Secret Garden Tour Milford Pa 2009

 After weeks of rain, the weather held and it was a glorious day for the 17th annual Secret Garden Tour organized by the Milford Garden Club.

Best stop on the tour, hands down.

 A couple of this years gardens were over the top in displays, space, design, and staging.  I’d guess sculpture must have been the secret theme for this year, as every garden had at least one sculpture, and one had, um, er, what can only politely be called, an over abundance.

For me the actual plants fell flat.  Lots of standards; impatients, straggly petunias, pink coneflowers and a butterfly bush thrown in here and there, with no surprises, making for very predictable gardens.  With all the rain, I was expecting more of a lush Eden.  Never the less, I managed to find something endearing about each garden, and two plants I have never seen before so.  Maybe I’m a bit spoiled after the drop dead plantings of the last couple of years. 

My favorite garden on the tour this year.

 This was my favorite stop.  A very new garden according to the owners, and very, very nicely done indeed.  I was struck by the minimal amount of color, amazing combinations of texture, pattern and repetition in the shrubbery.  This is one of those gardens you want to see again in a couple of years.  One of those places you walk into and get an immediate sense of peace and relaxation, it was a large garden, yet felt intimate.  It had the biggest pond I’ve every seen on the garden tour, just massive, with two, count ‘em, TWO waterfall/streams.  This was in the meditation area, and it was so peaceful, it looked for awhile as though several of us were moving in for the day.

 

 

 

 

 Outstanding texture, everywhere you looked.  Hard to believe this is such a young garden.  And these shrubs, in pics above and below were, outside the fence.  Whatever they are doing to keep the deer away, it is working!  Love the very tidy border of stones too.

 

This is one side of the two falling water streams.  That pond is big enough to be a swimming pond. 

Now on to the statues and such.  The garden below was huge, park like, and had spectacular views.  Another Asian influenced garden, tho’ not as peaceful as the first, spacious comes to mind.  That, and I wonder how many gardeners they have on hand, and could I be one of them?  Please?  Pretty please?

Same as above, different view. Is it just me or does the white arbor in the background kill this for you?

Mean Mr. Moon was hanging from this tree. There was an outstanding view of the Delaware from this garden.

Mean Mr. Moon, hanging from 100 year old lilac tree.

An Indonesian inspired gate. It's difficult to convey the scale in this garden. The gate is huge, the birdbath is enormous.

 

Nice repetition with the urns by the boardwalk.

And below a kitty cat from the Moon Valley Garden.  Wild choice of succulents, I like to see it when it is blooming.

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 Remember the 70’s?  Love Boat, Love Canal, Love American Style?  The next stop, which was our final stop on the Secret Garden Tour reminded me of all three of those.  I kept expecting Hugh Hefner to pop out of one of the love shacks with this month’s bunny on his arm.  Despite the fabulous and probably expensive sound system, my brain was playing and endless tape of the B-52’s Love Shack.  I could only look at Minnesota Man and grin.  With all that nakedness, it was hard to even think about the “hundreds of evergreens, and shrubbery” mentioned in the brochure.   What a hoot.  I’d love to be in on the rehash of this year’s Secret Garden Tour executive meeting!  This is one of those gardens you’ll either love, or hate.   (you may want to preview this if you have small children, or teenage boys, or are uncomfortable with female nudity.  These statues are not  Greco-Roman knock offs, more like flavor of the month turned to stone.)

What I Saw On The Secret Garden Tour

There were some very clever containers on the Secret Garden Tour this year.  I’m borrowing lots of these ideas for my garden next year.

Corn in a pig planter.  Charming, whimsical, and clever all rolled into one.  There was quite the pig theme going on at this stop.

Same stop, not 15 feet away was this gem.  So different from the piggy-in-the-corn, and yet it all worked.  I don’t have the slightest idea what the plantings are here, the tall feathery one in the back looks like dill, or cosmos.  If you know please chime in here!

Elephant Ear, and something that looks like it could be alternathera, maybe purple knight?  Very bold, just demands to be looked at.  Love the limey color with the purple.

Look to the right, more corn!  And yes, more pigs.

Very nice one color container, that’s a caladium & a clematis.  Maybe the common woodland clematis?  I really have to ask more questions next year.  The problem is the actual gardeners aren’t always around, would you stay with a couple hundred people traipsing through your garden?  I’ve rarely had any luck asking the club members about the plantings.

Great color for the shade garden.  And it’s doable too.  Easy plants to find at your local garden center.  In a couple more weeks it will be fetching as the plants fill out and over flow the container.  Unusual container too, and nice the way they lifted it up off the ground, to give it some height.

Huge, but simple planting of impatients on a column of bee boxes! (what’s the proper name for those boxes anyway?)

Completely over the top.  Giant birdbath, or fountain?  I’m not certain but I love the boldness here.  Everyone took one look and went “wow”.