I had been forewarned by my children that spring had already arrived in Israel. But when I got off the plane and smelled the orange trees in bloom, I knew I was in for a treat. All it took was a few hours of meandering around Tel Aviv, which is a city constantly in a state of bloom, before I felt as if it were late May or early June on the east coast of the United States.
I’ll start with containers since that is our design theme this month. In the picture above and the one below, I caught a view of a street side property with a container perched on a log. Both its simplicity and effectiveness caught my eye. In the first picture, the container is the subject. And in the next picture, it is seen within the context of the garden. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you think that this container ultimately adds something to the design of this garden.
The architecture of Tel Aviv is a funky one: both modernistic and remnants of post 1948 crumbling seaside stucco buildings living side by side. Perhaps it is because of this hodgepodge of architectural styles that windowbox plantings look all the more festive and exuberant, especially this time of year.
Even on some of the newer buildings, where the stucco is a gleaming white, the startling, richness of the beauty of these plantings is captivating!
Without these cascading plants, the aparments buildings and neighborhoods would look drab and sterile. But with the voluptuousness of these flowers, it feels as if one is strolling within a tropical paradise.
And now a few photos of random Tel Aviv gardens that were so reminiscent of English country gardens, that it took my breath away. The three photographed below are entryway gardens that can be seen as walking down the city streets.
On a back street, in the center of a neighborhood park, I came upon a grove of clivias…a vignette that I would never find in the northeast corridor of the U.S. What a delicious surprise…and a reminder of the miracle of nature!
Fran is the author of the highly-acclaimed book, Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening, which Andrew Weil, M.D., recommends as "a profound and inspiring book."
A graduate of the University of Chicago with Honors in Psychology, she is also a gardening and creativity expert, coach, inspirational speaker, CBS radio news gardening correspondent, and Huffington Post Contributor.
Learn more about Fran and get free resources that will help you improve your life at www.fransorin.com.
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