Completed and dedicated in 2006, the Anthony Chapel, designed by Jennings + McKee is the new star of the Garvan Gardens.   Garvan Gardens is located on the shores of Lake Hamilton and is the creation and gift of Verna Cook Garvan.

From the Garvan Gardens website:

“The site for Garvan Woodland Gardens was purchased in the 1920′s after a clear-cut in about 1915. Mrs. Garvan loved this beautiful place so much that she never allowed it to be cut again. In 1956 she began to develop it as a garden and possible future residence. She was intimately familiar with the land and laid out each path, marking every tree to be removed. Verna also personally chose each new plant and selected its location.

Over the next forty years, Mrs. Garvan planted thousands of specimens which now form an impressive collection. There are hundreds of rare shrubs and trees, some over 40 years old.”

The Anthony Chapel is an extraordinary work of art that highlights the beauty of the natural elements and the dense woods that surround it. The soaring 57-foot, open-rafter ceiling, supported by massive pine columns and crossbeams and provides beautiful views of Lake Hamilton.  It reminded me immediately of the Wayfarers Chapel (built by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son) near where my in laws live in Palos Verdes, CA.  It is unsurprising since both have an FLW connection.

Upon her death, Mrs. Garvan left the property to the Department of Landscape Architecture through the University of Arkansas Foundation. ,

It was Mrs. Garvan’s wish that the Gardens be used to educate and serve the people of Arkansas, providing them the joy and repose it had offered her. She noted the devastation of the environment that had taken place in her lifetime and wished to preserve a remnant of the twentieth century’s natural grandeur for generations to come.

image from the becker

Envy is almost getting the best of me.  One of my favorite regular bloggers has recently gone on an adventure that I long to embark upon (again) myself.  In February, Gabrielle Blair of Design Mom moved her family to France for a year.  In addition to her regular posts, she is also now sharing the adventure.  The whole story sparks my ingrained wanderlust and makes me long to do the same.  It’s almost too much.  And then I saw this.

This tree-house is an ‘unexpected discovery’ that until they arrived at their new house in France, they didn’t know existed.  Talk about a perk on top of pretty present. I just don’t think I can take it!!

The owners of the house (the Blairs are renting) built the little house without buying anything.  Everything was found on-site, scavenger for or picked from nearby woods.  I love that it came with a key collection and a tea set already in side.  And a ‘frame’ for the view.

If these images aren’t enough make you envious too, Gabrielle has even more treehouse images over on Design Mom.  And if you long for this sort of thing too, you can make yourself sick with envy as well by reading about the whole France adventure.

I am drooling over the Yestermorrow Design Build School and though it is almost the end of January, I have a new, new years resolution.

I will attend a class of some sort (at the yestermorrow school or likewise) and learn a new hands on do it myself building technique.

image from the cleaner plate club.

As I peruse the course offerings of the Yestermorrow school (in the Mad River Valley of Vermont), I am intrigued by the Earthen Oven building course, the art of  stone working course (with my new crush Thea Alvin), or maybe I will learn to make a willow canoe, or participate in the yurt design/build class.  My head is swimming with the excitement of possibilities.

Tree house built by in a past class my yestermorrow students. Image from Blushing Pretty.

Care to get your hands dirty and learn something exciting? Check out Yestermorrow and let us know in the comments if and when you decide to attend.

The armadillo house built by past yestermorrow students. Image from Tiny House Talk.

Which should be the before and which should the the after? I decided, finally, to go with the more encouraging version. While it is snowy and beautiful now, it will turn green and just as beautiful again soon.

Tree house belongs to, and was photographed by stocksundgarden.

I found it!! ….This is the inspiration shot that is helping me get my head around the upgrades we plan to make to our tree house this year.   Until I saw this, I didn’t realize how much ‘foundation’ plantings could add to a tree house — a place with no true foundation.  Also, in the spirit of cost effective and simple solutions, I love that this house really doesn’t have walls — just bamboo shades and breezy curtains that can be brought in for the winter.   We are discussing our roof architecture but I am so excited that we all agree that this is just what we want and that is a huge achievement for this family of four with widely differing opinions.

Nearly a hundred years ago a Swedish born bean farmer named Axel Erlandson settled in California and in an effort to entertain his family he shaped trees.   Axel could have never have guessed that his playful masterpieces would exist still today and that his tree story would endure long past his death.

Having discovered the property of trees to graft to themselves (called inosculation), Axel created over a hundred trees in amusing and odd shapes.   He was quite coy about his techniques, often telling people that he talked to the trees to encourage them to grow into their fabulous shapes.  After 20 years of shaping and creating, word started getting out about Axel’s Tree collection and it was dubbed the tree circus.  Robert Ripley featured his tree circus in his magazine 12 times.

In the Mid 60′s Axel passed away but his trees lived on and though his property fell into disrepair, many of the trees survived.  In the 70′s a local architect named Mark Primark risked arrest for trespassing to feed and water the trees and was able to keep 25 circus trees alive.  Finally, they attracted the attention of Michael Bonfante, owner of Nob Hill Foods. Bonfante was a horticultural connoisseur and  he moved them to his theme park (Gilroy Gardens) in 1985 where 19 of the original trees still survive.

Gilroy Gardens regularly opens for “gardens only” days, (usually on Fridays), when most of the rides and shops are closed, making it easier to walk around and look at the plantings.  There are no rides but you can hop on a train that circles the park or take the boat that floats through the Rainbow Garden.  Gilroy Gardens is the only California amusement park with a horticultural theme.

Erlandson really started something and his  creations have inspired numerous other Tree shapers.   In 2005 a Japanese expo was devoted to these horticultural creations of “Circus Trees”.  If you want to learn more about Axel’s followers, check out tree shapers, where the history of shaped trees is chronicled.

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