I have to share an exciting moment with you (well hopefully).  The snowy Nor’easter might ruin it.  Our good friends just dropped off their 2 little people (who are best friends with my two little people) – and as I sit here watching the news, I imagine that they might be that singular car the news guy says is working it’s way down the Mass Pike at 5 mph on its way to Logan Airport.  I so hope they make it.  They are headed to Washington DC – they have been invited to the White House Christmas Party.  (wow! – right – and they do actually have a real invitation and aren’t trying to get on to Real House Wives of Harvard, MA).

My good friend is a political consultant and while I haven’t entirely figured out what that job entails, it does mean that she get some cool invites – like today, to the white house holiday party.  My role in this story goes beyond babysitter though.  See, I have this skirt that I bought about 6 years ago at a sample sale during London Fashion Week.  It was ridiculously expensive given it is the type of skirt that I may never have an occasion to  wear.  When I plopped down my cash in a moment of reckless shopping abandon, my friend who was with me at the time and I discussed how this would be the perfect skirt to wear to an elegant winter party in Aspen (cause I go go alot of those, right).  It is a full length camel colored cashmere wool skirt with a dark gold velvet hem.  It’s high waisted, slightly mermaid like in fit, and has a small sweep in the back.  It is de-vine.  And it fits my friend as perfectly as it fits me.

Can I tell you how utterly excited that my perfect, never been worn, totally aspirational skirt is (hopefully) going to finally be worn to an event that it was made for! My skirt is going to the White House Christmas Party today!  And it’s not just my skirt, but also a vintage necklace, and one of my bake-lite bracelets, and a pair of garnet earrings that my husband bought for me (he is excited too).  Here is what will make my day – when my friend goes to have her picture taken with Barack and Michelle Obama, I hope Michelle tells her she looks beautiful and that she likes her outfit…I will take that compliment, totally vicariously, and feel like a fashion rock star.  It will be a perfect design moment…the perfect thing in the perfect place at the perfect moment…I am so excited…fingers crossed that their flight isn’t canceled and they make it….I’ll keep you updated.  Oh snow, go away.

Update: 2:35pm Sunday Dec. 20th – My friends have to be at White House in 25 minutes…and they arrived in Baltimore (which is not the National Airport that was planned) a couple hours ago.  Presumably they have been able to make the drive in time… the skirt is going to the party!

Update: 8:30 pm – The party was great – though a couple hundred people missed the event for weather.   Michelle Obama said to my friend (while holding her hand and kissing her cheek) “Look at you, you look so pretty” — success!! here is a quick pic of our friends at the party…though you can’t see the fab skirt -  I will try to post more pictures if I can get my hands on them. Oh, and all the little people are in bed…

I have been reading with fascination this morning about Pearl Fryar, a South Carolinian gardener and artist who created an amazing garden.

When he moved to his Bishopville, South Carolina home over 20 years ago, he found he couldn’t live in the white neighborhood; the garden ladies wouldn’t have it.  They didn’t believe that black people would properly care for their yards. So Pearl moved to the black neighborhood and built a garden.  The ladies gave away a gardener of the month award for the most beautiful yard, and Pearl set about winning it.

by eclectio

Pearl’s topiary garden is now world famous, the garden conservancy is involved in preserving it, and it is open to the public for visits daily.  Pearl is retired from his day job now, and recently turned 70.  He is looking for a younger person who is interested in making a home near Bishopville, who he can teach his methods to and who can carry on his legacy.  Pearl estimates that all his work would disappear in 5 years without his maintenance.

If you are interested, Pearl has a facebook page, and a website where you can learn more about him, his garden and it’s future.

Oh – and you know topiary gardens are just as good in the winter…so if you need a fix, it would be a great place to visit this time of year.

I look forward to the annual announcement of the Pantone color of the year.  I now have a 2 year running track record of  having projects in the works (before the color is announced) that are using the color of the year.  I think I might have a little bit of a tend spotting record going here.  Last year was Mimosa – and I had just finished a redo of my bathroom in that color (BTW – that bathroom is going to be in BHG this Feb – I will give you a heads up when it is on the stands so you can check it out if you want to).  The year before was Iris blue and well — I have to admit..I missed that one…

Anyway, this year (2010)  is Turquoise.  I put together this garden inspired inspiration board to get you thinking about all the pretty ways to use it in the landscape.

1. turquoise, 2. Turquoise berries, 3. Série com o macho de Saí-azul, Saí, Saí-bico-fino ou Saí-bicudo (Dacnis cayana) – Series with a male of a Blue Dacnis or Turquoise Honeycreeper – 09-08-2008 – IMG_20080809_9999_304, 4. Orange turquoise reflection, 5. Turquoise, 6. Vintage Child’s Chair & Sap Bucket, 7. glow, 8. Turquoise, 9. Orange Koi ~ Turquoise Tile, Um Hmmm!, 10. Parasol, 11. Capiz shells, 12. Gentle Bluey-Green, 13. sapphire tower (Puya alpestris), 14. Yeah, DW, It’s Neptune’s Garden!, 15. The Jade Vine – Cairns Botanical Gardens (Strongylodon macrobotrys), 16. Some More Bokeh for you Sherry..lol..:O))

“Combining the serene qualities of blue and the invigorating aspects of green, Turquoise evokes thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a languorous, effective escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of wellbeing.” – Pantone

Oh and my project that is using turquoise? I am having 5 vintage metal garden chairs, that are all rusty and old, repainted in turquoise.  I think it will look terrific on my (some day) chocolate brown Ipe deck.

Have you seen this video?

I have now watched it and a couple others in the same vein about 50 times as I am preparing an article for Landscape Middle East on the subject of ‘greening the desert’.   I am curious what you think? I am learning so much about permaculture right now and am quickly becoming fascinated with the subject.  I am curious what you know about all of this?  It all sounds too good to be true, which gives me pause.  Is there really such a simple answer?  what gives you pause or are you a permaculture champion?  should we, as gardeners, all be talking incessantly about natural gardening?  Can we really save the world?  Let’s discuss.

I started my annual Christmas cookie baking extravaganza yesterday — it will continue through the weekend.  Why do I do this?….purely for sentimental reasons.   I bake because my grandmas baked, because I love it and because giving away cookies is joyful.  Thinking about grandmas, of which I am blessed to still have one of, my mind immediately wanders to thinking of plants.  My mother’s mother was a huge gardener too.  Her ranch in Montana is where I learned to love nature and gardens and she continues to be  huge influence.  Thoughts of her, as I rolled snickerdoodles in cinnamon sugar yesterday, left me making a mental list of plants that I just love, purely for sentimental reasons.
I make no claims to recommend these plants to my clients per se, it’s just that a homey garden, for me, will have each of them.  Kind of like a house isn’t a home unless it is filled with family pictures, furniture hand me downs and favorite things, my garden doesn’t feel homey without these.

1. Red Peony, 2. Mexican Marigolds, 3. Nettles and Hazel Leaf, Lithprint, 4. Down among the Horsetails, 5. Hollyhock shed, 6. Margaritas, 7. Orange Oriental Poppy, 8. Weeping Willow

Burgundy red peonies….because I was always at my grandmas house in the summer when these were blooming…she had a huge hedge of them, when she died I took some for my own garden at the time and swore that I would never have a garden with out some of them.  But my current garden is without…and I have resolved to change that…I just need to make my way back to central montana to dig some up. Easier said than done.

The smell of marigold greens is the best scent in the garden, don’t you think?  Marigolds aren’t a favorite flower, but when I was about 8, my sister and I de-headed and spread millions of marigold seeds through my mother’s purple irises.  She cursed us and made us weed them all out in the spring. (or at least attempt to) — I can’t say I fully understood the amazing-ness of seeds until that day….and I still find seedlings exciting…even if it does mean lots of weeding.

Nettle and Horsetail grass grew wild on my grandmas ranch.  Long walks always involved pulling apart pieces grass, and I will never forget my first incorrect plant identification…when I excitedly thought that the nettle was mint, and I and my cousins rubbed it all over our faces trying to get it to smell….nice.

Hollyhocks that my mother planted were always rusty and never as nice at this picture,  but they were double flowered and made great little girl dolls for dirt fort houses.  My mother also grew beautiful oriental poppies and white daisies together…I loved them so much they inspired my wedding flowers and colors.

And finally – weeping willows – one grew on the banks of Spring Creek which runs through my grandmas ranch, our swimming hole was beneath it, and also one grew in the center of my backyard.   The one in my backyard can actually choke me up if I take a drive by that old house.  It is huge and beautiful, but it was a whip when we planted it.  I think it was a freebie give away tree from a grand opening around the time when my parents bought that house.  It had grow significantly after about 5 years, when it became diseased – my dad insisted that the only solution to whatever ailed it was to cut it down and get rid of it.  I couldn’t bear the thought and if not for my intervention (I was about 11) it wouldn’t stand today as one of the prettiest trees in the neighborhood.  I begged, I cried and I basically laid down in the front of the thing – I was an original tree hugger,- we figured a way to cure the tree and it lives on. .

Listing these in my head, I was surprised to realize that I don’t really have any of these plants in my own garden.  So I have my first resolution for 2010 – to change that.  I only have the shasta daisies and oriental poppies, but my evil woodchuck friend ate them. I will have to take some hard action, but it’s a good and accomplishable resolution I think.

I am curious, what are some of your sentimental favorites?

I have to confess….though I live near Boston, New York is the city I really love (don’t hate me — it’s not like I am rooting for the Yankees).  If only I could, on a landscape designers income, afford my home AND a pied-a-terre in NYC….oh yes, that would be the life…

As a NYC lover and wannabe resident, a landscape designer and perpetual through the window dreamer,   - The City Out My Window is a book that I am truly enjoying.   It is a beautiful book of pencil drawings created by architect Matteo Pericoli.  Each page presents a beautiful line drawing of  New York based artists’, writers’, entertainers’, and composers’ home window view.

From writer Helen Gallagher:

“Reading this book, you gain a new sense of what people seek when they find their ideal home, even in crowded New York City. You sense what it means to them to feel connected to the city, yet our view is often something over which we exercise little control. Many of these New York homes and apartments, in fact, have views confined by architecture rather than nature, and yet people are drawn to the life and the changes observed through the window in each residence, from their private space in a very public city.”

Among the many delightful drawings, accompanied by text and quoting the residents, are many personal and revealing comments, such as poet Meghan O’Rourke’s:

“I’ve lived in New York (both Manhattan and Brooklyn) most of my life.  This is my favorite view from any window I’ve ever had, though I once lived in a U-shaped apartment building, and it was very moving to be able to glimpse my family in the kitchen from my bedroom.  A little like eavesdropping on your life.  This view has an auditory component: the church bells ring periodically; they’re not too loud, but serve as a gentle reminder of time passing. And the trees in the backyard of the house are very old, so they seem to creak in the wind and rustle and sigh.  When I’m writing poetry, all this natural and man made muttering can be inspiration at times.”

The City Out My Window: 63 Views on New York has a lovely window shaped die-cut cover, interesting construction and pages that lay flat so nothing interferes with your peering into the lives of the city’s residents. I have an extra one that you can win for yourself or give as a beautiful holiday gift.   What do you need to do to get it?  Describe your favorite window view and tell why it is that you love it.

You have until Wednesday December 16th at 5:00 EST – then I will randomly pick a winner and get this beauty sent for the holidays.