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A MOST LOVELY GARDEN SURPRISE

January 26, 2015

Rarely do I have occasion to see my neighbors’ yards in daylight these days. On weekdays most dog walks happen at dusk or later and on weekends we head to the beach whenever possible. So it was a most pleasant surprise when I spotted something surprising in a neighbor’s yard when stiff winter winds forced us to walk on the road this weekend.

I’m not sure I would have even spotted this gem had I not glanced in the direction one of the dogs was detouring toward, but it caught the corner of my eye.

Do you see it?

How about now?

It’s a small tree that has been spray-painted acid green (the same color, I think, as my obelisk). I don’t know anything about this tree, whether it’s dead or alive (I can’t think spray paint is good for a living tree, but I’ll keep a close eye on it in spring), or who meticulously painted every bit of it.

It’s not in a particularly important part of their yard, which was massively re-landscaped a few years ago, but that’s what I love about it. It’s a little surprise in an area that would be otherwise overlooked.

I love it so much that I’m going to keep an eye out for a dead little tree in our woods that I could do the same thing to.

 What do think about spray-painting trees? Love it or leave it?

garden art paint painted tree
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
12 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

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Comments

  1. Garden Fancy says: January 27, 2015 at 12:45 am

    How bizarre! I've never seen anything like it. Are you sure it's been spray painted?

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: January 28, 2015 at 3:53 pm

      I'm pretty positive. It's the same color throughout.

      Reply
  2. Stephen Andrew says: January 27, 2015 at 4:04 am

    Love it. I'll have to dig through my photo archive and find my red trees. I cut two buckeye trees down (surprise-they grow like weeds here in te buckeye state) and spray painted them red and stuck them in pots by my front door. Ioved them so much. If your acid green is Kryolan, I have a mirror painted that exact color!

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: January 28, 2015 at 3:53 pm

      I'd love to see them! And yep, that's the paint.

      Reply
  3. Ms. Wis./Each Little World says: January 27, 2015 at 4:40 am

    I remember a UK garden photog painted a fairly large dead tree a bright blue. I thought it was fabulous and always thought about trying it when we lost trees.

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: January 28, 2015 at 3:54 pm

      I think I like the idea of bright blue even more than acid green. There is something so intentionally whimsical about painting it a completely different color than you would normally associate with a tree.

      Reply
  4. MadAnne says: January 27, 2015 at 11:11 am

    I love it.

    Reply
  5. Heather - New House New Home says: January 27, 2015 at 1:19 pm

    It's a great way to keep a nice structured tree like this one if it should be dead. If it's alive, I'm not sure what the purpose is other than to create a bright spot in the woods.

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: January 28, 2015 at 3:54 pm

      I'm really anxious to find out what its status is. If I see my neighbor before spring I'll have to ask her about it.

      Reply
  6. Jennifer says: January 28, 2015 at 12:53 pm

    In the dead of winter a "green" tree appeals to me in an artful sort of way. In spring and summer however, it wouldn't work nearly as well and would seem artificial.
    I see you like British gardening shows as much as I do. You have a few that I have yet to see and will definitely watch. There is one good series that you don't have. I've forgotten the series name, but will try to remember to put a link up on my blog in the next week.

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: January 28, 2015 at 3:55 pm

      Well you have a point there. I'm looking forward to watching this area of their yard and seeing how the effect changes with the seasons. And yes, please, I'm always desperate for new British gardening shows, so if there's one I haven't found yet, please let me know about it! I'll keep an eye on your blog.

      Reply
  7. Libby says: January 28, 2015 at 8:18 pm

    I love it love it love it!!! What a great idea. I am thinking about what else could be done. Oh Erin, it's wonderful!

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I fell in love with gardening through container de I fell in love with gardening through container design and it’s probably still my favorite type of gardening. My trip to Philadelphia area gardens was full of so many excellent ideas. For several years I’ve been enamored with clustered pots, but in my opinion they work best when they are able to stand alone in a space. And you probably know me well enough by now to know that as far as I’m concerned, the bigger the pot, the better. Feast your eyes on these beauties and use your zooming fingers to really get into those nooks and crannies. 

Don’t forget to save your favorites because you know you’re going to be looking for them come next spring. 😀

Photos 1 & 2: Amazing container cluster at @longwoodgardens  that works particularly well because of the restraint used in the design. Also how many different ways is the universe going to tell me I need to grow agave before I actually listen?

Photo 3: This was probably favorite display I saw the whole time and of course it’s from the masters at @chanticleergarden This is a master class in texture. It’s also probably not attainable for the average home gardener because it relies heavily on tropicals that need proper overwintering in order to reach a good size. But there’s no reason why I (or you) couldn’t use this as inspiration to create a similar feel with other plants. 

Photo 4: Strappy foliage, bright orange and colorful pots create such a good doorway collection at @chanticleergarden 

Photo 5, 6 & 7: Similar colors were used at a patio doorway at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm home garden. A pot is perfectly framed by an arbor off a side patio. The front entrance has a pink theme (and an amazing feature pot that I couldn’t show here because all my shots are vertical). 

Photo 8: Back to @chanticleergarden where I could have studied this container planting for an hour just to soak up all the detail. 

Photo 9: And while I love a pot with a lot going on, never underestimate the power of a simply planted, gorgeous pot, like this one at @abunting64 garden Belvidere. 

#gbfling2023
I think every garden probably needs a little bit o I think every garden probably needs a little bit of water, even if it’s just a bird bath. All of the fabulous gardens I saw recently in the Philadelphia area incorporated water into them. Here are just a few examples of how lovely these water features were. 

@paxsonhillfarm @northviewgarden @brandywinecottage @longwoodgardens #gbfling2023
Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the vi Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the view even though we all know that most of us rarely take the opportunity to use them. The seating I saw in gardens in the Philadelphia area reflected their gardens and all were special. 

Make sure to share your favorite!

Photo 1:  I adored these perfectly lichen-covered chairs at @brandywinecottage

Photo 2: Great lichen game on this bench at Wayne Guymon’s mind-blowing garden WynEden. 

Photo 3: Perhaps my favorite seating moment of the whole trip was this chair in @jennyrosecarey @northviewgarden . Not only was it perfectly lichen covered (are you sensing a theme here?) but a volunteer cleome was growing right up through the middle of it. Unfortunately this photo of it isn’t grata because by this point in the trip my phone (I didn’t want to use my DSLR in the middle of the tropical storm so I switched to my phone) was getting very grumpy about the rain. 

Photo 4: I’d be happy to hang out on these chairs in @abunting64 ‘s gorgeous garden Belvidere. I loved this space. 

Photo 5: Color was the name of the game on this patio at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm. 

Photo 6: The most original table and benches I saw were at @abunting64 garden. This was a portion of the garden that was actually on the neighbors’ property adjacent to Andrew’s. It had been a vegetable garden but is getting a bit too shady so it will soon have a new life. 

Photo 7: We visited Barbara Tiffany’s Mill Fleurs in a deluge, which is a shame, and dotted throughout the property are examples of her husband Tiff’s amazing furniture. This was, called the Centipede was upholstered and quite different from the others. All were amazing works of art. 

Photos 8 and 9: The @scott_arboretum at @swarthmorecollege had some excellent seating, from brand new @deebenarc chairs to more lichen-covered charmers.

#gbfling2023
*** I can already see that some people do not unde *** I can already see that some people do not understand humor so let me just say this: 1. I was fully aware of the escaped convict situation (I’m an avid follower of the news, which is common for us journalists). 2. It’s ok to laugh about the fact that I’ve missed the Longwood meadow twice through weird circumstances while being a rational adult and realizing that I’m not making light of the situation that led to the meadow being mown. ***

I missed seeing @longwoodgardens beautiful meadow the first time I visited so I was excited to see it the second time. Not so fast! Turns out it had to be mown down during the search for an escaped convict who was hiding out there (at least that’s what I was told was the reason for the mowing). He’ll never see goldenrod the same way again! 😀

That whole situation was really unfortunate for @longwoodgardens (not to mention everyone who lives in the area), which had to be closed for about a week while the hunt was on!
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