"Abundant Nature - an Enchanted Food Forest" was an award winner, and my favorite garden at Portland's garden show last weekend. I was there to speak on healing gardens and on the Garden Writer's panel, but managed to squeeze in a few happy hours touring the show, which is smaller, sweeter, and less commercial than the Seattle Show, in part, no doubt, because it's put on by the Oregon Association of Nurseries. So many individuals and gardening groups are active in putting it on, and it shows in the camraderie, the stunning display of bits and pieces in bloom from area gardens, and the human scale of the show.
The edible garden was a marvel of integration, with fragrant sprays of cedar underfoot, a mossy mound with portholes, and a miniature garden to intrigue children as well as adults. The garden was a collaboration, with lead design by Amy Whitworth of Plan-It Earth Design.
How did she include a native habitat garden, a ruin, a fairy garden, play space, hobbit mound, blueberries, coldframe, arbor, keyhole garden and herbal spiral into one garden (albeit a very long one...) without it looking disparate? With great attention to detail and a consistent aesthetic...well, take a look....
Kale and lettuces ran in ribbons through raised beds...
The tripod built of branches expresses the garden's rustic aesthetic, with herbs and lettuces in beds trimmed out in mossy bark
Don't you love this simple and heartfelt description of permaculture?
A play on scale with a giant nest near the ruin -
The hobbit mound and a different style of raised beds...
The native plant garden was effective sheltering one end of the garden with a flowery grove that included a brush pile to attract birds and insects...
And here's the designers explanation and inspiration for a garden both beautiful and educative...
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