SECRET GARDENS TOUR

The town I grew up in, Guilford, CT, has long been a host for the A Better Chance program.  Their big yearly fund-raiser is a Secret Garden Tour.  This is the first year that I have taken the tour (I purchased tickets last year, but it poured, so my friend and I skipped the garden portion). 

This year my friend Mary and I made a day of it and hit all 7 gardens on the tour.  Mary knows absolutely everyone in town and I do a fair job myself, so we spent a lot of time gabbing with people we encountered on the way.  This is by no means a complete review of the beautiful gardens we saw, but instead what struck my eye as we toured.

Garden #1

Each garden had a secret.  As we approached this beautiful garden via the driveway, our eyes were drawn around the house to the first secret around the back of the house:

It was biscotti and lemonade on the beautiful patio.  I particularly liked the colors that the home-owners used in their containers and the iron finial shaped structures they added -- very cool.  And they told us that their sons did all the stonework as their summer jobs over a period of years.  That Forbes stone is a carriage step from the home that originally stood on this land (it fell into disrepair, was abandoned, vandalized, partially burned down, and eventually demolished to make way for this home and the one next door which was home #2 on the tour):

This stove repurposed as a planter was salvaged from the original house: 

I'm not usually a fan of this sort of country style decoration, but this worked really well: 

Garden #2

I have a personal connection to the second garden on the tour so I am not going to write about it here or post photos of it, but the secret was beautiful photographs by a local artist -- extreme close-ups of flora.

Garden #3

The secret here was paintings in the garden, but I failed to photograph any of them.  We walked down a gravel driveway to these interesting piles of rocks: 

And found this charming patio.  I so wanted to sit down, but I thought that would be in poor taste:

Then I saw their back porch.  Okay, I officially want it.  Half screened in, a swing, the beautiful steps down to a wood deck -- uh yum: 

Mary looked at this tree and said, "Could that be a redwood?"  Then we looked in the program and sure enough, it's a redwood.  I had no idea they would grown in CT: 

In addition to a putting green (not pictured), they have a freaking greenhouse:

A firepit with adorable stump seats around it and a perennial border around: 

How cool is the gate to their veggie garden: 

Their veggie garden was so big and such an interesting shape that I couldn't get it in one photo.  View #1 shows a birdhouse above, tall trellises for beans, and the wavy border on the outside of the veggie garden to soften the edges:

View #2 shows their beautiful broccoli in the foreground and a lovely spot to rest between bouts of weeding in the background: 

Garden #4 

Let me say here for the record that this was a beautiful garden, but not exactly to my taste.  The home-owner is a big time fan of garden kitsch.  It worked here for me in a small way, but it was rarely done in a small way:

The secret here was snacks in the gazebo and oil paintings scattered throughout:

A sampling of the easily 100 stepping stones scattered around the property:

These figures on the picnic table made me laugh: 

This small patio was at the very back of the garden hidden under a tree (the canopy of which did not allow me to stand up straight).  The home-owner said she enjoys her morning coffee here with her cat.  I didn't notice the painted container until I saw it in the photograph.  I'm intrigued by this idea.  It might be a nice way to disguise inexpensive plastic planters: 

Garden #5

I ran into a high school friend at this garden and got to chatting, so I forgot to take photos until we were leaving and I snapped this one quickly.  The secret in this garden was the glass and metal sculptures which were installed the previous day.  I love this one, but there were lots of other ones that caught the light more effectively, sorry I flaked:

Garden #6

Was down a long driveway past another house.  It was set so far back that it wasn't visible from the street.  What a pleasant surprise to walk past a very normal looking split ranch with average foundation plantings to find this:

The house was built 5 years ago and the gardens over the past 2 years.  They've created a lovely perennial border around the side of the house.  Mary loved this object in nestled among the hostas -- a petrified lichen?  Thanks, Maggie, for identifying this as a shelf mushroom knocked off of a tree:

We reached the back of the house and wow, look at that pond!  I love the little seating area, the beautiful fence (must be a talented artist somewhere who created those birds), and the fountain:   

Their cantilevered deck knocked our socks off, but we were all frightened by the lack of railings: 

I'd really love to know how long this weeping willow has been in that spot at the back of the garden.  Between that focal point and the pond, there's no lack of visual stimulation here: 

Garden #7 

I think I was so wowed by the windows on the home in garden #7 that I was shaking, so please excuse the slightly blurry photo below.  This was also the first stone-edged bed that we saw...there would be plenty more:

Just down the driveway to the right we found this outbuilding:

This garden was full of really large focal points: 

This is a sycamore tree and the photo really doesn't do it justice: 

This is around the corner of that outbuilding I showed earlier.  I love the pergola and the escape ladder cracked me up: 

Directly to the left of where I took the above photo was a sunny rock-bordered veggie garden and on its left was a similarly sized bed full of what appeared to be perennial flowers: 

Standing between the 2 beds looking at the breath-taking pond:

Standing on the other side of the pond looking back at the outbuilding:

Standing to the right of the hammock looking back at the house.  The rock bordered bed on the right held tomatoes and peppers:

The home-owner had created these plant tags and labeled almost every plant on the property just for the tour: 

I thought this sedum (I'm pretty sure it was sedum) growing out of the stump was strikingly beautiful:  

Another person on the tour called this a zen garden:  

I climbed up and sat in the middle.  It was very peaceful: 

And stared at this purple smoke bush: 

It looks so different up close: 

Are these sweet peas or some neat variety of pea with colored flowers?  They had an entire bed of whatever it is: 

Oh, the secret here was more paintings, but again, I failed to photograph any of them, and frankly this garden was so vast and the focal points so large, the paintings were a little lost.  We had a ball touring the 7 beautiful gardens and the rain held off until the early evening to everyone's relief.  I can't wait to see next year's featured gardens!

Comments

[Maggie]

not petrified lichen.... shelf mushroom that has been knocked off a tree. Cool stuff, I've got some in my house as a nicknack but I'm strange like that ~grin

[Layanee]

Thanks for taking us on the tour. Great gardens all. Isn't it interesting how sometimes it is the garden that makes the property and other times the property that makes the garden! Loved them all and what a nice way to spend a day.

[Heather's Garden]

Maggie -- Thanks for the information, I've corrected above. And I don't think that's strange at all!

Layanee -- You're so right. My property has definitely shaped my garden (shade, funky soil, renting, etc.), but with some of these particular gardens I think professionals helped out too. They've certainly spent a lot more than I ever will be able to on gardening.

[Kim]

Oh my. I am drooling... and a bit overloaded. I'll have to come by and post something more coherent tomorrow... but suffice it to say that some of these pictures make me want to plow over my garden and fly the white flag! Stunning.

[Heather's Garden]

Kim -- I know exactly how you feel! I haven't been able to get excited about posting on my own humble garden since that eye orgy. It's always held the second Saturday in June, so feel free to book your plane tickets now.

[susan harris]

Wow, thanks for the great tour!

[Heather's Garden]

Susan -- Imagine what a good post it would have been if I had actually been paying attention to taking photos!