s the missouriensis – that one was always a low sprawler in my garden, with bloom stems coming from the rosette rather than a stalk. (had the coolest seed pods ever, but very weird)
Oenothera elata hookeri, maybe?
Stem doesn’t look quite right – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oenothera_elata_hookeri_3.jpg
Not looking my best, shooting some unknown shade loving something or other…….. But thanks for the shout out. And how could we not be mesmerized by the women towering above us in orange. I did love her garden.
What a fun garden! I especially liked the two pots stacked, I am definitely going to try that o give some height in groupings.
I saw those stacked pots, and thought what a great way to combine plants with different water requirements. I immediately went outside and stacked a couple of pots The top pot has a black leaved succulent, Aeonium ‘Schwarzkopf’, and the bottom half has black mondo grass.
Great idea, Deirdre. I bet that’s a fabulous looking combo too. —Pam
I think that strange look on my face while we were all listening to Lorene must have been when she was talking about grafted tomatoes. I still think that is the weirdest thing I heard over the course of the entire Seattle Fling. Her place was a treat, I love the trailer!