I recently visited the beautiful gardens at the Filoli Estate (which is preserved by the National Trust for Historic Preservation) in Northern California. It is located 30 miles south of San Francisco.
Filoli is a 654 acre estate filled with classic English Country gardens. The estate is broken up into garden “rooms”. There are formal gardens, kitchen and vegetable gardens with espaliered fruits, knot gardens, a very large cutting garden and several greenhouses.
The gardens are always changing. The National Trust keeps each garden room in shape by constantly changing out the annual flowers. No matter when you arrive, there are many things to see in bloom. It makes for a fun trip…Even if you have been there before.
Although this is a huge estate, there were many garden design elements that can be utilized by us small home gardeners. One element that I noticed Filoli uses throughout the garden is the use of pots. Almost every garden room had steps leading into or out of the enclosed space and those steps were always lined with clay pots.
The flowers in the pots do not have to be spectacular on their own, but when placed in mass, they really made a statement.
It is a simple technique that is quite effective.
About the Author
Theresa Loe blogs here about taking the garden full circle while striving for a more local, fresh-from-the-garden lifestyle. She is a TV producer, video host, freelance garden writer and a wrangler of chickens and children. (Not necessarily in that order.) For more information on these topics, you can subscribe to her free monthly newsletter.
Theresa Loe is the award- winning Co-Executive Producer & Canning Expert on Growing A Greener World TV. She blogs here about Living Homegrown®, local and fresh-from-the-garden. 
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