Garden Djinn

LACASA Garden Tour, Part Three

Check out parts one and two below.
Watch this space for part three.

LACASA Garden Tour, Part Two

The county I live in is one of the fastest growing in the state.  It's one of those lovely rural areas that everyone that lives in a crowded bedroom community wants a piece of.  Pretty soon now, maybe only ten years down this road, it too will become a crowded bedroom community.  Ah, progress.

But in the meantime, there is a wealth of space.  Human beings like space.  We like elbow room and long expanses of green to soothe the eye and cleanse the air, and we are willing to devote a good bit of labor in the workspace and in the yard to be able to have both. 

Clover  Cottage

This charming little home had three distinct garden areas:  The front of the house, the back of the house, and the side yard to a tiny woodlot.    The woodlot drew me like a magnet. 

Did I mention this day was hot?  It was hot.   A bench tucked under the trees was just the thing.
And the view from the path to the road, where one of the tour participants serendipitously parked their monarda-colored car!

The shade was delicious.

LACASA Garden Tour, Part One

LACASA is a local women's shelter. They have several fund raisers a year, but the one I go to year after year is the garden tour.  Each year they feature ten gardens from all around the county.  What gardener isn't eager to see what their neighbors are growing?

There were three stunners on this tour, a lot of borders, and one disappointment.

Borders.  I shouldn't be so dismissive of this term, as this is how I would describe my own garden.  Borders are lovely.  Backed by a fence or a hedgerow they can be quite dramatic.  They are the form that the gardener cuts his teeth on, and most of us are happy to master the fine art of borders without going on to tackle more substantial fare.

My beef with borders?  I'm ready for the next course.

My only disappointment of the tour stemmed from that fact: I'm ready to view more structured gardens, carving creative solutions out of the restrictions of plot and location.

So when I read this blurb for one of the gardens, I was eager to see it:

Norma Haydu's garden is the epitome of a small but mighty landscape.  A gorgeous wall of impatiens, geraniums, daisies and dahlias provides a cushion of quietude between the Haydo home and the downtown Howell railroad tracks.  The garden's unique blend of astilbe, hostas and hollyhocks provides a colorful feast for the eyes in this city-centered garden. 

Ah.  Here I thought would be a small garden, constrained to a small city lot, using unique methods to maximize the impact of the greenery and flowers.  Here was something I wanted to see.