GardenBook

  I'm grateful for the opportunity I've had to visit some of our great public horticultural institutions  across the US, but it's a particular pleasure to be welcomed into a memorable  home garden created by a gifted gardener. During our brief 2 day sojourn into Pennsylvania prior to Garden Bloggers Fling, my friends and I were fortunate to visit the garden of artist Inta Kromboltz, who fashioned it and  nurtured it for over 30 years. The gardens of an artist always seem to have a little extra something, perhaps because their creative eye sees things the rest of us do not.  Intas' garden is a textbook study in the use of foliage, texture and layering . Flowers were completely incidental, and justifiably so. The garden is rich in color, flowers or not.  Brick homes are exotic to this left coast dweller. Earthquakes and brick homes don't mix well. I was immediately smitten. Along the driveway a tapestry of shrubs , beautifully composed...

  I ask you you, if you are serious gardener, a casual gardener or just an admirer of gardens from afar, is there anything more compelling than a Pleasure Garden ?  Chanticleer has been on the bucket list for a very long time, and finally my opportunity to visit came with a two day Pennsylvania jaunt prior to reporting for Garden Bloggers Fling 2017 . Once I returned home I was quite disconcerted to see that my photo record of Chanticleer was incomplete. Not a single image of any of the buildings, or the iconic Teacup Garden. When I looked at my map I saw that I completely missed the cut flower and vegetable garden along with bells woodland. My excuse is that I was sucked in by the meadows downhill from the ruin garden-which incidentally was another area that I barely documented. Clearly I will have to go back and take a more studied approach.I was captivated by Chanticleer and wished I  had been there first thing in the morning with the entire day at my leisure to expl...