Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Other People's Gardens

It is garden tour season, and this year I've indulged in several.  Opening a garden to scads of visitors is a terrifying experience, but visiting is a sweet pleasure.  Someone else has done the weeding, planted the containers, deadheaded the roses.  It is vaguely decadent, balanced on the tightrope between inquisitive and nosy.

Come, let's peek...

A formal garden with lettuce used as an edging plant. The edible landscape goes high end.

An undulating line for a flagstone walk and boxwood hedge. Simple but so effective.


A massing of boxwood and alchemilla makes a statement for a formal entrance.


Where do they put the banana trees in the winter?


A stunning long view.

Punctuated by a perfect pot of sempervivum (hens and chicks).


My favorite herb garden, on a sunny front stoop.


But it's hard to beat a mature stand of specimen trees. If you look closely, you can see the Dove Tree (Davidia involucrata) in bloom.


Time for tea.

3 comments:

Vicki Lane said...

And somehow I have the feeling that that entire garden is absolute perfection -- perfectly weeded, trimmed, and mown.

I particularly love the last picture - wild nature gently refined.

Marta McDowell said...

I console myself with the fact that for many (not all) of these gardens, perfection has been achieved by the infusion of capital and hired help.

The last picture is of Watnong Gardens, the home of a lovely woman, Helen Donn, who has arranged for her town, Parsippany, to turn it into a public garden after she's gone. If you're ever up Jersey way, I'll bring you there.

Vicki Lane said...

I'll remember that! I'm getting to know a fair number of NJ folks!

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