Bee Simple at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show

Bee House
Photo by Doug Gochanour

2018 Northwest Flower and Garden Festival: Garden Party

30th Anniversary, February 7-11 

Washington State 

Convention Center 

705 Pike St, Seattle 98101

Tickets  

By Victoria Gilleland

One of the best things about a visit to the annual Northwest Flower and Garden Festival is the inspirational ideas, which we gardeners can adapt for our home gardens.

One of the most dramatic displays used limited colors with structures and decorative items.

Susan Browne Landscape Design with “Bee Simple!” develops a dramatic yellow, black and white color scheme with flowers, structures and decorative elements to honor our friends, Bees.

The cottage, which is painted bright yellow with white trim, is repurposed from last year’s display. A ‘Country Party’ is in progress on the patio. Galvanized Tubs surround the garden offering plenty of space for plantings.

The ‘Bee Simple’ garden highlights bee-friendly plants and will host live demos about honeybees’ contribution to our food and environment.

Honeycomb Gate
Photo by Doug Gochanour

Take Away: For a given area of the garden choose a limited color scheme of three or four colors and or a theme and stick with it. The results can be dramatic as they are with this ‘Bee Simple’ display garden.

The Bee theme is developed very nicely and complemented with a very special Honeycomb-Bee Gate and decorative “bee” items.

Galvanized tubs are an excellent vehicle to use as raised beds and/or as barrier beds in the garden. 

They work especially well in the vegetable garden and generally seem appropriate in that setting. The tubs are portable, inexpensive, durable, and come in a large assortment of shapes and sizes.

Drill some holes in the bottom, place the container in your garden, add the appropriate planting mix, and you’re ready to grow!