Author’s Funky, Project-Filled Garden

Here at Homestead we’ve just finished our three-day Book Event - with author talks, demonstrations, recipe- tasting and book-signing.  As promised, it’s time for showing off the Seattle garden of one of our featured authors – Lorene Edwards Forkner.   On Friday we showed customers how to make very cool-looking garden fireflys, one of the dozens of great projects in Lorene’s book Handmade Garden Projects.

Found objects and Gabion column.

Now about Lorene’s garden.  I was one of about 70 gardenbloggers invited to Seattle last summer to see some of its very best private gardens, to network, and to have tons of fun, and Lorene’s garden was one of the highlights of the event.  As you can see, she practices what she preaches, filling her garden with many of her own creations, or simply found objects used to fun effect.  The result is totally unique garden that reflects her exuberant personality – love it!

Knot-garden-planted wagon, and statement of the gardener's credo.

Lorene’s raised deck is enlivened by multi-colored flags, like those seen around Buddhist temples.

Above, more Gabion columns, used on the left to create a seatwall and on the right, a side table.

Lorene's "garden retreat" is an old Jetstream trailer.

Lorene greeting her guests, and Lorene's book.

All photos by Pam Penick from this blog post, except for the photo of Lorene by Dee Nash from this blog post.