Hi GPODers!
Today we’re returning to the gorgeous garden of Jeanne Erdahl in Sammamish, Washington. We’ve seen Jeanne’s garden a couple of times this year (check out those previous submissions here: Jeanne’s Spring Garden and Jeanne’s Midsummer Garden), and each time we’ve seen a little bit of the garden art that is scattered throughout this lush landscape. However, we’ve never gotten a proper tour of some of these fantastic sculptures until today. While we usually focus on plant collections here at Garden Photo of the Day, it’s always a delight to see the art and accessories that inject even more personality and style into a garden, and Jeanne’s garden art collection is a carefully curated gallery.
Starting with our spawning salmon swimming upstream in our dry streambed, with glass bubbles in their wake
Perestroika (my partner claims naming rights for most of our sculptures) is an imposing abstract metal cube, perched diagonally on one corner, which replaced a struggling alpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa, Zones 4–7) near our front entry. That fir was the last of three to succumb to the lowlands of Washington, where they had been unwisely taken out of their preferred mountain altitude.
My most recent acquisition of a 3-foot-diameter ceramic globe, which has nestled happily under the bloodgood maple (Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’, Zones 5–8) sporting many of the same mauve/green colors. Unnamed.
I am always surprised and delighted when our fall cyclamen (Cyclamen coum, Zones 6–9) pop up when and where least expected. One 4-inch pot was planted on a very dry slope years ago, and they have spread into family groupings 10 to 15 feet away from the original planting. Completely disappeared in spring and summer, but they start reappearing around August and bloom happily well into our rainy winter.
Close by, and also at our front walkway, are two rusty hens glaring at each other to see who has the best coat of “hens and chicks” (Sempervivum tectorum, Zones 3–8) thriving on their backs.
This arrival bell was crafted, I believe, from the top half of a diver’s oxygen tank. It has a surprisingly clear and mellow tone that reverberates long after the clapper is struck inside the cylinder.
This is one of my favorite things George has created from found scrap metal. He rescued this bent piece of conduit from a ditch alongside our street, considered it for some months, and then mounted it, along with a few rusty wrenches, on two pieces of cedar, shaped to become a bird and the worm. It’s a much-appreciated handrail going down the stone steps into the backyard.
Our most prized metal pieces are by Andrew Carson (andrewcarsonsculpture.com), the Seattle artist who is the creator of many windsculptures around the Seattle area and beyond. They are superbly crafted of cast colored glass and stainless steel; the glass cups face in opposite directions on each of five separate rounds so that each one rotates in the opposite direction from the one below. The first one we acquired (pictured on an earlier post) is now over 20 years old; has survived snow, rain, extreme winds, and falling branches; and still turns as quietly and smoothly as when it was installed. I got to name this one: She’s Tina Turner. She may turn crazy-fast on a stormy winter day as the wind comes up off Lake Sammamish, or just move at a lazy pace on a quiet summer day.
We know autumn is coming when the clumps of epimedium—another one of my most reliable plants—start turning color. I think this one is ‘Orange Queen’ (Epimedium × warleyense ‘Orange Queen’, Zones 7–9), named for the small orange flowers that hang from wiry stems in early spring.
Thank you so much for sharing your remarkable collection of funky sculptures with us, Jeanne! You and your partner clearly have an incredible eye for art, and I adore how much personality shines through in your garden.
Do you collect any art in your outdoor spaces? From whimsical statues to an assortment of incredible pots that are beautiful with or without plants, we would love to see the ways you inject more of your personality and style into your landscape. Follow the directions below to submit photos via email, or send me a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad.
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