Me @ BBG

I'll be doing my PowerPoint presentation on The Crazy Mixed-Up Border at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, MA next Saturday, Nov 6. I've taught and lectured there in the past and always love returning to stroll the inspiring grounds. My talk starts at 10 am-for more info or to purchase tickets, go here.

Thrillers, Fillers and Spillers

Every mixed container planting or grouping of pots needs plants with different design characteristics. I think they need a thriller-a dramatic, eye-catching centerpiece plant; several fillers, mounding billowy partners to nestle around the thriller; and a spiller, a cascading plant that tumble s over the edge of the pot. This PowerPoint presentation offers a rundown of some of the best of each type as well as design ideas for creative containers.

Passion for Pots

Gardening in pots opens a whole world of easy experimentation for new and experienced gardeners alike. Try out new plants, playing with color schemes and learning about how to create dynamic plant combinations are all easier when the ingredients are in pots, and thus easily rearranged. This PowerPoint presentation covers the gamut of container gardening, from using an empty pot as a focal point, to a few plants in a single pot, and on to whole container-based gardeners utilizing scores of pots and arranged into potted borders. It also touches on horticultural techniques including basic propagation, overwintering tender perennials, fertilizing, deadheading and watering.

Adventurous Annuals

Gardening is rarely a source of instant gratification, but there are plants that provide almost sudden impact. Many have colorful foliage, season-long flowers or heady fragrance. And they are just the thing to beef up a new garden or to add an exotic touch to even the most established planting. “Adventurous Annuals” is a slide lecture detailing dramatic, fast growing annuals with almost architectural splendor. It covers everything from self-sowing annuals to easy-to-overwinter tropical plants and includes ideas for using these same plants for maximum effect in the garden, in beds or in containers.

Quest for Color: Going Beyond the Bloom

Color brings a garden to life. Whether it’s serene green, or eye-popping reds and yellows, the many hues of flower and foliage delight the eye and engage the mind. And for those who believe they can’t have too much of a good thing, “Quest for Color”, a PowerPoint presentation detailing my search for unconventional ways to use color in the garden. It starts where flowers leave off, and shows how colorful ornaments, foliage, furniture and treillage can be used to brighten the garden all season long. Using examples drawn from nature, from my Farmington, CT garden and from some of the most creative, color-conscious gardens in the Northeast, I'll show how trowel and paintbrush can be used to create bold, bright color schemes or subtly harmonious compositions.

Garden Partners: Using Shape and Color to Create Pleasing Plant Combinations

Making compelling plant combinations is the core of the gardener’s art. This PowerPoint presentation proceeds one simple step at a time, examining ways to use the elements of shape, texture and color to create beds and borders that look good all season long.

Garden Photography: Seeing the Picture

This garden photography workshop covers basics like film, lenses and lighting, but its emphasis is on the seeing the picture. Because if you can’t “see” a picture, that is recognize the elements of a strong composition and portray your subject in a visually pleasing way, then it really doesn’t matter how fancy your equipment may be—you’re simply not going to take a good picture. Though it’s geared for serious photographers, even beginners using point-and-shoot cameras will learn a few tips to improve their garden photos.

The Crazy, Mixed-Up Border: An Eclectic Approach to Using Trees, Shrubs, Annuals, Tropicals, Edibles and Perennials

This PowerPoint lecture takes the kitchen sink approach to garden making, which welcomes representatives from every corner of the plant kingdom. No leaf is left unturned in this search for the best and brightest of forms, foliage and flowers, which are then combined to create garden vignettes whose beauty lasts from Spring through Fall. This is a style that celebrates change and experimentation.