For years I saved a page torn out of a magazine and posted it above my desk
at home. The page was an ad of some sort with a photo of actress Helen
Hayes, smiling wryly, potting flowers. Below the photo was her quote:
“All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of
spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy,
and my spirits soar.”
I loved this quote and felt an instant connection. I, too, long for the
spring and feel the exuberance and yes, the energy, of getting my hands into the
ground and planting.
Gardening has always been a passion in my family. My grandmother had a long
narrow garden along the side of her driveway that she worked on throughout the
summer. Her tip was to run the hose at a drip so that the water would soak
deep to the roots. The hose ran all day as she worked her way from one end of
the garden to the other.
My other grandmother had a rock garden around her screened porch where she
grew columbine and many varieties of sedum with rocks she brought back from
summer trips to Michigan. Her advice was to get the garden to look nice early in
the spring and then leave it alone. (Later, I realized that was her reason for
choosing drought-tolerant plants.) She took a floral designer’s approach
to gardening, and enjoyed arranging cut flowers and branches in vases to
decorate her home.
My dad’s passion for gardening came in his 50s. His artistry was in building
walls and walks of timber and rock. Even in a natural setting his meticulous
engineering mind designed and built all corners at exactly 90 degrees. Dad
wanted color, and to his few bushes and fewer perennial staples he added lots of
annuals, many grown by seed. I marveled at his patience, but later realized it
was my mother who had the patience to live with all the tiny seeded containers
in front of the windows throughout their home in the early spring months.
This year, I’m concentrating on container gardens combining textured greens
in large pots and containers, which will add greatly to the architecture of our
garden and patio and enhance the front door entrance—I hope. I’ve been
scouring catalogs and the internet, revisiting scouting shots and HOME COMPANION
layouts to get ideas.
Our friend Ruth Touhill gave us this idea. Ruth is a designer and
antiques dealer who is innovative in her approach of pulling together found
objects in a fun, refreshing style. These three olive oil cans may not
last forever, but the basil and other herbs sure will look great.
Barbara Ashford’s garden has been a favorite of HOME COMPANION’s. I love the
over-scale, low window box under the wonderful arched window. It’s so unexpected
and bursts with color. Many would choose a bench to put under the window, but
Barbara added more of her garden to the guesthouse with this planter.
The garden of David Schiffer and Daryl Duarte is an ever-changing canvas.
David and Daryl use containers year round. By combining conifers with
annuals, the urns add sculpture to the garden in all four seasons.
Who wouldn’t want to have their morning coffee or afternoon tea in this
setting? Charlotte Rose’s Birmingham, Alabama, garden is designed in
rooms, and many include salvaged shutters or doors. This patio’s lusciousness is
attributed to the many pots of plants—only the tree with the branches overhead
is planted in the ground.
Visit these websites for great containers:
www.greatstuffbypaul.com
www.gardens-austin.com
www.thompsonhanson.com
www.jamaligarden.com
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I was pleasantly surprised on a recent day off to stumble across an extensive
exhibition on the illustrator Al Parker. 
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