Hi GPODers and Happy Monday!

We’re starting the week off in Oregon, in the garden of Karen and Randy Hopson. Divided into different sections, but all flowing together harmoniously with Randy’s incredible metal sculptures and structures. In less than a decade the couple has been able to create

We moved to our current garden in 2015 and started from a totally blank slate. The ornamental beds are planted with drought tolerant conifers for year round interest and shrubs and perennials and annuals to attract birds and pollinators, highlighted with my husband’s beautiful metalwork. In the lower garden are metal raised beds that provide a bounty of vegetables and cut flowers. Karen Hopson

Here are those fabulous metal garden beds that Karen mentioned. Unlike some other metal raised beds, which are treated and coated to avoid rusting, the rusty look of Randy’s designs give the beds a more natural look. So much so, that if you look quickly, you might mistake them for darkly-stained wood.

As Karen alluded to above, their gardens are on a pretty serious slope (thus the vegetables beds in the “lower garden”), so there were some additional challenges in creating all this garden beauty. Retaining walls create more level planting space while a wide path allows for easy access to explore and enjoy the gardens above and below. As you follow the path you also see Randy’s incredible metalwork sprinkled throughout.

To bring some plant life to the gravel paths and retaining walls around their home, annual containers offer a wealth of foliage textures and pops of color. The contrast of the the grey stone with the many greens of the plants that fill the space

Lastly, Karen and Randy’s gardens becomes even more magical with a glistening layer of snow. While Karen highlighted the drought-tolerant conifers, there is a perfect array of small trees, shrubs, and perennials that create various structures perfect for interest in this more subtle time of year.

Thank you so much for sharing your serene space with us, Karen! You’ve done so much and created so much beauty that it’s hard to even imagine what your landscape looked like before. If you have any old photos, it would be fascinating to see the extent of the transformation.

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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