18 Noteworthy (Strangest?) Gardens

I like peeking into other people's gardens so when my co-worker Whitney Rideout (you know her as Gardenia nutii) sent me a link to a collection of the world's most noteworthy (aka strangest) gardens and landscapes, I was intrigued.

As it happens, the Eureka, California garden of Amy Stewart, author of Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities is one of the 18 gardens. I'm very excited to announce that Amy will be appearing at the 2011 Yard, Garden & Patio Show, February 18-20 (you heard it here first!). She also is a founder of Garden Rant, an intriguing and active gardening blog.

Also appearing in the list is Portland's own 1000-year-old, wind-toppled Douglas fir from the Bull Run watershed—the municipal watershed of Portland—and all the fungi and flora that had started to grow on it. This "garden" grows in front of the Oregon Convention Center. The tented irrigation system pulls from the Bull Run watershed, which means the massive Douglas fir is drinking from the same source it was more than a millennium ago. Very cool!