Comments on: Pride of Place

By: Loralyn Bailey McMeans

Loralyn Bailey McMeans — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:29:12 +0000

Curt Slangal:
WOW! Gardening is so perfect for you – obviously – to express your artistic talent! So happy to see you using that medium SO well. Thanks to Jack Dennis for posting this article so all of us McCollum alums can feast on the AMAZING photos of your gorgeous gardening handiwork! Keep up the great work! For those of us no longer in San Antonio, it’s a treat for the soul to at least get to see such loveliness online . . . . . . Loralyn Bailey McMeans (Class of ’74)

By: Melissa Thornell

Melissa Thornell — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:45:26 +0000

Hi Curt! I just happened upon this website – your gardens are FABULOUS!!! If I were moving back to SA, I’d certainly consider buying your house. Hope all’s well with you.

By: Curt Slangal

Curt Slangal — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:02:56 +0000

Hi Ivette & everyone. Thanks for all your kind comments. It means a lot to me to read how much ya’ll enjoyed viewing my gardens. And Ivette I wasn’t expecting such a wonderful blog posting …. wow you know how to do it right! I work in advertising everyday and your posting is great!!!
You sure have the art form down … keep going. And if anyone is moving to San Antonio anytime soon my home will be on the market “it’s a turn of the century home about 100 years of age double lot. My new home is a 1955 ranch style house and has no gardens so I have a clean slate to work with. Thanks again for your wonderful words … and as I always say “go gardening®”

Curt Slangal

By: anna maria

anna maria — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:42:31 +0000

What a luscious, glorious garden! Is that a fig tree in the bottom photo?

By: ESP

ESP — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:40:40 +0000

Hi Ivette.

What an inspiring post!

I love what you said about the owner-inspired-executed garden verses designing one for someone-so true! This post gave me a new perspective as to what can be achieved in the dreaded “hell-strip”! Wow!

What a great job Curt has done, it just goes to show what can be achieved in the heat-baked area we all tend to ignore, and shy away creatively from. I will be reading this again, and again, and probably again.
The corrugated aluminum for the raised beds was a really nice “Texas” look, very classy.
Oh and great pictures of this magical place Ivette
ESP.

By: germinatrix

germinatrix — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:06:34 +0000

Loree! My partner in all plants sharp! Yes, wouldn’t be cool if we could walk around our neighborhoods and see gardens like Curts all over? Where everyone plants what they love, foods that sustains them, and embraces individuality? One day!
I’m learning about designing gardens with personal soul – thanks so much for the vote of confidence, you sweetheart!

Dear Expat! It’s a great garden, isn’t it? I applaud Curt for being so bold … but we can all do this – maybe not on such a scale, but I think maybe even one corrugated feature can do something cool for a garden. It is nice to look at, though even if such a garden isn’t in the cards for everyone, right?
XOXO!

Hi Tendril! What a glorious comment! I’m putting it on my new business cards! It’s funny, because talking to Curt, he doesn’t seem like a ball of energy (even though we KNOW what it takes to keep a garden like that) – maybe it’s because the healing nature of gardening has smoothed out the rough edges and left lovely mellowness behind!
Yes y’all! Ahm a Texan threw and threw! Mwah!

Hi Blake! I have to take this second to pat myself on the back for the first photo. When I saw what the light was doing as I looked at the screen, I was amazed I didn’t fumble and ruin the picture! I am famous (in my own mind) for flubbing the BEST pics because I get nervous! So thank you for mentioning that first pic – it’s special to me, too! I also love me a front yard veggie garden – we want more, don’t we?!!

Darling PETAL!!! I knew you’d love this garden. He’s selling the house – isn’t that a shame? Well, not for whoever ends up buying it! But a garden like this would be PERFECT for you and your upcoming book (big big cheer for the FABULOUS Andrea Bellamy, everybody!). It says ‘Heavy Petal’ all aver it.

Hi Michele D. – you know how excited I get when you comment! Isn’t it funny, that even though Curt is a self-proclaimed naif, he made all the right moves? Everywhere there needs to be a hard edge, there it is – a soft shape; likewise. The paths are perfectly wide while not taking up too much space. The beds are functioning, and have panache. You are so right about the ephemeral nature of a veg garden – if one is going to be front and center, those bones better be in place, and they really are in evidence here. I’m so glad you enjoyed Curt’s garden!

SUSA! Hi 5, friend! I’d be intimidated to keep my front veg garden looking good all the time, but here, using the techniques Curt employs, it seems effortless. I took these pics in the hottest, driest time – and it was kind of between seasons, but look how awesome!
You are right, though – in a place like yours … THAT would be some work!

By: Suasoria

Suasoria — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:52:00 +0000

Those corrugated metal beds are fantastic. What a great garden…and while he clearly puts a lot of time into it (I’m with Jean; too lazy), it is a look that would be achievable for an average suburban yard on a normal scale.

Love that banana in the last photo.

By: Michelle D.

Michelle D. — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:23:54 +0000

A wonder tour of a fabulous garden.
I am particularly taken with the good bones of the garden.
By virtue of its natural nature a vegetable garden is an annual garden that will always be in a state of transition.
Having good sound structure will permanently provide interest and an aesthetic foundation that the ephemeral part of the garden can always rely on.

Thanks for the tour.

Michelle

By: heavy petal

heavy petal — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:44:23 +0000

Amazing! What an inspiring garden. Love the corrugated aluminum – it sets off that lovely palette of plants just perfectly. Wish Stuart was my neighbour – I’d love to photograph his garden for my book!

By: Blake

Blake — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:50:13 +0000

Dude. Seriously amazing garden. I was enthralled from photo one. Thanks for sharing! I absolutely HEART front yard veggie gardens. You go, Curt.