Camp Garden ~ Week 7 ~ WORMS

I missed last weeks Camp Garden because I was up touring nurseries and properties in Lake Almanor, but Rose stood in for me and did an awesome job. Not only did she help Miss Donna and Miss Eleanor, but she BROUGHT WORMS from her own worm bed so the kids could have a "hands on" for this weeks topic. Thank you Rose!!

Garden Girls ~ Vivienne's

Vivienne is our own Irish Lass that joined our group of garden girls last year. She is our manager at Red Zinnia and her style and artistic flair are well represented in her garden as well as at the store. As a member of our local Hospital Auxiliary, she chooses to spend her volunteer hours at their thrift store, and as she and Jaime, also a volunteer member, are often quick to point out “You can get a whole lot of cool stuff there, and we get first pick”. Her garden is filled with little treasures that she has used to either add into a mosaic project, or combine into little vignette’s filled with rustic vintage appeal. We gathered under her patio on this warm sunny evening, the misters keeping us cool, and got caught up on the going’s on in each other’s lives. Having two stores, with different shifts, our semi-weekly garden tours are usually the only time we are all together. It is a slumber party, minus the slumber. As we all settle into their comfy chairs, ~ good food, good drinks and even greater conversation fills the air.

A tour of the garden commences with drinks in hand and we enjoy seeing the newest plantings and projects that she and Stuart have in progress. Living on the outskirts of town they are faced with high winds and heat and over the last year they have added many trees to help cut it down. Everything is maturing nicely, and of course with all of us there we talked them into planting even more. After all, we are Garden Girls.

thrift store finds, turned into treasures

 Vivienne is a master at mosaics, and there are many scattered throughout her garden in all sizes and styles 

I especially love this mirror that rests under a trellis. It adds not only artistic interest, but depth to the garden.

  

 Not only mosaics, but my eye catches heart shaped rocks as well

  little crystals and chimes scattered throughout, catching the light breeze that fills the summer air

 

 

 Vivienne has a great eye for color, as evidenced by how she does the displays at Red Zinnia, but even on her porch, the combination of old branches filled with lichen blend beautifully with the colored glass chime. 

Vivienne's newest and largest project that we saw. She has been building this outdoor patio table top and only the middle part is glued in at this point. She is still experimenting with different combinations for the outer rim. A beautiful colorful piece that combines her love of color, with her Irish heritage. The picture below on the right is her original layout, and then Michelle started to take some creative license to it. We will have to wait and see the finished project.

and then everyone has an opinion of what the outer pattern should be

 Yes, it was a happy kinda night,
(Rose couldn't resist putting her own artistic touch to the evening, drawing in the sand)

 This is Lily, she is the watchdog! 

and this is the beautiful watercolor that Michelle did for Vivienne and Stuart last year that hangs in their living room.

 

The sun sets on another wonderfully warm summer evening.  

Designs by Cher

I am up at Melissa's this week to see her new location of Every Bloomin' Thing that she opened in Chester, right down the road from Lake Almanor. I have been trying to get away and make it up here to see it since she opened her second location in May, but one thing about owning a nursery, you don't get away to much during the height of the gardening season. Well now the temps are in the high 90's in Fallon, so things are starting to slow down at the store, so that means it's "traveling time" for me. This week it was to Lake Almanor. A summer retreat for many from the Northern California area it seems like Lake Tahoe in a time warp. Everything moves at a much slower pace, and the lake is breathtakingly beautiful. She was very lucky to open the new nursery with the assistance of a couple who have lived in the area for years, Cher and Russ Greenlaw. Cher is also a landscape designer and we spent one of the days here touring some of her projects. These are BIG projects, some taking years to complete. We started at one of Cher's favorites designs, Pam Peri's summer home. Many of you may have read about them in the 2010 Summer issue of Edible Reno Tahoe. The Peri's are known around our part of Northern Nevada as the "Onion Kings" and they use this home as a summer retreat. This project has been a three year work in progress and is amazing. From the plantings at the front gates to the long slope down to the lake, your eye travels quickly trying to take it all in.

Cher and Mel at the Peri's

complete with Fairy Garden

Another of the many homes that Cher has done the landscape designs for in the area, this one shows her beautiful use of heathers and thyme for a very low maintance front area. 

on to some paving projects that she has going, gave me some ideas for my own backyard

now if I just had this view to go with it.......

this is a massive project, and ALL the boulders came from the property as it was being excavated for the construction of the home

But my favorite stop of the day, Cher's own garden. With over 40 diffeerant types of Japanese maples, a soothing and lovely pond, perinnial beds and wildlife ~ I think it is her most beautiful design we saw.

dogwood, still in bloom even this late into the summer....breathtaking

40 year old Japanese maple that she has just now planted into the ground. She has cared for it all these years in a large container. The next photo shows screws were it was fixed after a branch broke many many years ago.

the final stop, her wine cellar..........a beautiful day!