The cool summer made cabbage the star of the garden this year. This prompted me to contact my drawing teacher, Carol Emmons, from 30 years ago ( my final project was cabbage based), we met again in November in her spectacular art-filled home in Green Bay Wisconsin. It was a happy and inspiring reunion.


The biggest surprise of the year for me was right in my own back yard , so to speak, the City of Bellevue's exhibit "Sculpted Green". The huge sculptures, installed in the downtown park were impressive. This piece by Bernard Hosey called "Round and Round" was my favorite.


Of all the gardens I visited this year I was most moved by the humble grace of Bartram's garden in Philadelphia.


I joined the Garden Writers Association this year and attended the symposium in Portland ( a city I love to go to again and again). This detail from Lucy Hardiman's garden, symbolizes how I felt about this inspiring and downright fun weekend.



I finally return to Elba and the garden I worked in over 10 years ago. It was wonderful to reconnect to the garden and to my friend and the garden's creator, the photographer Hans Georg Berger.