Thursday, May 2, 2013

New Meaning To The Term "Friendship Garden"



     While researching garden blogs on the internet some time ago, when I started writing GardenEnvy, I came across Organic Garden Dreams, a blog that featured beautiful roses. But I admit that it also caught my eye because the architecture and topography in the photos seemed familiar to me. 
  

The white stucco and palm trees


together with a backyard pool and the view of the mountains looked like it could be a garden in my home town.  I read a little bit more and, indeed, it was a San Diego garden; so I started following Christina at Organic Garden Dreams.

"Our Lady Of Guadalupe"
I was interested not only because of her beautiful roses and her post about pruning them, but because Christina appeared to be a bit of an Anglophile and a fellow San Diego garden blogger. We had a few things in common.


Orchid
After months of reading each other's blogs and posting comments, we decided to have a meet up at Starbucks. We bonded over tea and coffee, gardening and blogging.  Until I met Christina, I didn't personally know anyone as obsessed with gardening and blogging as I am. A couple of hours flew by as we shared about digging dirt and making back links. 

Calla Lily
A friendship blossomed.

"Sweetness"
One bloom led to another.


"Our Lady of Guadalupe"

 She even hooked me up with a great organic rose fertilizer and some powerful (but odor free) fish emulsion with seaweed extract that caused my strawberry leaves to at least double in size, and now I have more buds and blooms on my own roses than I ever had!



So it was only a matter of time before we would agree to photograph and blog each other's garden.


"Our Lady Of Guadalupe' rose
And Christina's garden is a lovely one at that.


Roses are her favorite plant; she has lost track of how many she owns.



 She is making plans for a new rose bed for these specimens collecting on her patio. 


She has numerous palms planted by previous homeowners and her north county garden in San Diego sits on a hill overlooking a canyon.  Her garden is prone to strong winds and it certainly was windy the day I photographed.


If a garden reflects the personality of the gardener then this garden speaks volumes about Christina.


Her garden is neat, tidy and carefully tended.




She likes the colors blue

Camellia
and white.



Her favorite is this David Austin rose, "Marie Rose."

And, as her blog implies, she is an organic gardener who is careful about food she chooses for herself as well.  She is gentle in other ways, I noted, as I watched her hand pick a snail from her plant and walk it across the street where she let it loose in an open green space.



About six weeks ago I visited the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego and I remember thinking later about that name, "Friendship Garden." Other than the name of the Japanese garden, it didn't mean too much to me then.  But since I met Christina and photographed her garden, now I have new meaning to the term friendship garden.  


This is GardenEnvy.

Copyright 2013 by Jeannine. All Rights Reserved.


8 comments:

  1. Christina's garden is beautiful and I'm glad to hear that friendship has blossomed for the both of you :)

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  2. Beautiful. I am just wondering how they keep the dirt out of the pool.. I have plants and roses around the pool and spent four hours trying to get the dirt out...will write her and ask.

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  3. What a beautiful post. I have never met Christina, but I thoroughly enjoy her blog, and her sweet personality shows in her posts. Your photos of her garden are wonderful, and it's not easy to take photos when the wind is blowing. So nice for you both to have found a real-life friendship in each other.

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  4. Dear Jeannine, thank you sooo... much for this very lovely post about my garden! You have portraited the garden (and me!) in such a kind way, I feel really touched. Please know, that I am very happy that we met in person and can share our love of gardening, blogging, traveling, and on top of that have started to become real friends.
    Christina

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  5. Christina's garden is beautiful. I especially like her Marie Rose. I also have gained new gardening friends through my blog, something very special I hardly anticipated when I started posting.

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  6. A beautiful garden with stunning roses..and a new friendship..isn't it wonderful what food and nature can achieve in life?
    Ronelle

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  7. A true friendship garden indeed and a stunning one at that...the roses are simply amazing in their beauty. You captured her garden perfectly.

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  8. What a beautiful post. :o) Meeting people who understand our passion for gardening is one of the benefits of blogging.

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