Eating the Garden whilst Enjoying the Flowers

An exciting hunt through the markets of Paris elicited a mouth-watering and tantalizing visual feast. My favorite seeds that I found are Italian - Franchi seeds Misticanza Quattro Stagioni - a delightful find of mesclun, endive and chicory.

Digo varietà medio-precoce, mistacanza ottenuta dalle migliori varietà di lattughe indivie e cicorie, assortite per precocità e gusto. Le varietà da taglio rivegetano rapidamente.

Il dit, une mélange variété moyen-précoce, obtenue des meilleures variétés de laitues, endives et chicorées, assorties pour précocité et de goûte. Les variétés de coupe, végètent rapidment de nouveau.

Y también una variedad semiprecoz, mezcla obtenida de las mejores variedades de lechuga, achicoria y escarola, escogidas por su precocidad y sabor. Rebrota rapidamente después de cortar.

I also purchased beautiful red lettuce seeds - laitue batavia grenobloise rouge, and seeds distributed by Aviflora which are for dark opal basil – a delicious and beautiful deep, burgundy-tinted basil.

Un basilic très décorative par ses feuilles violettes, très joli dans le jardin mais surtout à utilizer en garniture dans la cuisine.

The final wonderful lettuce I discovered is called Lattuga Lingua di canarino. It is an early lettuce, and has long almost pointed leaves – but with enough surface that it still looks like, and tastes like a lettuce. Franchi Sementi again.

Photos from Middelburg

Today Heather is in Volendam, in the Netherlands and she'll be returning from her vacation sometime this weekend. Though the day before yesterday Heather was out in Middelburg in the Netherlands. She sent us a few tiny photos of things that looked rather interesting. Middelburg sits North above and between Bruges and Antwerp. She shared with us some unusual but interesting photos of her observations out in Middelburg.



An interesting small planter at a doorway corner large enough to fit a nice annual plant. Just like the photo that she sent us from Burges, if there's a will then there's a way for a plant to grow in any unusual tiny cramped spot.




Another photo heather sent us was an unusual way trees were grown, still in a very single small space possible.

Before we share the next two photos from Middelburg, we have something silly to share. We've got a running joke here at the office concerning our cat Queen Minnie.... ruler of everything that she sits on. But usually at around 5:30 in the afternoon Minnie visits the office and will sit on her hind legs on someone's desk and stare off into space with wide eyes and a very perplexed look. Sometimes you can spot her doing this somewhere in the garden as well... but we all know at the office that she's sending and receiving moonbeams from the mother ship. We even have photographic proof:



So what does this have to do with the next two photos? It looks like Heather has found the Mothership that has been sending Queen Minnie messages out in Middelburg and sent us photographic evidence that the mother ship truly exists.*




a closer detailed look look of the mother ship*

*in reality the mother ship is actually just some very unusual tree shaping structures found out in Middelburg.

Antwerp and Bruges

Antwerp and Bruges

Happy May Day!

Earlier this week Heather has been traveling around visiting Belgium and the Netherlands. From the emails that we had been getting from her seemed like she has been very busy seeing all the sights. Today we'll be sharing some photos from her trip around Belgium.

She sent some photos to us from Antwerp, Belgium. But even while traveling the mind of a designer is still at work and it's reflected in these photos from Antwerp.

Wisteria beautifully climbs up and frames the doorway. It's really lovely to see the wisteria still in bloom and it looks so beautiful in contrast to the canary colored walls.


A statue in Antwerp; the pavement is also very interestingly patterned.


Heather also went to Bruges (which is also in Belgium) as well. All the photos that she sent to us so far are of beautiful flowers blooming and very interesting places of where plants have truly taken off, and other interesting things.

 

Left: Beautiful purple and white flowers blooming; it almost looks like a path way being laid out in color.
Right: Way to make use of a building corner: cut into the corner, lay a beautiful statue and have a small planter for geraniums.


 

Left: Trees will grow anywhere that you let them grow, even in a very random place like here against the river.
Right: A construction site still in action where cobblestones are laid out individually piece by piece.



She sent us a photo of a beautiful Tulip against a background of forget-me-nots. I could only imagine what excitement must have been building seeing all these tulips blooming before even reaching the mecca of all tulips...

Tomorrow we'll be posting up more photos from her visit to Middelburg in the Netherlands.

More photos from France, Paris, Giverny, and Versailles...

We have a small collection of photos that we have received from Heather showing us what she has been up to during her trip in Europe. We thought that we should put them up on the blog to share the beautiful moments she's had out on the other side of the world!  She spent a good portion of last week in France seeing all the beautiful sights. Surprisingly this photo shows Heather's true nature: attraction to plants.



A beautiful Vignette in Paris


Heather also sent us photos of Giverny, one of her favorite places in the entire world. For those who have never heard of Giverny, it's located about 80km north west of Paris and is most well known as the location of Claude Monet's (yes, the painter) home and garden. She sent us a few photos to share with us how beautiful Giverny really is.

A beautiful collection of plants and blooming flowers


Beautiful Purple Blooms by the Lakeside


Lake at Giverny


Tulip Beds


Heather by the Tulip beds


Outside of Giverny, Heather snapped a beautiful planting arrangement at the Carnavalet Museum.


Finally, no trip to France would be complete (for a Landscape Architect) without visiting the amazing Versailles, or Château de Versailles. André Le Nôtre was responsible for the gardening and planning of Versailles during King Louis XIV's rule. It's such a significant place in design history being a monumental step of axial planning that has influenced future city planning and formal garden design. Of course it's also a very lovely place to be in...



We'll be updating tomorrow with some more photos from Europe!

Traveling in Europe

Heather is currently on vacation in Europe and while communication has been a bit rough electronically she's managed to send us a mosaic of photos of her current trip. This is a collection of photos from a few places including Paris, Giverny, Amsterdamn, Antwerp...







We're not exactly sure what she's up to since we're here in sunny Southern California but seeing photos of her trip is rather exciting for us! We thought of sharing them up here on our blog. We're looking forward to some more photos from her trip and we'll post them up here as soon as we get them.