With Helen Dillon, whether you read her books (the latest is called Down to Earth with Helen Dillon) or hear her speak you know right away that she only tells the absolute truth – particularly when she’s talking about her own garden. If you’re not already a fan, Helen Dillon is a gardener and garden writer from Dublin, Ireland (originally from Scotland). She reminded us that Ireland falls along the same latitude as New Foundland and although the climate is much milder, the sun is just as low. She mentioned taking Graham Stuart Thomas around her garden on an “ugly August day”. Thomas she said, was not a fan of strong yellows and it wasn’t until she met Christopher Lloyd that she realized there can be more than one opinion on the matter. Now she knows that “yellow is so luminous. It lights the place up.” But she’s “gone off” dark purple.

Aren’t we all fickle? Over her 70 years as a gardener (how can that be?), Helen has formed plenty of her own decided opinions. And is as unapologetic about changing her mind as we should all be. She has taken out swaths of lawn and replaced “80′s looking” gardens (bit of this, bit of that; one of everything) with a gravel mulch garden full of self-sowers in the front of the house, and a limestone (bluestone) surrounded pool between her famous borders. She planted a grove of birches in her front garden because, says Helen, “I never don’t love birches.” And she has added blues (among other colors) to the red border and reds to the blue border because they were becoming like overworked paintings. She lately wrapped a “smug” cherub sculpture in barbed wire before deciding to remove it altogether. There’s no reason to be overly sentimental about anything in our garden that we don’t still love like we used to.

Her advice on plants was just as much fun. Try arranging teasels after they’re dead – simply cut them down and replant the stalk in a deep hole. – Because why not create an allay of teasel for the winter wind to whisk through? Put sun loving plants like agapanthus, Casablanca lilies, and tall alstromeria – not the squiffy short ones -  in pots (she uses “dustbins” and big black plastic containers with handles) and move them in an out of the garden as they bloom and fade. She may have “gone off” boxwood balls but says that if you want to topiary a holly tree (hers is mushroom shaped) it’s very quick and “you could have a go this afternoon.” She only allows beautiful plants in her garden and considers Sisyrinchium striatum ‘Aunt May’ to be the ultimate of all plants not to grow because most of the time it looks neither alive nor dead. On the other hand, she’s keen on ubiquitous candytuft (Iberis sempervirens) because you only ever need to buy one packet of seeds and after blooming the green seedheads are just as pretty. I’m sold. But then anyone who thinks that the rudest thing to say about a garden is that it looks “manicured” has me at hello.

Have you met Helen Dillon yet in person or through her books and articles? Do you let yourself be as opinionated?

It’s not EVERYDAY that one gets invited to sit in Martha Stewart’s studio audience, but last week a bunch of tickets to the Gardening Show were offered to Blithewold staff. And, honestly now, who wouldn’t want to get out of bed at 2:30 AM in the middle of a vacation to trundle off to NYC with a gaggle of coworkers and compatriots to see Martha her very self in action? Not me, that’s who. (I mean to say that I DID want to go. Mostly. Pretty much. Hey, I went – and went smiling: see for yourself at the 7 minute mark of the final q&a segment of the show – clips are here and Blithewold staff make up most of the second to last row, starting with Gail on the end up to me, wearing signature green.)

I’ve had a lot of time in the last few days to think about the trip (and recover from something kind of like jet lag) and I can tell you that what was most amazing (aside from the bucket of swag we all took home) was the spectacle of Martha’s army in action. There were a dozen or so assistants whose job it was to herd the audience from our line down the block, to the coatroom/waiting room to the studio and then to make sure we were color coordinated in some mysterious way (everyone in the audience was encouraged to wear gardening clothes and there were some wonderful hats and boots!) and bouncers to make sure we didn’t leave our seats. There were dozens more milling around the set moving props, watering plants (the fake greenhouse is full to the gills with live plants), sweeping invisible dust, cooking food, operating scads of cameras, shuffling cues, and giving orders. There was even a court jester whose job it was to make the audience laugh, smile more and clap louder, – LOUDER – then faaaade oouuttt…

I was feeling a little envious – after all, Blithewold doesn’t employ anywhere near the number of staff that Martha Stewart does. But now that I’ve thought about it, our behind the scenes staff, although fewer in number, is just as amazing for being able to put on a live show that never goes off the air or takes station breaks (well, maybe we get a bit of a break starting in January. But we’ll be back soon! Stay tuned. — APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE!… and fade out…)

Do you have an army working behind the scenes on your show?

No matter where a group of gardeners may convene, we will always find common ground and inspiration. This past weekend about 70 of us from all over North America got together in Buffalo, NY for the 3rd annual garden bloggers meet-up. If you’re only vaguely familiar with Buffalo’s riches to rags industrial history, or like me, have passed through without stopping, it might seem like an unlikely city for a garden tour. But, believe it or not, Buffalo is definitely on the map as a rich horticultural destination.

Thanks to our hosts Elizabeth Licata and Jim Charlier (and a gajillion sponsors), we were treated to a sneak peek into a few gardens on the Buffalo Garden Walk – over 350 gardens all over the city will be open to the public (free and self-guided) the weekend of July 24-25. Since 1995, this (non-competitive) tour has grown block by block and become a floriferous symbol of urban renewal and civic pride. In every neighborhood that we went to, there was visible proof of gardeners inspiring neighbors to be adventurous gardeners. I’ve never seen such a concentration of densely and diversely planted postage-stamp sized gardens and am left to wonder if there’s a way to achieve the same feeling of intimacy on a slightly larger piece of property like my garden or even within Blithewold…

We also took in Erie Basin Marina University Test Gardens, Buffalo Japanese Garden, Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, Lockwoods Greenhouses, and Mike and Kathy Shadrack’s (they literally wrote the books on hostas) amazing hosta/hemerocallis garden deep in the woods of North Boston, NY (all pictured below). I feel like I still have a lot to process and learn from seeing these places and hope to revisit them in future posts.

Since there are easily as many reasons to garden – and blog – as there are those of us who do it, the inspiration we can glean from each other – not to mention our surroundings – is infinite. I’m so glad to have had a chance to meet so many compatriots all at once and I’m eager now to see more photos from the weekend and read everyone’s thoughts about Buffa10. For a list of links to posts already written about the event, click here.

Have you found common ground on unfamiliar turf (in Buffalo or anywhere else) and come home inspired?