Some years ago a good friend of mine introduced me to one of the Pacific Northwest’s horticultural icons, Nancy Davidson Short, who served for many years as the Northwest Editor for Sunset and created a diverse, rich landscape around her home near Seattle. While touring her garden I was drawn to one of its most unique features: the fern table.
A sturdy structure, it borrowed the dimensions of a large dining-room tabletop — three feet by nine feet — but stood just about two feet high. A pleasant arrangement of rocks, moss, thoughtfully placed perennials and slow-growing shrubs covered its surface, but its crowning glory was a choice selection of exceptional ferns. Their soft textures and flowing forms tied the table garden into the surrounding space.
Nancy gave credit for this creation to a dear friend of hers, George Schenk, a well-known garden-book author with a keen ability to use plants
