Saturday, July 15, 2006

Since I hung my show at the gallery, I've really been on vacation!!! yesterday was the Belfast Garden Tour. My first. They've always been scheduled on days during the week and I've always been working, but this one fell on an off day. I was surprised by a few things.

1. I thought if your garden were chosen for a garden tour, it would be the cream of the crop. The best of the best. Magnificient. Fact: not necessarily so. There were a few that were simply very small layouts, maybe the size of the front yard to the sidewalk. To be fair, the garden I'm thinking about had a lot of different types of miniature bushes, some I don't know what they were called and didn't have markers. It was attractive because of the variations in shape and shades of color. Sometimes simple is better.

2. I thought if your garden was chosen for a garden tour, you might weed the night before. And remove all ladders and hoses from the paths. Interesting.

Some of the things I did like were the gardens that combined striking colors together. But in my mind you can put delphiniums with just about anything but yellow is a popper, or as claire would say, it zings!



I like to find interesting little vignettes hidden in gardens...surprises you find when you look closely, like this sweet hens and chicks.


I love these things no matter where they are.

And the garden sheds:





I think they appeal to the kid/dollhouse/make believe part of me.

2 comments:

Joanne S said...

My neighbor was on the tour here about 10 years ago. She had every relative and handy person working in her yard for weeks before the tour.

Last year I was a "greeter" for a garden on the tour. They left no garden plan nor did they identify the plant material. BUT, everything in the garden was NEW. New mulch, new plants, new everything. I was busy all day saying " sorry, I don't know what that is"

When I had a break, I went next door to see a "vegetable garden". Wonderful. Just like regular people have, without all the bells and whistles. they had a charming shed also.

Deborah Boschert said...

Very interesting. I'm so glad you shared your thoughts. I went on a wonderful garden tour in Western NY years back. I should seek them out more often. Fun.