Don't miss Keeyla's talk in LA!

This September, Keeyla is giving a talk about Sustaining Spirit with Color and Whimsy!   Don't miss it!

Event:      2010 Pacific Horticulture Symposium 

Where:      Ayers Hall, L.A. County Arboretum & Botanic Garden in Arcadia/Pasadena, CA

When:      Friday, September 24th at  10.15am 

Sustaining Spirit with Color & Whimsy

Friday September 24th at 10:15 am
Ayers Hall, L.A. County Arboretum & Botanic Garden

How much more whimsical can you get than turning gardens into gigantic works of art you can walk into and be a part of? From adventures in a blue pear fountain, a strawberry paving, or even painted shovels, Keeyla Meadows will inspire you to transform your gardens by being wildly colorful, artistically playful, and energetically resourceful. She shares her expertise with a "try this, try that" attitude that engages the imagination - whether you are making decisions about design or selecting specific materials for your garden. Keeyla likes to focus on garden spaces as works of art to eat in, meditate, or to be colorfully sublime. There's one answer for all these gardens: "Raise it up!" For this she has developed planters and wavy cement containers to shape and create wildly imaginative garden spaces. Along with her simple principles for creating and using color in space, she will share these techniques and demonstrate with some fabulous images!

Speaker

Keeyla Meadows

Artist & author, Fearless Color Gardens

For more than 20 years, award-winning designer and artist Keeyla Meadows has been creating original, surprising and inspiring gardens. She runs a full-scale landscaping company and operates an art gallery in the San Francisco Bay area.  The New Leaf and Sculpturesite galleries represent her artwork.  Her garden has been featured on national television and in Sunset, Metropolitan Home and Fine Gardening.  She won the Best in Show 'Golden Gate Award' at the 2001 San Francisco Flower & Garden Show.  Her latest book, Fearless Color Gardens, was released by Timber Press in November, 2009. She is also the author of Making Gardens Works of Art: Creating Your Personal Paradise (Sasquatch, 2002).  She holds a BA from the California Institute of the Arts, a MA in sculpture from the Univ. of California at Berkeley, and has completed post-graduate studies at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Keeyla has made extraordinary contributions to the gardening world, as she teaches how to turn a gardener into an artist, and a garden into a work of art.

www.keeylameadows.net

Please see their website for more details on how to attend and register for the event.

Hope to see you soon,

Keeyla

Park Day School Garden Tour - A Success!

We started with the idea of "Figs & Flowers"...now the picture is complete!

It's another good day sunshine. While the Parkday School Garden Tour of 12 wonderful gardens still lingers and winds through your imagination, take a moment today to stop and smell the flowers.

Megan and I both had a great day in her garden. We enjoyed seeing you there, answering questions about names of plants. Polka was a favorite rose, chartreuse philadelphus a favorite show stopper, ixia a new bulb for many and cerinthe, the bluey shrimpy flower was one that a lot a people will head out to their local nurseries (If you are local, head out to Annie's Annuals or Berkeley Horticultural Nursery)to purchase and find a place in their own gardens.  Please see Megan's note below about her thoughts on the Park Day Garden Tour.

Cerinthe

I want to remind you garden lovers that my home garden will be open this Sunday from one to four. Not at this moment to be compared to these show ready gardens, but still worth a visit.

Thank you to you book buyers. Mrs Dalloway's is a great place to pick up Fearless Color Gardens; as now is a good time to be planting your garden.

Paint-a-Pot:  Keeyla's pots are for sale!

Please join Keeyla as she holds a pot-painting workshop at Filoli Garden show on May 8 at 1.30pm.

This morning also found me waking to an alarming note as the buzz I heard inside the Secret Shadows of the Tour on Saturday and Sunday were about not enough tickets to sustain the tour in the future. This saddened me since I've been a part of the tour for a long time: I've always loved looking forward to seeing new gardens each spring, having a space for local designers and homeowners to share their work, be a part of a gardening community, and also feel connected to a school and community where I have felt that gardens and gardening are part of the heart, soul and expression of a whole community. 

Gardens are important and an important part of the education of children. Earth day this past weekend celebrated her 40th anniversary, and it made me think how great that here is a school and community so connected to the earth through her gardens. Gardens teach kids about nature, food source, the relationship between plants and insects, and between plants and animals; they are a source of art and expression, a source of crafts, a source for the study of science and the list goes on. So yes, I felt some alarm as I had these whispers of the end of the show confirmed.

Those of you who feel moved to action by contacting the school I hope you do.

In the meantime, I'm sure that there is much to take from the tour to inspire you in your own garden celebration and efforts.

Happy Gardening,

Keeyla Meadows

Note from Megan:

Wow! That was fun. What a treat to see the garden light up the faces with huge smiles of everyone that came to see it. That was a key goal for sharing our garden. Some people came back twice and many lingered for quite a awhile asking questions about plants, the process of making a garden and just expressing pure joy. Ian’s rock work was much admired as were all the flowers and color combinations and of course Keeyla’s pots!! Lucy hung out with me Sunday morning chatting to people and answering questions about the garden. She was astounded at the number of people that filled our small garden. I hope people got inspired at what you can do in a small urban garden space and get busy creating their own magical gardens!

Secret Gardens of the East Bay this weekend!

It's about to happen! Tell the sun to shine, rain to stay away. Megan's made her garden completely into a show garden. All the planning, purchasing, planting has come to fruition. As we headed down the homestretch to the EAST BAY SECRET GARDEN TOUR, I sent Megan some questions about the process of preparing the garden. Here she is with a long list of answers. 


I am giving a talk on color at the Park Day School on Sunday April 25 at 1pm.  Mrs. Dalloway's will be selling FEARLESS COLOR GARDENS at the school.  Come and get your personally signed copy.


Hope to see you Saturday (April 24) or Sunday (April 25) this week for the tour. 


Happy Gardening, Keeyla

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q & A with Megan 

What are you looking forward to with the Secret Gardens Tour?

Being able to share how beautiful the garden looks right now.  Hopefully people will be inspired to transform their own urban plots into a garden paradise.

What do you look for when you see other people's gardens?

Being inspired by new planting combinations.

What plants are the most satisfying to you right now in your garden?

I LOVE the heucheras. They provide all the color of flowers but in foliage form. There are new colors each year with yummy names like Crème Brulee and Peach Melba. We went crazy adding new heucheras for the tour.

Which area or color combination in your garden is the most interesting/exciting/stimulating?

The garden to the left of the fig bench is a particular favorite garden area. The shades of orange and yellow are bright and cheery all year long.

Which color combination makes you feel peaceful and serene?

I love the shade garden along the side of the house. Chartreuse, salmon, white, yellows. I love gazing out the kitchen window as I wash dishes and see the hummingbirds flittering in the abutilon.

Why do you want to grow plants that you can eat?

Cooking is a passion. Nothing is better than being able to walk out to the garden and gather ingredients for a meal.

What is most frustrating to you about your garden?

Too little space for vegetables. I’m considering replacing the blue bed with all vegetables.

In what ways have you seen the garden come into Lucy's life?

Lucy has been in the garden with me since she was a baby. At 6 months she would sit by my side as I gardened, picking up the lava that is in the soil mix. As she got older she created fairy houses made of flower petals that she laid out carefully on the “fairy rock.” Her friends call it a Cinderella garden. As a child I imagined having a flower garden and I love being able to provide such a beautiful place for her to play and imagine.

In what ways has having a garden transformed your life?

Gardening and cooking are my two passions. They are my creative outlets and as someone who spends her work life on a computer, they provide a much needed connection with what I find important in life. Spending a day gardening or cooking a meal for family and friends is my idea of the perfect day. At the end of it you have something of beauty to appreciate and share. When I’m stressed out, all I need to do is gaze outside at the garden and I’m instantly calmed.

In what ways has the garden influenced your relationship to color?

When we put our first garden in over 13 years ago, I gravitated towards paler colors: light pink, lilac, pale yellow. Think romantic impressionist colors. Orange, red, chartreuse were not colors I would have asked for. When we did the back yard a few years later, we added a lot of orange. I fell in love with orange then and it was and still is a prominent color of the backyard. It’s a feature color in our new kitchen. It was seeing what Keeyla did with her new garden that truly opened me up to hotter color combinations. The redone front yard is maroon, butterscotch, and mustard. It’s much splashier.

In preparing the garden for the upcoming tour:

What new plants are the most interesting to you?

The heucheras as I mentioned earlier are by far my most favorite additions.  They are just spectacular.  

New color combinations?

The hotter colors in the front yard and the maroon that was added to the dogwood garden. 

Your garden has many containers.  How do the containers work to improve, or express the garden?  How do the containers work with the house and the space?

Containers, more than anything, are perhaps what has inspired me more than anything about working with Keeyla.  They provide height and art to the garden and it's astonishing how many plants you can fit into one container.  Planting up a beautiful container is something I learned from studying how Keeyla plants containers.  This year for the tour I finally splurged and bought one of Keeyla's custom art ceramic containers.  I love it and would like to add more to the garden as budget permits. 

It's Spring...

Open Gardens this Sunday, Aprill 11 at 1137 Stannage Avenue, Albany CA

How are you? It is spring. The flowers are good...between downpours that is. My garden is open this Sunday. Lilies and roses are stepping up to the plate, 'eyes' still shut -- but maybe we will have blooms by Sunday and definitely by May. You are invited. 

Keeyla's Paint-a-Pot workshop at Annie's Annuals

There are planters for sale in the studio. Most of the planters from the garden show are sold and getting repositioned:  new plants, new gardens. Planters do add a lot to your garden. On that note, I will be teaching a paint-a-pot workshop at Annie's Annuals Spring Extravaganza. The workshop is titled "How to Do It, How to Plant it", and it's this Saturday April 10 at 11am. Check out her website for more info.

My new book, Fearless Color Gardens, will be on sale and available for signing.

Secret Gardens of the East Bay 

If you miss the Annie's Annuals event, there is always the Secret Gardens of the East Bay Tour on April 24-25 (last Sunday of April).  The website is here.  Megan's garden will be on the tour. The plants are looking amazing and then we are adding a truckload of Color today. Yesterday, Megan and I stopped for a picnic between nurseries to get hand-signed bottles of wine and we had a wonderful at B Winery. Our plant search for color was 100% a success story with Heucheras being the color stars. Foliage rules in shades of creme brulee and peach melba. We had fun.

You are invited to the Color party.  More containers with plants to match. 

Bring your cameras for all events.

Looking forward to meeting up with you on garden paths this Spring...

Be Colorful, 

Keeyla

Keeyla's Upcoming Events - Don't Miss!

Visit Keeyla at

SAN FRANCISCO FLOWER and GARDEN SHOW 
and
OPEN GARDEN DAYS

While Keeyla is gearing up for the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, we are also going forward with the first OPEN GARDEN DAYS this year.  The garden hasn't come into season yet but we are still open for visitors in a few weeks!  


OPEN GARDEN DAYS 
Sunday, March 7, 1-4pm
Sunday, March 14, 1-4pm 
1137 Stannage Avenue, Albany, CA 94706


Just a reminder:  Please be careful when walking through Keeyla's gardens - as it has been raining, the floor is at times slippery and the ground might be uneven.  Watch your step!


Don't miss Keeyla's fantastic showpiece at this year's SAN FRANCISCO FLOWER and GARDEN SHOW.  

2010 San Francisco Flower and Garden Show 

San Mateo Event Center

2495 South Delaware Street, San Mateo CA 

March 24-28, 2010

Wed-Sat:  10am-8pm

Sun:  10am-6pm

Keeyla's Seminar:  

"Fearless Color Gardens:  A Guide to Jumping Off the Color Wheel"

Friday March 26, 2:15pm, Meeting Pavilion 

Followed by Keeyla's Book Signing at 3pm 

Get a copy of Keeyla's book at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore in Berkeley!

Please visit Keeyla's Garden at the Display Gardens Area!

This Year's Garden:  Habitat Dance with a Red Snake

The purpose of this garden is to focus on a red-headed snake, the San Francisco (peninsula) Garter Snake, which iis on the endangered species list. San Mateo COunty is the habitate of this snake. The colors of this snake - red, turquoise, and black - inspired the material sections of this garden. I want to bring attention to the beauty of this snake as it represents a threatened habitat with all its diversity and importance. The snake feeds in the wetlands and suns itself upland. This garden points out that both we and the garter snake depend on our environment for survival. This garden is about gardening for the future to protect our habitat, teaching children about food sources, having space for mediation and social space, increasing awareness of native plants, and indeed being inspired by nature to design features that help maintain and respect the natural environment and our place in it.

See you there!


-Keeyla

SFGate / San Francisco Chronicle Features Keeyla!

Artist got the blues - and put them in garden (link)

Joe Eaton,Ron Sullivan, Special to The Chronicle

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

   
Click For More Images...

Westerners used to go to Morocco in search of sex, drugs and Paul Bowles. Keeyla Meadows, though, was drawn by a color: the distinctive blue that artist Jacques Majorelle used for objects in his Marrakesh garden.

"I saw Majorelle blue in a magazine and totally fell in love," she writes in her new book, "Fearless Color Gardens: The Creative Gardener's Guide to Jumping Off the Color Wheel" (Timber Press; $27.95). Three years later, she flew to Marrakesh: "I had never planned to visit Morocco, but that blue really struck a cord. That blue has inspired many a garden creation for me and others."

It became the "seed color"- the color around which others are organized - for a sanctuary garden that received an award from Sunset magazine.
In Meadows' own Berkeley garden, Majorelle blue is just one fragment on a whirl of color. A sculptor and painter as well as garden designer, she's filled the space with multihued statues and mosaics, complemented with flowers and foliage that talk back to the artworks.

There's a serpent in this paradise, tightly coiled in the pavement. "I've been working with a lot of snake motifs," Meadows says. "Snakes are fitting for a garden. I love the way they move, flowing with the ground."

Her fascination goes back to her childhood in a Southern California canyon, surrounded by reptilian neighbors: "I once showed my mom - my very powerful, fearless mother - a harmless garter snake and she screamed and fainted dead away."


Trained as Sculptor


Academically trained as a sculptor, Meadows said she got her start in gardening in the 1970s from the late Lester Hawkins and Marshall Olbrich, who ran Western Hills Nursery in Sonoma County.
"I got an education on plants from Marshall and learned how to do landscape from Lester. Lester was an artist, and I basically learned how to plant out plants from him. He helped me get a trust in my intuition, follow a visual rhythm."

Whatever her design motif, her work is drenched in color. She pairs royal blue with chartreuse in one corner of her garden, and surrounds cool blues and turquoises with hot red flowers and paint.

"The whole relationship to color is to take permission from the flowers," she said. "That's part of the foundation of this color book. Allow yourself to have the same kind of attraction to flowers that birds and bees do. Use that as your authority and permission."

Meadows' book, lavishly illustrated with her own photographs, offers basic guidelines for designing with color: pick a principal color, then work with harmonious and contrasting shades. She explains how it works: "I pick a hardscape piece with a certain color palette and harmonize plants with those colors, matching it up to flowers and leaves that give me a flow."

She pointed out the purples in a ceramic planter and the burgundy leaves of ornamental sweet potato and heuchera: "You're pulling colors through an area by making a color stream."

In a playful tone, she offers readers exercises for becoming more comfortable with color: keep a color journal, experiment with paint chips, visit a museum. Instead of the traditional color wheel, she likes to work with a "color triangle" with a primary color (red, blue, yellow) at each apex.

"The strong point of my book is it shows how to apply your color palette - the seed color and harmonious and contrasting shades - to space," she said. That means setting up the garden as a series of pictures, each with a strong focal point and a visual frame - a painterly way of looking at things. (Meadows cites Monet as a primary inspiration, but says she's also influenced by Matisse, Miro, Mondrian and Gaudi.)

No Room Outdoors

She's not happy with the fashionable notion of the garden as a series of semi-enclosed rooms: "As a child I wanted to be out of the room and outside. There are a lot of ways a garden can function as rooms, but I prefer to see it as a connection to nature. We have a reciprocal relationship with plants. You give to a plant and it gives back to you."

Embracing color can have benefits beyond the garden, as Lynn Simon of Montclair discovered. When Meadows designed and installed the garden at Simon's home, Simon became involved in the process. "The experience altered my approach to colors in other spheres of my life, encouraging me to introduce color elements to my home, and even the way I dress."

Meadows is aware of the tension between design principles and intuition: "When I started the book, I was just, 'Trust your intuition.' Well, that's a stopper. I had to look for some principles to follow. Once readers start to feel their own connections and their own path, they can discard that. When you follow your intuition, surprise is part of the equation. You're going to do something you weren't planning, and you're open for surprises to come in. Mistakes are steppingstones onto a new path."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fearless Color Gardens: The Creative Gardener's Guide to Jumping Off the Color Wheel by Keeyla Meadows

(Timber Press; 2009; $27.95).

Keeyla Meadows Gardens + Art: keeylameadows.net.
Check for spring and summer open-garden dates.

Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan are naturalists and freelance garden writers in Berkeley. Check out their Web site at www.selbornesurveys.com or e-mail them athome@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/20/DD941ALIP1.DTL

This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Read Tom's Review of Fearless Color Gardens

Buy it now for $27.95. There's free shipping, as always, for orders over $30*.

If you haven't encountered Keeyla Meadows's unique approach to gardening before, prepare yourself it might come as a shock. A good shock. When I first visited her Bay Area garden, in the early 1990s, I was living in prim-and-proper Boston, where restrained good taste reigns supreme. What I saw in Keeyla's garden astounded me: color everywhere bright color, subtle color, clashing color, harmonious color, audacious color; in the plants, in the furniture, in the artwork, in the pots, even in the paving! Why, that sort of thing could get you locked up in the stocks on Boston Common! (I exaggerate, but not much.)

I was shaken to the roots of my post-Puritan being. This, I thought, was West Coast anarchy at its most anarchic, a moral and aesthetic affront to all right-thinking gardeners, a slap in the face to restrained good taste.

And then I thought, Why not? Why not yield to the heady, sensuously intoxicating pleasures of color? Why not throw off the mental shackles that keep us from straying beyond the boundaries of "safe" garden design?

Why not indeed. There's just one little problem: How do you get started? I'd like to suggest that you start with Keeyla's new book, Fearless Color Gardens: The Creative Gardener's Guide to Jumping Off the Color Wheel. Not only is it bursting with brilliant examples of exuberant color from Keeyla's own garden, it's also filled with easy exercises to help you unleash your own creativity and help you start having fun with color. Here are some examples:
Keep a Color Adventure Journal
Draw a Triangle and Practice Visualizing Colors
Write a Poem or Paragraph about Blue
Make a Color Bouquet
Have an Adventure with Paint and a Brush

If you let Keeyla lead you through her amazing world of garden color, you're bound to emerge a better, more creative, more exciting gardener. Unless, maybe, your favorite color is beige.

Tom Fischer is Editor-in-Chief at Timber Press
and former Editor of Horticulture magazine.