Three Garden Tours With Friends

How about three garden tours all in one day! Our small ladies luncheon group decided to have our own garden tours and tour each other's gardens. 




Three of us volunteered our gardens. Sit back and you can enjoy the tours from your couch and not have to venture out in the heat. This is a long post with lots of pics.


Here are the gardens we toured:



Meet Doreen who has lived in the same house and has been gardening here over 30 years. Her gardens and yard certainly show her dedication! 




Doreen says she has lots of shade and takes that in consideration when planting. Take a look at her Oakleaf Hydrangea in the second and third pics of the collage. Isn't it gorgeous!





More hydrangea and lamp's ear. Her mopheads are pink and blue.



Love this birdhouse on a pole and the ivy she trained to twine around it.




A few of the ladies in our group.




Even Doreen's cat got in on the tour. What a cute rooster too!





One of our favorite things in Doreen's yard was her birdhouse bush. She said this bush just didn't grow well and had holes in it. She just filled the holes with birdhouses. How smart is this! I may just need to borrow this idea.






Thanks, Doreen, for letting us tour your garden.




Another garden we visited was Martha's. Check out her yellow primrose in the pic below.





Martha has lived in her house for less than a year, she has really been busy getting her yard ready to tour. Her red begonias are gorgeous. 




She says her yard is small and mostly concrete so container gardening and raised beds are a must for her.


Mandevilla 



Petunias 



She had a nice deck added to the back of her house. You can see the large butterfly bush she planted last year.







Adrienne, who is one of the ladies in our group, served refreshments on Martha's deck. Notice the large flowerpot on the deck, Martha designed the arrangement. 




Martha has a fence that she has added lots of interesting elements. She picked up most of the elements by thrifting them. She painted most white so they would show up on her fence. 




The last stop was Judy's gardens (that's me). I have lived in this house for about six years and started new gardens as soon as we moved in.


The Shade Garden was our first garden to start from scratch at this house. It is filled with hostas, ferns, heucheras, astilbe, coleus, and spiderwort. Each year I have added new plants.



Hydrangea growing in another shade area.





Another flower bed has tiger lilies blooming.




The Garden Fairy Bed - the fairy statue was a gift from my Mom years ago. 




Beardtongue Penstemon in a small bed.




Container Gardening


Verbenia


Zinnias






Yellow Daylilies in sunny places.




Banana tree, elephant ears and daylilies




Along the Garden Wall - 

coreopsis, verbena, black-eyed Susan's (not in bloom yet)



dusty miller, vinca, verbena 





After the garden tours, we had our ladies' luncheon at Judy's house where we filled our plates in her kitchen then ate on the deck.




Have you been on any garden tours this year? I would love to hear about them. If not, tell me about your garden - Judy.


Linking to:

Met Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch


All About Home @ Follow the Yellow Brick Home and Common Ground on Monday at 6 pm

Through My Lens on Monday


Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Tuesdays With A Twist @ God's Growing Garden 

Tuesday Turn About @ My Wee Abode, Thistle Key Lane, Blue Sky at Home on Tuesday at 6 pm

Wonderful Wednesday @ Ducks in a Row on Tuesday evening

My Corner of the World @ Photographing New Zealand on Wednesday

Karins Kottage Link Party @ Karins Kottage

Share Your Style @ French Ethereal on Wednesday at 6 pm

Thankful Thursday @ It's a Small Town Life

Funtastic Link Party @ Two Chicks and A Mom on Thursday 9pm

Little Things Thursday @ Random-osity

Thursday Favorite Things @ Katherine's Corner

FLORAL FRIDAY FOTOS on Thursday

Grace at Home @ The Charm of Home on Thursday 

Fabulous Link Party @ Peacock Ridge Farm, Living Large in a Small House, South House Designs, & Vintage Home Designs on Friday

Friendship Friday Blog Hop @ Create With Joy

Floral Bliss on Friday

A Morning Cup of Joe @ The Cottage Market on Friday

Farm House Friday @ County Road 407

Friday With Friends @ My Hubbard Home

Saturday Sparks @ Pieced Pastimes on Friday

Pink Saturday @ How Sweet the Sound on Friday

Garden Affair @ Jaipur Garden 

Mosaic Monday @ Letting Go of the Bay Leaf on Sunday

Sunday Sunshine Blog @ Ridge Haven Homestead on Sunday

Love Your Creativity Link Party @ Life and Linda on Sunday at 2pm

Sundays on Silverado @ The House on Silverado

Inspire Me Monday @ Create With Joy on Sunday

Busy Monday @ A Pinch of Joy on Sundays at 5pm





17 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:07 PM

    What a wonderful garden tour! The floral photographs are absolutely stunning! You all have green thumbs, much greener than mine! What a nice time to get together for lunch too! Looks delicious!

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  2. That was me! I'm not anonymous!

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  3. all three gardens are so beautiful - like an oasis for plant lovrs

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  4. A great idea! I do the same thing with my garden friends :) Inspirational!

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  5. Judy,
    This was such a wonderful post!! I love the idea that you toured your friend's gardens and then had a nice lunch too!! All the gardens are so pretty and all the ladies whose gardens you toured, including yourself, are to be commended on their green thumbs!!!! All so beautiful!! Thanks so much for sharing!! I really enjoyed this post!!!
    Hugs,
    Deb

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  6. What a wonderful tour! I absolutely loved the birdhouse tree!

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  7. I really enjoyed seeing all these beautiful gardens, full of blooms and sparkling design ideas! I love the bush with the birdhouses!

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  8. All the gardens were lovely to see but I loved your garden the best, Judy! I ahve a lot of shade so I appreciated seeing what grows well in your garden. It is a challenge to grow anything here in Colorado with our very changeable weather.

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  9. Anonymous1:01 PM

    All are beautiful. Thank you for sharing. Regine
    www.rsrue.blogspot.com

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  10. Nice to see all these lovely blooms. Beautiful captures!

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  11. What a lovely garden! Everything is so lush and green!

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  12. Judy - what a wonderful idea! I am inspired to plan something like this with some of my lady friends! I have not been on any garden tours lately. My garden is still "waking up" - we have had plenty of rain but not much warmth, so things are coming along slowly. My golden currant bushes are in full bloom and one of my apple trees opened its first buds today. Columbines will be blooming any day now. Many other plants such as blanket flower and aspen fleabane are forming flower heads. Exciting!

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  13. Wow ! What a lovely garden ! I loved the photo of fairy figurine standing amidst blooms,Thanks for sharing with Garden Affair.

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  14. Thank you for sharing such lovely and inspiring gardens! What a joy it was to visit!

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  15. Lovely gardens to visit and sit and enjoy with friends, and the bird house tree is so cute! Thankyou for taking us along, stay safe, enjoy your week, and thankyou for visiting my blog last week.

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  16. What fun to share the beauty!

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  17. The birdhouse bush is such a wonderful idea. I've done something similar with a hole in the lawn and I covered it with a statue. Wondering if I could do a birdhouse bush - got to think about it.

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