Digging the DIG

This huge rusty iron sphere got on my 'would-love-to-have' list directly... such a presence.

The school is starting next Tuesday, so we got into a serious 'last days of summer vacation - let's make the most of it' frenzy... So despite having last Sunday visited DIG Nursery on Vashon Island near Seattle, which I think must be one of the most charming nurseries on this part of the country, I still haven't had time to post one single photo of it until now. 

More rusty details: repurposed steel drawers were planted with succulents and miniature conifers; you could make a low wall out of these as a divider for garden spaces.

Pots and containers of all forms and sizes; I can never get enough of well-made ceramic pots. Many of these would happily have followed me home, if my budget would only had allowed it...

I've been followed by a glaring sunshine where ever I have been this summer (which is nice from the vacation point of view, but less preferable for taking photos of any further quality), so the pictures here don't do justice to the very pleasing experience of visiting the DIG Nursery. I had heard about it from a friend for a while ago, but as getting there is a bit of a hike involving a ferry trip, I'd unfortunately postponed it to a undefined future. This is a pity, as DIG turned to be just the kind of nursery that I love, with a thoughtful and personal touch to everything on display. Their selection of grasses, succulents and other garden plants is excellent, but what I loved most was their creative displays of pots and vessels of all kinds, from new, sleek and chic to repurposed, buckled and rusty. Sometimes planted with delicate grasses and sometimes with grand conifers, the combinations filling the ground were always interesting and stylish. And even if I'm not usually fond of an overflow of decorative items, I found here quite a few temptations that I would love to see somewhere in my garden...

My youngest daughter got her doggie-fix by playing with Sophia, who was cooling down in her clever house made out of a concrete culvert and complete with a flowering sedum roof.

Cattle feed troughs were used for kitchen gardens plantings, and here a huge one was raised up as a gazebo to provide both shade and protect from rain - a clever and unusual 'farming chic' solution.

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My older daughter, tired from the sun, took fancy in this bright tangerine bench; I loved the sedum-filled rusty steel containers that were hanging on the gabion walls that act as space dividers in the nursery.   

Address and more on DIG's own beautiful website.