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| I'm euphorbic! I'm also pretty punchy from lack of sleep. |
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As I mentioned on the Round Table yesterday, our garden won 5 awards--four gold medals and a silver. I didn't mention our theme song, though. Every garden oughta have a theme song. Ours is sung to the Kinks' song "Victoria" and it sings the praises of one of the plants we use throughout the garden: Euphorbia martinii. Sometime in the second or third or fourth straight day of setting up the garden, my friend Mark started singing it, and I still have it running through my head. Like I said, I'm pretty punchy by now. Above the euphorbia photo here, you can see how the lower building roof looks (the statue is actually from another garden). The upper building is high enough that the perforated metal skin atop it is nearly invisible unless you sneak up into the seats around the arena. But it's there, and that's all that counts, right? |
| We started setting up in the Cow Palace last Saturday by building the upper building. Highlights of the day included teaching Shubha the Hokey-Pokey while stomping sawdust down, and discovering that our garden space had shrunk about two feet from the size for which we'd designed. Whoops. | ||
 | On Sunday, we installed the lower building and the walls, then moved the tree in place. The tree in question is a 9- or 10-year-old California pepper (Schinus molle) in a 48" box. We kept the forklift drivers busy on this one! |  |
| The other hot topic of conversation was the mosaic. "Was the tree really supposed to be that high?" "Wouldn't that bury the mosaic?" "Does the mosaic designer know that part is obscured?" The answers: yes, partly, and yes, but she doesn't have to like it. |  | |
 | By the time I left Tuesday afternoon, most of the construction was done and planting had begun. I hadn't planned to return until Thursday when the show opened, but I just couldn't stay away--I wanted photos of the finished garden! So I grabbed my camera and work gloves and returned that night to record all the gardens and help where I could. By then, I couldn't just break my record and stay home Wednesday (the day of the judging), so I came back yet again, took more photos and help dust off the last little stray bits of sawdust here and there. We were done! Time to eat! Gravy's Soul Food across the street beckoned, and a bunch of us retired there to wait out the judging and compare our own impressions of the gardens that had been going up around us. That night, when the doors to the preview party opened, five shiny ribbons fluttered off our garden's sign. |
| Gold Medal: Thomas Church Design Cup - an exhibit demonstrating overall excellence in landscape design Gold Medal: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Garden Award - most successful use of plants in a well designed landscape Silver Medal: Foliage Award - garden which best features plants for their foliage |  | Gold Medal: Pacific Horticulture Magazine Award - garden that best demonstrates the regional nature of garden design Gold Medal: Palette Award - exhibit best demonstrating skillful use of color Gold Medal: People's Choice - favorite garden or major exhibit as voted by the public (awarded to us at the end of the show) |
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As (justifiably) proud as I am of the awards we won, they're just a public recognition of what I knew--and I think everyone involved in the garden knew--that we have something special here. This was a rare instance where designing by committee worked. Every element in the garden, and every person involved in the project was the right fit somehow. And getting to know the people I've been working beside lo these many months is what I really treasure. They--we--are what has made this experience absolutely, completely, undeniably euphorbic. Thanks, guys. Cheryl (next stop: Chelsea!) | ||
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