Our First Blog February 3, 2009
Our first couple of blogs will be about our participation in the Rhode Island Flower Show. For several years now we've helped other people create displays for the show, but this year, we are building our own. The theme of this year's show is "Gardens of the World." Inspired by the beautiful stonework of Scotland and the artwork of Andrew Goldsworthy, an English artist whose outdoor sculptures (found mainly in Scotland), our display focuses on the use of native fieldstone and using natural materials like vines, twigs, and stone to create garden sculptures. Not only are we building a display that we hope will be visually unique and interesting, but we are also hoping to draw attention to the use of sustainable materials.
A section of stone wall starts to get constructed
After a weekend of digging out our stone from under piles of snow, we were finally able to begin building our display. Although our original plan was to build outside, one of our clients, Manny Barboza, of M. Barboza & Sons Roofing & Sheet Metal Company, Inc., was kind enough to let us use their heated garage space to work. The idea is to pre-build the most intricate part of the display, label it, take it apart, and put it back together... we'll let you know how that goes. We are still missing a keystone, the stone that anchors our entire structure together, but there has been so much snow on the ground that it has been hard to search for the right piece.
We are also trying our hand at forcing some of our plants. This is a learning experience! Our witchhazel already started to pop (2 weeks before the show), the pussy willow is showing positive signs of “waking up” but I fear we waited to too long for the fothergilla (which, by the way, is taking up half of our dining room). More to come.
