This was quite a long weekend of garden touring for me. Hang in there, this is going to be a long post. My friend Jen and I took Friday off from work and trekked east along the shoreline to Stonington's Gardens by the Sea. It was quite hot and quite sunny so the pictures aren't as good as they could have been, but here goes:
If you clicked the link above you discovered that the Stonington Garden Club only produces the garden tour every three years, but wow, do they do it well! Great signage from the highway, people directing traffic, convenient parking, and then lovely markers like the one above at each stop. A really good map in the program and a mile loop with 10 gardens made for a wonderful tour. I think all the gardens had a few of these laminated hand-drawn diagrams, but I didn't take pictures of all of them:
I also saw a few differences from the diagram to the actual garden (if I was reading it correctly), but I imagine they had to prepare these pretty far in advance and you know that gardens are an ever changing form of art. I loved this little corner of edibles:
And the almost hidden entrance to the shed:
She had some beautiful perennials blooming and some interesting sculpture, but there were so many people in the small garden that it was hard to take photos:
On to garden 2:
I love begonia escargot. If I ever find it cheap, I might add it to my garden:
This lovely arch led to a small edibles garden:
With a compost heap and the first stunning honeysuckle of the day. It wouldn't be the last:
Garden #3, I love how all the containers are similar, but not exactly the same:
Another garden diagram, I suspect the owner of this garden may be the artist behind the diagrams, but that's just a hunch:
Based on the studio straight ahead as we walked in:
This made me want to paint, and I don't know how to paint:
This is something I saw a few times, a hydrangea in a container. I didn't think they would grow in a container, even in a large one like this. Or could they be treating them like annuals:
I love this spot, everything from the bench to the watering can to the containers to the coleus in the bed:
And this hanging planter -- yum! And the shelves with a grill tool, garden gloves, and hat -- yes please:
I'm always interested to see how people treat a fence. Ivy and boxes of coleus -- I approve:
I'm not sure what this is all about, maybe masking a piece of equipment? It's given me ideas though:
And on to garden #4 we went with the masses:
Get ready, this one's gonna be good:
I could tell I was going to like this garden right from the beginning. Japanese ferns and dogwoods are two of my favorites:
And on the right side of the driveway a really lovely container planting (adore those black and yellow petunias):
And we weren't even in the garden yet! Through the gates we went:
And there was the best part of this garden, the view:
But it was rivaled by this pergola. The shell sink, the large earthen pot, the face planter, it was all fantastic:
I even turned around and photographed it from below:
The rose people were really excited about this pretty little garden...not a rose person, so I didn't get any closer than this:
There were beautiful stands of lavender (much more my speed):
I walked out to the edge of the seawall and photographed this seating area from there. If you were sitting in the chairs you'd be looking directly at the water:
Then I turned and photographed the neighbors' gardens too:
Back up by the house there was a wonderful stone patio. The chairs were unique, the containers striking, and the fireplace just set me over the edge. Not to mention the privacy screening:
The chairs were carried over to the porch. The colors were so much bolder in real life:
I loved the containers so much:
Even leaving the view was nice. Privacy screening again with a perfect gravel driveway:
Poor garden #5 had big shoes to fill:
This is how jaded I was getting, I took two photos of this garden and neither of them included the water view (well, any more than this pic does):
And the other is of this blessedly shady spot which I was too polite to invade:
We had reached the halfway point and were now heading back in the other direction. But first we found a shady spot for me to sit down for a few minutes. The sun was intense. Garden #6 had better have a lot of shade:
It did, but honestly I don't remember what else it had. Some lovely perennials and this pretty water feature:
The other side of the garden was full sun and I was keeping my head down looking for more shade. Luckily Jen was looking around because she spotted the most beautiful climbing hydrangea on the neighbor's chimney:
Garden #7 was another showstopper:
I think this diagram was done professionally, probably by the person who designed the garden, which if I recall correctly it was redesigned 4 years ago:
We entered to a line of people staring over the side of deck. Huh? What could be drawing their focus:
Oh yeah, that's stare-worthy:
So pretty from all angles:
Really stunning, but I did wonder how they harvest the middle, or maybe it's just ornamental:
Pretty box, but so formal:
Wow, the view before we walked down the stairs:
Down below to the left we found a beautiful bluestone patio. Chairs, containers, and bluestone may all migrate to my garden now thank you very much:
Across the very large lawn was some very expensive stonework:
This didn't photograph very well, but I loved the huge container and you can see just a bit of the boat ramp:
Back across the lawn you can see the whole house. I think this one was for sale. There is just no way this is ever going to be something I can afford, and frankly I don't know what I would do with all that space. I did wonder why no pool though. Or a hot tub. Seems like there should have been one:
We reluctantly left and headed to garden #8:
Well actually, garden #9, I don't seem to have taken any photos in garden #8, nor do I remember a thing about it other than some espaliered trees, which just aren't my thing. But I don't have a photo of the sign for garden #9, so the diagram will have to do. Oh and this property is for sale. I want to say the asking price was $2.4 million, but I do remember for sure that the property taxes were $26,000 a year:
I don't know...seems a little high:
Plus, if you're not a gardener, will you want or be able to handle all that garden? Sure you can hire a gardener and would probably have to. Regardless, I enjoyed it. Especially this water feature:
I sat in the shade for maybe 10 minutes cooling off (it was so hot):
And then I walked over the stones through the pool:
Down the path to the next section of the garden:
I stood under the gazebo for a bit while Jen walked around. Shade, blessed shade:
I took this photo because I loved the colors, but I'm showing it to you here because the blooming dahlias in the lower right portion of the photo summed up this garden for me. Unless they have a conservatory in the house, there's no way that they'd have blooming dahlias in early June. Yes, they're beautiful, but a not-in-the-know gardener would see this and think they could have blooming dahlias now or worse, wonder what's wrong with theirs because they're not blooming:
But this was quite lovely. I wonder if in a few years the moss will cover the whole urn:
Walking down the street to garden #10, we came upon a photographer hard at work. We watched her process (which was fascinating), and overheard her talking to her subject after capturing the image. I googled her when I got home and she's actually pretty well known. There's even been a documentary made about her:
I won't share her name because I don't have permission, but if her photo of this subject (she loved the umbrella) ends up hanging in a gallery we'll have an interesting story to tell:
And then, finally, garden #10:
I was absolutely wilting, but Jen looked great posing by yet another beautiful honeysuckle. Ironically I've been thinking of honeysuckle to grow on the trellis in the patio garden since I can't seem to get a clematis to grow there, so I really enjoyed seeing all the honeysuckles:
This little edibles garden was right by their kitchen door, very pretty:
We saw a few of this type of bleeding heart, I'd like to get some for my garden. The blooms definitely last longer since mine are completely gone:
And that was it. It took us about 3 hours to do the tour and we finished with about 15 minutes left before the 'tea room' opened:
It was so tempting staring over that fence at the tent and tables. We finally got in and settled down with ice water (iced tea for Jen) and cookies. A lovely touch including this treat in the ticket price. We left for a late lunch with a very nice feeling about the day's events:
We grabbed lunch at Azu in Mystic (highly recommend) and then headed back to Clinton so I could drop Jen off. She asked if I had ever been to Shoreline Gardens, I hadn't, so she suggested we end our day of garden touring by visiting there. Hey, I'm always up for plant shopping! I'm glad we stopped. I saw two plants that I very nearly bought. A Golden Anniversary spotted dead nettle (or lamium) was a beautiful yellow color:
And a Golden Zebra heucherella. I think I just crave yellow for shade for some reason:
And in the herb house I got inspiration from this:
See, Jen gave me a present when I picked her up. A beautiful wood box to use as a planter:
I think I may paint "Le Jardin" or some other French garden-related phrase on the side of the box in a dark slate/black paint. And I have just the spot for it:
This appears to be the sunniest spot in my garden, which is so weird. The box will likely fade to a nice gray rather quickly. So if you've stuck around to the bitter end, thank you. And come back soon for a post about the Guilford Secret Garden Tour which we took on Saturday.