lblanchard | Michael Bruce's Garden

Michael Bruce Florist is one of my favorite exhibitors at the Philadelphia Flower Show, and has also become a friend. Earlier this summer, he kindly offered me a ride to a Franklinville NJ nursery to check out some lovely plants on their open day. Afterwards, he invited me to take a tour through his own very much under-construction garden. He's facing the challenge of gardening on floodplain soil that's almost pure sand. Many raised beds and a lot of soil amendments are all that save his plants from utter extinction. He's also working at extending his terrace, creating garden features out of various elements from previous Flower Show displays, etc. He had a garden open house yesterday, in perfect September weather. I took pictures.

Not enough pictures, alas, so there's no wide shot showing the double row of columns that form the skeleton of a pergola to be populated with twining vines, or the hidden gazebo, or a number of other features. But here are photos from Flickr, mostly closeups, starting here. Click the picture, and then click the "back" (left) arrow to view the rest.

His garden is in New Jersey, a pleasant 3/4 mile walk from the High Speed Line, which as geezers we can ride for $.70 one way. It made for a lovely day.

You can see a whole set of images from Michael's displays, going back to 2005 (I think), here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lblanchard/sets/72157632778466305/