Lessons from the Master Gardener Walk

Lesson #1: take friends.

Lesson #2: take a camera.

Lesson #3: document the things you saw that might help you with your own yard projects, and promptly forget everything else :)

I like the idea of fencing the backyard from the driveway. It's something I'd like to tackle in my own yard soon.

Hibiscus! Beautiful, glorious, hibiscus. Gotta keep it in a pot this far north, but maybe I love this flower just enough to bring it inside every winter.

Hanging baskets on fences. I have a long, long back fence that could use a little more interest.

Mulch paths defined with log portions. Something to think about.

It's called "Indian Pink" and it grows these bright colored flowers in deep shade.

This is a stone walkway with something besides grass between the stones. Doesn't need mowing.

Allium. First time I've ever seen it. Apparently, this firework of a flower pops out of the ground in spring with no leaves whatsoever. It's just a 12-24" stick with a big, blue pom pom on top that turns into a stiff little brown flower and stick that stays around until you cut it down. The current trend is to keep the brown bit around a bit and spray paint it silver or gold or something else dazzling. My friend tells me she saw someone paint them red, white, and blue for the 4th of July. How have I never seen this before in my life?

I like the row of annuals in front and a row of taller perennials in back with a mix of colors and textures in between.

I just obtained a hardy kiwi vine which tends to grow like a honeysuckle. These folks plopped their honeysuckle in the middle of the grass and turned it into a neat focal point. It's something I'd like to consider before planting my kiwi vines along the cedar fence, especially since the kiwi can grow up to 20' in a single season (optimal conditions, of course, but still a daunting possibility).

I forgot to take my phone to every garden on the walk, so I asked my friends to take pictures of a couple things for me:

• I finally pinned down the name of that neat little spiraling arborvitae shrub I've been curious about
• One gardener put up a tall, beautiful fence about 6 feet in from her actual property line fence to create a hidden place to store stuff and work on all the messy bits of gardening (wheelbarrow, compost, mulch, extra pots, odds and ends). I would LOVE to carve a niche to tuck away all of my garden's messy bits somehow. It was such a seamless setup!