December 06, 2023

M&F Micro Group Garden Excursions for 2024

Frank Eddy and I, Michael Collins (M&F), have been traveling to England most years since 2012.  Fulfilling a desire to see all these magical gardens we've only read about was the reason for our first trip over there.   But we found something much bigger.   An cerebration of nature and the expression in green spaces.   The UK has a land mass about 60% of California.  But they have 26 million more people there.   They utilize every bit of space but nature is very important to them and make it fit in everywhere.   Since 2014 we have wanted to share that with our friends and colleagues back home.   

This year is exciting because we got bold.  We're offering three distinct tours from three very different parts of England.  Yes each has beautiful folksy villages but with very distinct regional differences.  We've put together a string of gardens to show the history of gardening in England; along with Botanical gardens, Royal Horticultural Society plant driven gardens, and display gardens from some of the most renown nurseries in the UK.

You can't create a beautiful garden if you have never seen one.   

October 18, 2023

White Flower Terrace

 In 2016 we decided to expand the white flower garden around the stairs, which consisted mainly of two iceburg roses and a large viburnum along with the usual annuals, to included the next terrace in front of the studio.  Here we had more real estate to have some fun.  I started adding more as each season came and this year it is looking full.  


May 2023


September 30, 2023

Philly Fling - A Garden Blogger's Retreat

 

Thursday, September 21 

We arrived at Longwood Gardens for an eight hour visit.   Longwood Gardens is large but we are having multiple events for our group of garden bloggers.  First we get a behind the scenes look at their production greenhouses.  Then a slideshow introduction to the currently under construction grand conservatory.  

September 24, 2023

Swarthmore College

Sunday, September 24, another rainy morning.  The first two gardens today were cancelled due to the illness of a host.   Instead, we're off to Swarthmore College campus.  Many big campuses start with a house.   


Paxson Hill Farm Gardens and Nursery

One our last day of the Garden Blogger's Fling outside of Philadelphia and we find ourselves at
Bruce Gangawer’s Paxson Hill Farm in New Hope, PA.  A large nursery with an impressive display garden.

The Gardens of Mill Fleurs


Every garden has something to teach me.   Here we are at the last garden of our four day tour.  The Gardens at Mill Fleurs is located along the Tohickon Creek in Pennsylvania.   We were getting lots of rain from the Hurricane Ophelia and this was a wet visit.  Nevertheless, one I enjoyed very much.  Barbara and Robert Tiffany are the current guardians of this dramatic location.  Barbara, pictured below with the purple umbrella loves to share this space and her stories from the past thirty years creating this garden space.  

Jenny Rose Carey’s Northview Garden

September 23, 2023

Stoneleigh, A Natural Garden


Stoneleigh, A Natural Garden - stoneleighgarden. org

Owl Creek Farm

Steve & Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm in West Chester, PA

September 21, 2023

Longwood Gardens




One of the Fling's two "Superbloom Level" sponsors and also a big destination for the group of garden bloggers, Longwood really delivered.  Thank you for your support.  Our first stop on opening day was the production nursery for Longwood's conservatory.  A Dutch design with eighteen bays each with their own climate control is a dream to grow and a big expense to cover.  Here in September, they are gearing up for their Chrysanthemum Festival in October and November.  

September 17, 2023

English Garden Tour w/ Mike & Frank - Summer 2023

 This is all the gardens Frank and I saw during our travels this summer to England, particularly East Anglia, the Midlands and the Cotswolds area of great beauty.  A quick summary and archive of the post of each garden, park or landscape roadways that caught our eyes.

We landed at Heathrow Airport at 7 AM, dropped off our luggage at our accommodations and headed out to see London.  First stop Saint Peter's Cathedral. 

Reflection Garden - London St. Paul's Churchyard



In chronological order with title linking to the original post.  Please click through to those you want to see more photos.

August 06, 2023

Oxford Christ Church Meadow

 August 6th


outside back window Buttery Hotel
nanny state signs
and London
airbnb in Maylebone
Heal’s staircase 
lunch at Selfridge and co
Harry Gordon

August 05, 2023

Rodmarton Manor - Cotswolds

 August 5th


Lunch at the lamb inn
lunch takes too long

rainy day. 
solidago
field of phalcea californica
metal clip for greenhouse plates
flowers in the kitchen garden
yews planted on the diagonal
peacock topiary graveyard 
birch in the outer kitchen garden
stone buttress 
lichen on birch tree bark
topiary and troughs 
yew urns

August 04, 2023

Rousham - Cotswolds

 August 4th


Rousham
big tree trunks
follies in the distance
old woodland
naturally lit statue from a dark tunnel 
holly and laurels and english ivy
view from seven arches stone colonnade. 
boxwood in natural form
huge deador cedar
Veratrum nigrum
riverside
Dahlias

Lunch at RH England - Cotswolds

 August 4th Lunch at RH

Lunch at RH Aynho Park

massive showroom


August 03, 2023

Kiftsgate Court Garden - Cotswolds

 August 3rd


Kiftsgate
ceanothus blooming in August.  ours go off in Feb/march?
agapanthus and Oleander
bee on honeysuckle
long border full of candy 
lillies dahlias, 
sunken garden
california hydrangea carpetaria
astilbe and anemone 
hot orange border 
7 foot dark lillies
hills and farmland
dinner at the bull on sheep street in Charlbury

Hidcote Manor - Cotswolds

 August 3rd


hidcote
dahlias singles in many colors. 
cosmos
haha
six types of insects on Astrantia
wheat fields
 pillar garden
 fuchsia
 white garden
 11-1:30pm
 aiming for 10am. 
picnic by van

August 02, 2023

Broughton Grange - Cotswolds

 August 2nd


Pelargoniums in terra cotta
aster Monch
tom stuart smith flowering perennials with columns of yews and shapes of hornbeam. 
Banbury countryside
arboretum walk (meadow)
Oak flower
true queen anne lace
Catalpa bignonoides
pleached sycamore
Stumpery
use what you have on site. 
2:00 lunch at fox inn village of Broadwell. 
rarebit with tortilla?

August 01, 2023

Waterperry Gardens - Oxfordshire

 August 1st


agapanthus popping purple
taxus media ‘Greenland’
apples on slant
100 feet of aster trials.  just budding only a few flowers are open
Artemisia ‘Broughton Silver’
Verbena hastata ‘White Spires’
Zauschneria californica
silent garden
Sopanaria officinalis
Achillea ageratum
Agapanthus ‘Headbourne Hybrids’
Kitaibela vitafolia
trained rose over square arches
Alpine troughs

July 31, 2023

The Meadow at Oxford Botanic Garden

July 31 - Merton Borders delighted my eye with its layers of blue, yellow, chartreuse with dabs of pink.   Composed of solidago, eryngium, echinops, mallow, a couple of grasses and tall daisies, this garden was planted in 2011.  It has aged extremely well.


July 30, 2023

Trentham - Midlands

 July 30th


bees on echinops
piet oudolf perennial border
artimesia and stipa
layers on layers of color and texture
agapanthus and knautia
oregano

dino ballotia?
fun to walk maze of trails through out the parterre
slight rain
stachyes and artemesia
allie of weeping elm?
truely a pleasure garden
piet oudolf floral labyrinth
extremely large sweet chestnut planted by Cap Brown
big golden yew
knautia avernes
nigel dunnett

Wollerton Old Hall - Midlands

 July 30th


English weather? Partly Sunny with chance of rain
driveway conifer specimens
Agapanthus’African Skies’
Salvia yangii ‘Bkue Steel’
white agapanthus
small rooms of all sorts of themes
who’s the driving force behind garden

Dahlia NoID
seating in every room showing off views lile this white garden on display.
two square pyramid yews
garden growing wilder moving away from the house.
birch and maple
simple stake and rope plant support
candy content goes up as you walk to the house.
purple and red clematis, rose and buddlejia
plenty of seating
locerna honeysuckle
this is a good garden to bring people.
cute lavender geraniums
yellow clematis
more seating and formal.
yew dots!
heliopsis ‘bleading heart’ looks like dahlia
the plant of the week.

July 29, 2023

Mayfield Park - Manchester

 July 29th


salmon street fish market northern quarter 
lunch NQ
Mayfield Park
Monty Don filming
grassy meadow with flowering perennials. 
slide spanning river Medlock

July 27, 2023

East Ruston Old Varcarage - East Anglia

 July 26th


white agapanthus frank likes
lots of walking 34 acres on double hedges 
full cottage garden mess
i like how there’s no maps, signage or labels. 
more of a mystery fun to get lost. 
large rooms with apple and liq amber
long hallways of green
bees and butterflies on lysmatchia 
open 12-5 lunch 12-2 tea after. 

Sheffield Botanical Gardens - Midlands

 July 27th


botanical gatdens july 27
garden of pooled talents
sheffield botanical garden
city park feel used by neighbors 
long row of glass houses sorted by exotic places. 
plant labels
175 yo? sequoia g. 
petrified stump
prairie garden 
squirrels all running towards me. 
Agapanthus coddii 
fuchsia pink
healthy red maple
shard sink for watering 
double central flower border. 
cast iron water fountain 

The Garden of Pooled Talents - Sheffield

 July 27


Sheffield Botanical Gardens

July 27, 2023

city park feel used by neighbors 

long row of glass houses sorted by exotic places. 

plant labels

175 yo? sequoia g. 

petrified stump

prairie garden 

squirrels all running towards me. 

Agapanthus coddii 

fuchsia pink

healthy red maple

shard sink for watering 

double central flower border. 

cast iron water fountain 


Sheffield - Grey to Green

 


Part storm water and pollution mitigation and removal of impermeable concrete areas and plant out with shrubs, trees and flowering perennials.


July 26, 2023

Pensthorpe - East Anglia

 July 27th


millennial garden Piet Odorf
natural reserve with flowering perennial 

July 18, 2023

English Garden and Nursery Tour

 It’s finally here.   Headed to SFO in a couple of hours for our flight to London.   Frank and I have been planning this trip since February and we both excited the time is here.   Below is a rough outline of our path staring in London, then to Oxford to pick up a car, couple days scouting food in the Cotswolds, then a loop East to Suffolk and Norfolk.   Then up to Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham and back to Oxford where we change car for van and pick up our guests in Bicester.  Our formal five day tour of the Cotswolds gardens starts.   Based out of Deddington, we will be visiting Broughton Grange, Hidcote, Kiftsgate, Rodmarton Manor and Rousham.  After the tour, we head back for a couple days in London and return home in San Francisco. 



May 15, 2023

Introducing My Newest Cottage Garden

 I have been working this tiny front plot for about five years now.   I have slowing been planting new layers of flowering plants in the Potrero Hill garden.  New addition this spring is the ruby red Ixias in the last couple of photos.

April 28, 2023

Eastern California and Owens Valley

My friend and fellow gardener Jeannine decided to take a quick 4 day road trip to Benton Hot Springs in the far eastern part of California.  Our trip started from San Francisco and since the snow pack from our stormy winter is still present all the passages through the Sierras were closed.  We had to go up highway 50 to South Lake Tahoe to catch US 395 in Nevada.   

US highway 395 follows the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada range.   From this prospective you see the sharp peaks of this mountain range. 

Upon leaving the hot springs we decided to take the southern route home via 178 along the Kern River through Bakersfield, west along 46 to Paso Robles and finally up US 101 to San Francisco, a eleven hour drive.   The wildflowers photos are at the end of this post.


April 16, 2023

Dearborn Community Garden

 

This is my plot in the nearby community garden. It is a raised bed 11 feet by 8 feet or so. This year I am testing some new plants. A layer of bulbs including: Allium schubertii 'Arctic Snow', A. Schubertii, A. aflatunense ‘Purple Sensation’, NoID Hyacinthoides (Spanish Bluebells), Freesia, Sparaxis, Narcissus ‘tête-à-tête’. A second layer of self-sowing annuals Papaver dubium subsp. Lecoqii ‘Albiflorum’, Lobularia maritima, Nigella damascena, NoID bread seed poppy and Atriplex hortensis var rubra (Purple Orach).

March 16, 2023

March 13, 2023

Repotting Bay Topiary with Root Pruning

 The multi-tiered topiary in the middle of this photo is a Bay Leaf tree that I've been training for maybe 10 years now.  It is currently potted in a large Airpot which makes pruning its roots easy.  


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