Bowood: Cafe, Farm, Shop & Plant Nursery

In a century old brick warehouse Bowood of St. Louis, MO has a nursery redolent of those in Europe. A shop, below.Cafe, below. Yes, it was YUM. They have their own CHEF.
From the cafe windows, below.
They also sell plants, below. Adore their crunchy gravel paths.
Directly across the street, below,
is their farm. Produce is sold fresh & used in the Cafe.

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If you're in St. Louis, MO do not miss Bowood.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken from the Bowood site. Back from a week in St. Louis, Mo lecturing at their Home & Garden Show sponsored by their Home Builders Assoc. 11 lectures, 4 TV interviews & 2 radio interviews. Bowood was an energizing respite from my busy schedule.

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More tomorrow !

GARDEN SHOPPING

Will stain lattice boxes, wall brackets, & white lantern green to match the rest of the wood in my garden. Chickenwire cloches will be painted Robin's egg blue to match other iron. Tiny blue/white pots, above, were only $1. Bought all they had, only 4.

Hope you already know about Marshall's & TJMaxx for your garden. Granite gravel, #89, along with other bulk materials is available from Stone Forest.

For plants, locally, try: Buck Jones, Land Arts, Wilkerson Mill, Piccadilly, Goodness Grows, Ashe-Simpson, Pikes, Hastings, Habersham Gardens, & the ubiquitous big boxes.

Good pots, don't buy any other kind, are a specialty at Four Seasons Pottery.

Garage sales & rescues are necessary to every good landscape. Scott Antique Market, 2nd weekend each month, helps you create magic in your garden.

Nursery, 4 pics above, I shot in England at an estate garden open to the public. A fantasy. Where we all want to shop for plants, service, accouterments. Instead, gardens come together via hunting & gathering. Much hunting & gathering.

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It's odd, gardening is a multi-billion/yr industry yet so difficult to shop for.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

PETERSHAM NURSERIES & VEGETABLE GARDENS

How landscapes intersect with a home fascinate me. Petersham Nurseries in England occasionally opens the private garden of Petersham House, below. Does your nursery understand the relationship of house & landscape? Petersham's vegetable garden. A seduction. Peter Rabbit feelings, I want to nibble this garden.

Simplicity. Narrow beds to work in easily. Brick path for foot and wheelbarrow. Soil I want to roll in, smell & feel on my skin.

Tree branches & twine ALWAYS trump

store bought stakes & cheap green plastic ties.

If people saw what I did with their trash they would offer to BUY it back.

. No branches? Field gather from neighbor's prunings.

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This peak at Petersham House, landscape & vegetable garden make me want more. I want to see inside Petersham House.

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Does your landscape do that? Ask yourself, Are people salivating to see inside my home because of my landscape?

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photos from Petersham Nursery. Thank you Pigtown*Design for introducing me to them.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

FROST'S GARDEN CENTRE, ENGLAND LAST MONTH

Enjoy Frosts Garden Centre in Oxfordshire. We stopped for lunch and investigating on the way to Kew. Frosts sells everything to create a landscape. Everything.

Instant fantasies about this man? Like how dirty he is? Me too. See a gate in your color in your landscape? Clematis & sweetpeas on the willow wall? Hydrangeas, roses, foxgloves, Dianthus 'Bath Pink' in front?

Corner seat, below, was on sale. Confederate jasmine caressing its roof, cryptomeria 'Yoshino' gracing the right corner, a camellia barely touching the left. A Prunus mume tree blooming......... I can't stop designing.

What's a landscape without fabulous pots? Below, a book with prices and other pieces for special order. Pages laminated. Easy concept. Rarely done in my town. Why?

Lead colored containers, below, are better against a red brick wall than the terra cotta color.

Frosts, below, does it all. They subcontract with Shires, and other businesses, to complete theirs.

The cafe has a separate dining area for private groups to reserve.

It's frustrating to design a landscape for DIY and have no single place to refer you for pots, gates, soil amendments, mulch, plants, patio furnishings, focal points, pond supplies.

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Locally, Buck Jones, Land Art's and Wilkerson Mill Gardens give discounts to my design clients. You must have a copy of my plan. Each nursery run with passion, intellect, dedication.

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Great nurseries, above, but you'll still need garage sales and flea markets to personalize your landscape. Dumpster diving, TJMax and rock rescues are also in the best landscapes.
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Garden & Be Well XO Tara