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:
All About Home @ Follow the Yellow Brick Home and Common Ground on Monday at 6 pm
Fabulous Link Party @ Peacock Ridge Farm, Living Large in a Small House, South House Designs, & Vintage Home Designs on Friday
