Garden Tours

For a gardener, a garden tour is a wonderful opportunity to take a look at another gardener’s vision. Last week, I got lucky and did it several times.

On Tuesday, along with some other friends, we visited a Master Gardener who had just hosted the garden wedding of her granddaughter. This garden could be in a magazine or on a fact sheet for how to layer plants to grab your interest.

I think each of us on the tour was making a mental list of what to move in our own garden. A couple of take aways were to pay close attention to the garden backdrop, height of your plants, and there’s definitely more interest in plants grouped together than planted individually.

I’ll share a couple of photos, but a professional photographer would be needed to truly highlight the beauty of this garden.

Handsome lichen covered bench

Beautiful rose

Side garden

Over the weekend, a friend and I took advantage of a local first annual town garden tour featuring over a dozen homes and community gardens. These gardens were an eclectic group that with one exception were all home owners expressing their individual gardening interests. The town is hilly and rocky so it was interesting to see how people handled those challenges.

One home owner made a rock wall, while another gardened on a rock wall. The plants that seemed to be the predominant choices by all were roses and clematis in every type and color. There were also fascinating pieces of garden art, sheds, a handsome fire pit, and well placed seating opportunities.

Arbor on side of house for visual interest

Stunning Catalpa tree in bloom

Handsome fire pit

Gardening on a hill taken to a whole new level

Nice shed

Lovely side garage planting bed

Visual interest at a driveway turnaround

Seeing friends, enjoying fun conversations, and visiting all these gardens made for a good week.

On the weekend garden tour, one of the stops was at a professional landscaper’s home. As we finished our chat with her, she said we should make sure to stop and say hello to her friend on the front porch.

There on a small table was her pet rabbit, Cinnamon. She has a little pad to sit on, one to sleep on, and a small box with ears on top to rest in.

After stopping to pet and admire her, we moved on, but she kept me smiling all weekend.

Happy Monday, and I hope you all have a fabulous last week in June!