On Saturday, Ward and I went on a private home garden tour that included six city homes. Some lots were small and some were bigger, but none were huge. We saw several different types of gardens and all were beautiful. The spaces were well planned--perhaps because each one of them was designed by a landscape architect. That is all of them but one and that one was my favorite. That was the garden of 89 year old, Anne. She has been in her house for 55 years and has nurtured her outdoor space all of that time. In addition to caring for her plants, she also made friends with the birds and had some of them eating out of her hand. She had a beautiful garden, but it was a little more "wild" looking than the others with a wider variety of plants and fewer groupings.
One of the reasons I liked Anne's garden so much was that it reminded me of LeeAnn's garden. LeeAnn was Ward's grandmother and she had many interests in her retirement years. She raised prize-winning birds as well as prize-winning collies. She fancied herself a photographer and was always in search of the perfect picture. And she loved her gardening--especially flowers. Upon a first look at LeeAnn's house you wouldn't necessarily think that she was a big gardener. It was hard to pick out the plants from the sheds and dog runs. However, just go on a tour of her yard with her and you would see things in a whole different light. She would show you her night garden planted with things that would only bloom at night. Next to it was the purple garden filled with only purple bloomers. Then there were the roses that she put in the front of her yard so people driving by could see them. Also were the azaleas next to the house--one of which came from her aunt's yard many decades ago. You see, LeeAnn had a personal relationship with each plant and she saw its potential instead of seeing the work that needed to be done around it. That's what I'm trying to each week as I take a Second Look around my yard. However, I still need more practice before I can be like LeeAnn was.
I don't have pictures of LeeAnn's yard, but here are some pictures from the tour we took. The last one is from Anne's yard.
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| Rooftop Garden |
