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”.

Milford Pa Secret Garden Tour – The Dirt!

 

Today was garden tour day, a time I look forward to all summer.  Throughout Milford pink balloons and flags sprout over night marking the houses selected for this years Secret Garden Tour.  This is followed by crowds in hats, carrying water bottles and sporting hot pink wrist bracelets and bright pink maps.  And the ladies of the garden club with their nifty flowery t-shirts. 

Minnesota Man went with me this year.  We had an enjoyable, albeit hot time, checking out all the gardens, visiting with friends, and he even bought me lunch, plus he took all the photos and he is way better with the camera than I am.

There were so many nice plantings and clever ideas, I’ll be busy all week blogging about it!

Once again, water features were prevalent.  Every house had at least one water element, some had three or four.  Here they are in no particular order.

This is the other end of the pond in the first photo.  I love it.  I like the way the water flows simply from the rocks, no giant path, no meandering brooks, it is just right there, very open and inviting.  This garden is only a year old, and I cannot wait to see it again.  It has great ‘bones’.  I love the use of space and paths.  Splendid now, in a couple of years when the plants ‘leap’, it will be a showcase.

 

I have been wanting to do this for years!  I’m guessing it’s cast from an Elephant Ear plant.  Also guessing the shallow dish with sand and round rock is not a Zen element, but for visiting butterflies.  This was in the butterfly garden at Remembrance Place.   

Inviting isn’t it?  Check out the detailing in the floral tiles around the edge of the pool.  Hard to believe, but the gardens here were so completely over the top, that I barely noticed the pool.  (more on those later, I’m still coming down from that visit!)  Oo, oo, and they floated a clear tray with a cool drink.   No detail was overlooked in this spectacular garden.  The plantings were top-notch, and I enjoyed all of the staging.  It was like walking into a magazine or a movie set.  Every gardeners fantasy.

Very traditional birdbath in a wildflower setting. 

Same garden, funky buddha, I like the bas-relief dragonflies on the edge and the way the buddha is aged.  This is my favorite buddha by the way, the happy buddha.  I think I may have the same one in my garden.

Again, same garden as happy buddha and wildflower birdbath.  This was a large yard and the gardener had lots of room to play.  The agricultural water tank had a varied selection of aquatic plants and there was a nice, gurgle/bubbling sound.  I’m really picky about the way water features sound, I can’t stand the sound of water hitting plastic, or running too fast or dripping in that way that reminds one of torture.  This was pleasant, and the close enough to the patio area to be relaxing. (yes, I resisted the urge to yank out that yellow dead leaf.)

I think the homeowner must enjoy the sound of this water feature.  It’s just off his screened in porch.  I asked fellow garden spy (stranger) who was coming out what his thoughts were about this garden.  His observation?  Cozy, homey and approachable.  The house looked that way too, the garden was a good extension of the house then.   This was number 8 I believe.  Nice touch with the mossy Japanese lantern.

There were two interesting and very different birdbaths at No. 5, I’ll show you this one, I’m saving the other for another post.  What I like here is the very simple common pachysandra combined with this rather ornate, there is an intricate pattern in the bottom that is hidden by the water’s reflection. and unusual birdbath.  I’m pretty sure that’s cast concrete, it matched perfectly with the stone in the house and stone throughout the garden.

Coming soon, wine & swine!  Also a look at the multitude of paths, and areas of rest.