Garden Photo of the Day

Year-round focal points from humble materials, Day 1

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Photo/Illustration: Michelle Gervais

A few weeks ago, while visiting Freeland and Sabrina Tanner’s garden in Napa, California, I was stopped in my tracks by some of their awesome creations. I’ll post two today and show another awesome one tomorrow, so stay tuned.

First, check this one out. Instead of filling this urn with plants (They have LOTS of other plants to nurture), Freeland cut and bent several lengths of rebar, stuck them in the soil, and topped each one with a terracotta pot. Simple concept, but I never would have thought of it!

Photo/Illustration: Michelle Gervais
Photo/Illustration: Michelle Gervais

In another part of the garden, Freeland and Sabrina covered a large rustic tuteur with terracotta and a selection from their extensive collection of vintage watering cans. Heck, they can even make a pile of this stuff along a fence look cool! Such creative talent…

Got any homemade garden ornaments you’d like to share with us? Email me! [email protected]

Photo/Illustration: Michelle Gervais

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Comments

  1. terieLR 04/23/2012

    Happy Monday morning to all...heavy snow here in NY this AM. Trees are cracking and perennals are buried. It should make for some interesting photography.
    Great garden-art shared with us today Michelle. I am especially drawn to the vintage watering cans. Can't wait to see what tomorrows feature will be!

  2. MichelleGervais 04/23/2012

    Oh, no, Terie, your poor garden!! Please do give us updates on how it fares. This is worse than the October snow, I would think!

  3. ScottHokunson 04/23/2012

    Love these Michelle! I imagine the pots in the first shot must move on their rebar stems in the wind, producing some interesting sounds, adding another sensory experience in the garden. How cool!

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    meander_michaele 04/23/2012

    Oh,terieLR, my heart feels a jab of concern for your garden being hit with this onslaught of snow. You sound heroically chipper. I have my fingers crossed that damage will be minimal. It was close to this time last year that my part of TN got hit with brutal spring storms and incredibly damaging hail. My hosta ended up in tatters and it was just sad.
    I especially like the watering can tuteur...what a fun, novel way to display a collection of anything.

  5. garden_for_good 04/23/2012

    The watering can tower looks good, but seems like the perfect spot for mosquitoes to breed! Guess the bottoms could be drilled to ensure drainage, but it seems a shame to do that to such interesting cans.

  6. tractor1 04/23/2012

    I like that clay pot fountain corsage concept, but I'd have done whimsy all the way, painted the pots in bright colors and added faces.

    I hope Terie's garden doesn't suffer too much damage, I know very well what havoc even a light a wet snow can wreak this time of year in NY. I don't have snow in the northern Catskills but everywhere is flooding, my creek is at the top of it's bank and so far my basement is dry... my cats hate water in their basement.

  7. pattyspencer 04/23/2012

    Good morning all! Upper Ohio around the lakes was to get a ton of heavy snow as well. I hope everyone's gardens come out of this without damage!

    I agree with Tractor1 - I think the pots need something arty to make them more than just upside down pots on rods. The tower one is interesting and I agree with Garden for Good on this too.

    Obviously I'm not seeing the vision that the designer's had.

  8. sheilaschultz 04/23/2012

    What unexpected fun for the garden...definitely low maintenance! We're thinking about you, TerieLR. I'm sure it will be quite a while before you know the extent of the damage. Do keep us posted!

  9. terieLR 04/23/2012

    Well...just now getting home to survey the damage. A large broken and bruised crab apple tree greeted us at the lamp post ~ it's burgundy blossoms peaking out to cry for help. Bud didn't skip a beat and with chain saw in hand, rescued a large maple from having it's limbs further scarred. A multitude of shrub/bushes are broken here and there but to be honest... all I can think about are those who have had their landscape/homes/lives ripped apart by torinado, floods and wild fires. We are thankful that the severe damage was minimal and will just add this to our ToDo lists.
    I am happy to report that our bluebirds are still perched in the ash trees. Thank you all for thinking of us through this day. It was very heart-warming to see your responses.

  10. tractor1 04/23/2012

    Terie, your crabapple will recover quickly, I lop lower limbs off mine (see today's pic-malus Cardinal) often so when I mow my tractor clears. Sometimes relatively mild storms prune away weak wood making our plants stronger and better. Inclement weather reminds us to properly care for our plants in advance... I'm all the time pruning large limbs from trees, this way I get some say. My next door neighbor has a stand of beautiful Colorado blue spruce, whenever it snows he's out there with a long handled broom sweeping the limbs several times over a 24 hour period, even in the middle of the night... sometimes I think he's obsessed, like me. LOL I'm just happy that the water is down in my creek and my basement is dry... I have a French drain in my basement that exits into my creek, when the water is high it backs up, I've had over a foot of water in my basement, cat litter pans floating like arks. I really don't mind as the water recedes quickly but at times sand also backs in and then I have a big job cleaning. I love living rural... if someone bought me a ten million dollar penthouse in NYC and paid all my bills I'd still stay right here. Reminds me, it's time to put out corn for my pair of resident mallards.

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