By Teresa Woodard
Wild blackberries, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways – by the handful, piled in a lattice-top pie, baked in a shiny-top cobbler, frozen for smoothies and cooked in a jam. How are you enjoying the season’s fruits? 
Swiss chard is a great edible ornamental for the front yard.
By Teresa Woodard
Turf wars are nothing new for Tamar Rudavsky and her husband, Richard Brody. For 25 years at their former Worthington home, these Boston transplants battled over grassy lawn space for their kids versus a lush vegetable garden.
Rudavsky, a philosophy professor at Ohio State University, gradually gained ground on the debate as their children grew up. Her gracious husband, a protein biochemist, gave up more of the lawn. But in 2006, when the couple became empty nesters and as they were purchasing a smaller home in Clintonville, Rudavsky negotiated a front yard vegetable garden because the backyard was too shady.
“Within two weeks of moving in, I dug up the front lawn and planted my first fall crops,” she recalls.
Rudavsky may have been a front yard gardening pioneer six years ago, but today she finds herself in the midst of a revolution. Her sentiments are strong. “I think lawns are ridiculous,” she says. “You have to tend to them, water them and fertilize them, so I’m not convinced that this is how people should use this space.” To read more, see the complete story at Columbus Monthly.
By Teresa Woodard
Inspired by interior design ideas at a recent homes tour, I realized several could work just as well outdoors:
Black furnishings and accents add drama outdoors.
Lattice print fabrics for poufs, cushions and pillows fit perfectly in a garden setting.
Industrial castoffs and architectural salvage become even more charmingly aged outdoors. Here, industrial containers for flowers, a milestone as a fountain and ceiling tiles as wall art.
Decorators are inspired by many shades of gray. Give a deck, patio furniture or shutters a fresh look with gray paint.
Indoors or out, metallic finishes can be paired beautifully with organic elements.
Gladiolas and crocosmias
By Teresa Woodard
Imagine a river of blooming geraniums winding through your garden. At the keynote presentation at last week’s American Public Gardens Association conference, nurseryman Adrian Bloom shared his signature “river” designs. He’s created these rivers at his personal garden, “Foggy Bottom”, in Bressingham, England, as well as several garden installations he’s led in England and the United States.
Conference attendees got a chance to view one of his “river” installations at Ohio State University’s Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens. In just one day in September of 2005, Bloom led a team of 100 volunteers who transformed a 4,500-square-foot space into a dramatic garden showcasing 1,800 donated plants which were selected for their year-round color and interest. Here, his “river” features plantings of Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and Imperata cylindrica ‘Red Baron’ (Japanese blood grass) that flow through the garden and cross one another in the middle. Key plants are repeated along the rivers to lead visitors’ eyes diagonally through the garden from corner to corner.
Here are some of his tips for adding these dramatic river elements to a garden design:
