Our gnome garden, a collaboration of friends.
We celebrated an arts festival in our neighborhood this weekend.
A courageous group of friends organized this event in our community. We have had lots of help and encouragement. We will now be writing thank you notes for days to come, to express our appreciation to all of the many people who lent a hand.
It has taken months of planning, many days of preparation, and countless phone calls, visits, and emails to bring this dream to life. Even friends who were out of town for the weekend helped us prepare.
And it was worth every minute of effort. What beautiful artwork and inspiring music we enjoyed on Saturday! Timothy Seaman blessed us with his beautiful dulcimer and flutes throughout the day.
If you have wondered why posts to Forest Garden (and responses to you comments) have dried up in recent days, now you know why.
Last minute preparations a few minutes before opening Saturday morning.
Not only did we organize the show, help cook the community dinner, and plan an arts area for the children who attended; we also had a table of our own as participating artists. You see, ours is a community blessed with artists. Many in the show are also neighbors, or former neighbors, family and friends.
One of us is a photographer and calligrapher, another a sculptor of miniatures.
I made the hypertufa pots and grew some of the plants in them. Our sculptor friend and I collaborated on the gnome gardens.
We planted them together and then she has brought them to life with her intricate and lifelike miniatures.
The variegated, fern-like plant is Brass Buttons, Leptinella squalida “Platt’s Black.” It likes partial sun and stays this small. Perennial, it is able to stand up to heavy foot traffic when planted around stepping stones in the garden. The background plant is a sedum. It prefers sun, but will survive in partial sun.
She created families of little gnomes; beautiful bistro sets sculpted from leaves; tiny animals to live in the gardens; fairy parasols; and magical little accessory like golden bowls, baskets and pestles for the gnomes’ use.
We made four of these little gnome gardens to exhibit on Saturday.
Daughter of friend, who created the wonderful little wishing stones for the gardens, ran our booth while we were managing the show and the meal. Totally a team effort!
And while last night I was too exhausted to string words together, after a day of recuperation, it may be safe to attempt posting a few photos to the web for you to see what we’ve been up to in our forest gardens lately.
Peacock Spikemoss, Selaginella uncinata, prefers shade and most soil It will remain a small plant, but many varieties will drape over the sides of containers. Seen here behind the golden bowl, it is a good filler plant in pots and is hardy to Zone 6.
The true highlight of the day was the appearance of Barbara ,author of Silver in the Barn, her husband, and two of her furry little ones; who drove in from points west to visit for the day.
She, who is absolutely delightful to chat with, ventured that I look nothing like what she imagined. Somehow we recognized each other and had a great laugh together and a short visit.
She brought me a beautiful gift of irises from her garden, which will sink their roots into our Forest Garden tomorrow. What a beautiful surprise, thoughtful gift, and unexpected pleasure.
And now with the show receding into the mists, it is time to return to the garden.
I have irises to plant, a new raised bed to build, and a family of gnomes to welcome… treasured gifts from friends.
All Photos by Woodland Gnome 2014
Forest Garden 
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Good morning, dear Woodland Gnome. Yes, indeed, it was tough to figure out just who in the crowd looked like a little cartoon gnome – my only clue! It was such a treat to meet you – I thoroughly enjoyed the art show, the chicken dinner, the tour through your lovely garden, and my visit to Forest Lane Botanicals. And now I feel I have a new friend!! Thanks to your dear dad for the free art print. And now I have my very own hypertufa Garden Gnome pot!!!!
By the way, I have nominated you for the One Lovely Blog award. Check out today’s post.
Thank you, Barbara, for spending the day with us in Williamsburg. I hope you enjoyed Forest Lane Botanicals, and found something lovely there for your garden. You do, indeed, have new friends. We both enjoyed your visit so much. Had I been home for the garden tour, you would have also left with your choice of the cane Begonia starts rooting on the patio, if you have space for one. Makes me that much more eager to plan a trip to visit your garden one day soon. Thank you for coming, and for solving the mystery 😉 So glad you enjoyed the day. You four are always welcome visitors. If you fly down, we can pick you up and have a proper visit. Best wishes, WG