Part 2 Here
The stroll continues to Mr. Jeff's, the Menzer garden.
This very small garden space had major high impact with incredible attention to detail and the seamless blending of art in to the garden. Industrial discards like this metal roofing and blue glass bottles were used to terrace and retain a short steep hillside next to the road.
From what I can gather Mr. Jeff is a gardener, artist and teacher. He and his wife own The Natural Gardeners, a landscape design, installation, maintenance, consultation and coaching business. Alas no website that I could find.
The tiny front yard was made very private with a mixed planting screen along the road.
Green glass bottles were used as edging in the sitting terrace in the front garden. It was functional, attractive and playful.
Old bottlecaps nailed to a weathered fence by the gate leading into the back looked so much like barnacles on driftwood.
An open dormer window on the roof looked out over the side yard, a nice spot for reading and catching a cool breeze on hot summer nights perhaps. Something was crawling up the chimney?
Metal, clay and glass with a groundcover of marbles.
Now this should most definitely keep your bamboo from running. A truly unique and inspired garden.
Gnomon is next.
This is the public garden of metal and ceramic artist Christopher Mello. Again no website that I could find.
Sculpture is placed throughout the garden which is adjacent to his studio.
Black baby heads for sale.
Several miniature dish landscapes were seen.
In the center of it all
The red clay sandbox.
A second theme that I picked up from the garden stroll was that the outdoor space became more important than the plants in them. Yes I saw some interesting plants, but bringing people outside to get them to interact with the environment, to live out there, was a strong element of all the gardens on the tour.
My pictures do not do Gnomon justice. The perfect beautiful day and sunny skies made for horrible lighting. That is my excuse. I highly recommend you go spend some time at Zen Sutherland's Flickr slide show of this garden, a photographer with a magical eye.
The best is yet to come. Wamboldtopia.
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11 comments:
Oh Christopher, you were so close to Brokenbeat's house, he is only a couple of blocks from Gnomon, on the same street. Sunny Point is a must go place whenever we visit Asheville, did you grab a bite? What an amazing, vibrant, young and creative part of town. Thanks for showing all these gardens and how the homeowner's let their own visions develop. Nothing like a landscape, for sure. :-)
Frances
Frances, I actually thought about Brokenbeat and Ashley being nearby while in this garden. Next year they can be one of the gardens on the tour. Be sure to tell them. I'll eat at Sunny Point one day.
Hi Christopher! What a fun garden stroll you took us through. I'm not sure which garden I like the best, but have favorite things from each that stand out. Off to check out the flickr site you recommended, but not sure the pictures will be any better than yours....just maybe from a different perspective.
I'm still enjoying the stroll. Lots of neat things to see.
Opps, love those blue bottles. Wonder where they all came from.
What a great tour, I hope you had fun too. I enjoyed enlarging your photos to see the details. Now I am off to the flickr site.
p.s. the pictures in the flickr site are impressive! I wanted to ask you who sponsored the West Asheville Garden Stroll.
Lola, Mr. Jeff must have a good source for blue bottles because they are highly sought after these days. Maybe he has an in with a glass recycler.
Les it was great fun and did a bit of networking with people in the horticulture business.
Siria, Zen's pictures are amazing a lot. The stroll was put on by a group of crazy gardeners running the thing and sponsored by the West Asheville Business Association and Asheville Green Works. There is a list of 31 businesses on the brochure/map.
I wish I had their incredible imaginations! I look at my "found" objects and can never think what to do with them. I will have to shamelessly imitate. Thanks for these wonderful photos!
bev
What a delightful garden tour Christopher. Just what I needed today. So much to look at. So much inspiration.
Lots of great ideas... Where do people get all those blue glass bottles, anyway.
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