A Sweet Little Fling Garden

View as you enter the backyard

I have been doing some major dilly-dallying when it comes to blogging about my wonderful experience at the San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling. I think it's because I found it daunting to try to capture a dozen stunning gardens, one fun-filled dinner in a conservatory, and two wonderful nurseries, knowing I'll only have enough time to do one or two posts. But with some encouragement from my fellow Flingers I've decided to blog about one of the gardens that really spoke to me - Rebecca Sweet's garden in Los Altos. Rebecca is co-author of the book Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spaces. She's also written numerous gardening articles and is a landscape designer. Above is the view as you enter the backyard from the side and stand on the patio. Wouldn't love you that bouganvillea on the right?

We were fascinated by the beautiful birds in this lovely birdcage

Rebecca's yard is filled with so many charming vignettes, and this birdcage is no exception. I've never seen one like this. And how cool to have it outdoors!

Metal birds and wreath above the birdcage

I realized after I got home and looked at this photo that I must have been subconsciously influenced by these birds because I bought some very similar ones while at Flora Grubb Nursery.

Fountain

Jacaranda blossoms and glass ball in fountain

OK Rebecca, how on earth do you keep your fountain water so clear and clean? Wish I could get that with mine!

Rebecca and her design studio

Hidden from immediate view as you enter the backyard is a little studio that us Flingers salivated over. It is just so darn cute and very personalized. The studio was created out of a former shed. I love the dark exterior and light interior and all the windows.

Path along one side of the studio

Interior of Rebecca's studio, nice and sunny

Tillandsias on the windowsill

Every windowsill in the studio had interesting arrangements.

More tillandsias and some glass eggs

A repurposed fireplace mantel

There were ingenious places to "garden up." And shells here and there.

I was very jealous of all the lovely succulents and agaves I saw in every garden

More succulents and agave

So why did this garden speak to me so much? I think it was because it was another example of a deeply personal garden, something I am very much drawn to these days. And the garden was small enough that I could imagine myself gardening there. The interesting vignettes and tidy space spoke of a loving hand. Thank you Rebecca, for sharing your space and allowing us to dream.

[Notice I didn't once complain about the heat? Inside joke for Flingers. :-)]

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2013. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.