June 23, 2025
Y’all, it has been a BUSY summer (and it’s only just started), but I’m excited to begin sharing gardens from the Memphis Fling tour. The Garden Fling is an annual meetup of gardeners on social media, with a 3-to-4-day garden tour, held in a different city each year. I’ve never missed a Fling since it began in Austin back in 2008. It’s an opportunity to see gardens in a different region, take photos for my library, learn about another city’s gardening culture, and meet other garden lovers who share their passion online. I’ve learned so much from this event over the years, plus it’s fun!
I’m kicking off my Memphis Fling blog posts with Linda Pittman’s garden, which we visited on Day 2. In honor of Memphis’s most famous native son, I’m dubbing Linda’s garden the “blue suede shade garden.” Tucked under tall trees, her taupe house with denim-blue accents retires into the background, giving center stage to burgundy Japanese maples, pink- and blue-flowering hydrangeas, and lots of lime-green foliage.
Quirky garden accents — almost always blue — abound, like this ice-cream-parlor chair-turned-planter. A bright-blue grasshopper stake adds a little whimsy.
Linda’s garden shows how a shade garden can be richly colorful. Sure, she has gorgeous flowering hydrangeas, but her foliage plants provide just as much impact, and the color lasts longer. (And no, I have no idea what that pretty variegated plant is. Identifying plants in other regions of the country is not my forte. I’m here for the vibes!)
As I made my second pass through the garden, the sun came out and spotlit an angel birdbath tucked among the plants. Ooh! This is why I like to make multiple walk-throughs in a garden — that and trying for shots without a busload of people in the background.
A wider view. This is the street-facing garden, mind you. What a gift to the neighborhood.
Color from flowers and foliage
Potted succulents are shown off on a metal-mesh garden bench, but what caught my eye is a funny blue-bottle…dog?
I’m not sure what he’s meant to be, but I always enjoy a little garden creativity with blue bottles.
On a Last of Us tree stump, terracotta pots with kindly faces make a friendly welcome.
In the back garden, tree limb people — smartly wearing belts — made me laugh out loud. They prompted a memory of Bedrock Gardens, where in the Dark Woods, tree limb people also lurk.
Eye-catching texture and form in a tapestry of greenery.
More
A blue shed in one corner makes a focal point for multiple paths. Topped with a purple fish and accented with other splashes of purple, plus a white picket fence, it’s a charming feature.
Shade-dimmed seating nooks are brightened with mirrors hung on fences. I always worry about birds striking large mirrors (or unscreened windows) in a garden, but you can hang cords over them to prevent this.
A bottle tree, a classic Southern accent, captures more light.
Another mirror-brightened seating nook
More blue
And more!
A metal-and-glass lightning bug hangs out on a tree stump entwined by a vine.
Back out front I ran into Becca and Teri enjoying the garden.
Rachel was making one of her quick garden sketches — which she did in every one of the 40 or so gardens we visited during the Fling. I was so impressed by her talent.
A redbud frames a garden view. At its feet…
…little red wagons have been turned into moveable planters.
Another shady scene
Dazzling fern
And one last blue-suede moment
Up next: Margot McNeely and Gary Backaus’s stunning, European-influenced garden called Casa Rosa.
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