Oh No!  As I am sitting here prepping my August Blogs I like post, I clicked over to email to see that Loomis Creek is closing.  I have to admit to being quite sad.  While I have ever only visited the store once, it is one of those websites I peruse regularly.  In my same zone (5), Andrew and Bob cultivate a list of plant varieties that are quite different than those readily available at my more local suppliers.

I am forever trying to find the quirky and unusual often with some frustration.  Either I can’t find or I do and it doesn’t perform.   Thats usually when I check at Loomis Creek.  They have the plant — which feeds my determination to get the item because now I know if will work, — or they don’t, when I usually decide I should let that one go. They are like a quick online litmus test for my plant choices.

As they move to the pacific northwest, for new adventures, I and their neighbors in the Hudson valley will surely miss them.  For now though, I am scoping out my already full fall schedule to see when I can make the couple hour trek to Loomis Creek and pick up some final treasures before they are gone at the end of the season.

Urban Rooftop gardening is is quite vogue but while the reality of actually creating such a garden can be daunting (think hauling all that dirt to the roof) – this garden is quite inspiring because it literally looks like someone went through the apartment building and picked up all the stuff that would have gone down to the curb and instead took it up to the roof to create this quirky but appealing mix.
Found over at urban garden casual.

So I have this idea for a new regular feature here.  My husband insists that is shoudl be called “WTF is that?” While I agree, that does seem the perfect name, I am struggling to commit to the ‘F’.   I am an avid ‘F’ user but to have it as the title of a regular post seems a little unprofessional and pushing decorum slightly too far.  But then I think, WTF?  What do you think?   Anyway, here is the new feature — maybe you can help me decide what the name should be.

Crinkle Crankle Wall. What is that?  I love the names for things in gardening and garden design.  My husband is forever accusing me of making things up — the latest Latin…kirenshoma palmata (he thinks I made that name up), now this morning…crinkle crankle walls….No, I am not making this up.

image by the vintage cottage

Other names for it are ’serpentine walls’ or ‘ribbon walls’ which are perhaps somewhat more descriptive.  But in many places (particularly in England) they are Crinkle Crankle Walls.  They are also found in the Netherlands (having thought to originate there in the 16th century) where they are called slange muur—snaking wall.

image by *Notes

Crinkle Crankle walls have curving lines following a serpentine path rather than a straight line. This layout gives the construction added strength and does away with the need for buttressing.

image by bluesoccerelephant

It has been used in conjunction with growing fruit as it is thought that the curve of the wall traps and radiate the rays of the sun, which assist the fruit in growing.

This type of wall is more resistant to toppling than a straight wall; so much so that it can be made of a single thickness of un-reinforced brick and so, despite its longer length, can be more economical than a straight wall.

The fearless use of color in this artistic pool garden in Arizona is really appealing to me.  It plays well to the environment, surrounding architecture and climate as well as being a fun and inviting space.

It feels to me like the home of an artist.  Artists seem to crave color and incorporate it into their spaces in an interesting and unexpected way.  I personally find the fake blue of some chlorinated pools highly unappealing and the antithesis of refreshing, but here it is part of the color scheme and I can look at the pool as a design element in a colorful environment rather than an unnatural chemical bath.

The fence treatment with the corten steel panels are also really drawing me in….only seeing the space from these pictures, I still have the desire to walk over to them, touch them and follow them around the corner to see where the fence leads and what it feels like to be surrounded by these interesting pieces.

This seems like a deeply personal space that can only be created by a designer who is partnered with  a homeowner who really got involved in the design and had a wonderful vision to add to the process.

Design by Sundrea Design Studio in Tuscon Arizona.

Earlier this season, I inherited a Vermont Garden Way cart and it quickly became the tool that I can’t live without.  The cart I inherited might be older than I am and has already performed duties for a gardener family beyond expectation.  It came to me with two flat and disintegrating tires and the base wood panel completely rotted through.  But with a quick insert of a new piece of wood, (and I haven’t even replaced the tires yet), it works better than any wheelbarrow I have ever used.

(Whoa! her 80’s hair is spectacular!!)

Owning of one of these makes me feel like I am an old school New Englander.   For my hilly, rocky, up and down garden it makes easy work of moving around debris, plants, mulch and whatever I need.   I just ordered new tires and I expect to find that operating the cart with actual inflated tires that stay on the rims will be even easier.  And the best part of the Garden way — when I look out my window and I see it parked here and there all around the garden, it actually looks nice and gives a sense of a gardener at work and, even in the fall, it pulls me forward with a sense of anticipation for what it will do next.

You can buy one — and I highly recommend it for anyone with anything but a tiny garden – at amazon. (Carts Vermont Model 26 Garden/Yard Cart).

By the magic of google adwords, I discovered a new supplier who will be getting a bit of my business.  One Stop Poppy Shoppe has come into my life at a rather serendipitous moment.  Not one to grow flowers and  things (other than vegetables) from seed, I nonetheless experimented with a few things this summer to great success.  Sometime in late June I installed a new bed in my own garden and given that I planted lots of small shrubs (I can be patient for them to become big  for the sake of saving a buck), I have lots of open area where one day shrubs will fill.  So taking advantage of the extra room that will not always be there, I decided to throw in some seeds for plants that I love, have a hard time finding, but have never grown.  The two things I experimented with were Castor Beans (Ricinus communis) and California Poppies.   With a 100% success rate — even with a late planting, I currently have a new flush of orange flowers and the huge beautiful leaves of the Castor Bean are inspiring me for next years container plantings.

So with my growing confidence in growing poppies from seed (in usable quantities for design work), I am urged on to try greater and more interesting varieties.  Poppies are among my favorite flowers and while sadly they kinda suck as cut flowers, there is nothing better than a midsummer field full of poppies and white daisies.

When google somehow took a guess at thinking I might be interested in the One Stop Poppy Shoppe, they found a good match.  With over 50 varieties of annual and Perennial Poppy seeds available, I have added this Wisconsin supplier to my short list for seeds.

When I was in England, there was a big trend for blue poppies.  They were quite the fashion about 6-7 years ago in the UK (perhaps they still are?) – It is a trend that has not quite caught on in the same way here and I wonder if it is yet to come.  I am still quite obsessed with blue and white and I think I will try all the blue varieties that are on offer  (Meconopsis Lingholm, Meconopsis  horridula prattii, Meconopsis Betonicifolia)  as well as the pretty white woodland varieties.  Have you tried to grow blue poppies and do you have any advice to pass along?