A Clever Winter Garden

Bright sunny Witch Hazel.  

On our visit last weekend to a potential wedding site, we stumbled upon an interesting garden. I had seen photos of the buildings online, but was a little surprised to find this garden. In January there isn't a lot blooming, but there was yellow Witch Hazel. 

There were a few deciduous shrubs with buds ready including the one below. It had no leaves, but tight clusters of buds at the end of the stems. I posted the photo on Instagram and the nice folks at Cultivators Design & Landscape told me it is Edgewarthia (very fitting). I don't believe I've seen it before. After looking it up online, it appears to also have pretty clusters of yellow flowers.

Edgewarthia 

The garden is called The Herb Garden and is laid out formally. A plan of the site notes that it contains "herbs, fruits, flowers, designed to attract hummingbirds and butterflies". It also shows off a few 'salvage garden' elements.

Pipes used as containers

Bird houses and a roof top garden

Bed frames ready to trellis the garden bed

I thought this garden was pretty interesting in the middle of winter and would love to see what they do with it in the summer. We are going back for a "tour" tomorrow, we may have to go back later in the year just to enjoy lunch and another look at the garden.

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My word for the year is Gratitude.

Today I am grateful for:

bird watching from inside the house 

a coffee date at my favorite coffee house

an optimistic vet visit yesterday

making happy long-term plans

and

making my favorite gluten free recipe