Garden Tour Mania

"The first object of a seat is invitation. Its position should be such that it should attract, whether because it offers rest at the end of a long walk, or because it is so placed that its surroundings may give rise to pleasant contemplation."

G.A. Jellicoe, "Garden Decoration and Ornament" (1934)

Well, its been two weeks since the garden tour and we have had a few moments to rest, relax and actually enjoy our garden. A few friends have been over for dinner as summer finally has blown in our way with some warm, dry weather.

Some would ask what in heavens name would possess someone to agree to be on a garden tour. First there is all that weeding and preparing and then having people walking (or some would say tramping through your private sanctuary). Welll, you see my husband, the hole digger and structure builder happens to be a procrastinator. He talks a lot about the things he is going to do or build but he seems to take his time in actually bringing his ideas to fruition. But give him a deadline (like saying, "honey guess what I've agreed to be on the garden tour), and suddenly you can see those projects actually taking shape and being accomplished.

Take for example the greenhouse he started last year. The cold weather came and the greenhouse had to be tarped over, so now the final windows are being installed and the gingerbread is on the top but he still has to fill in a couple of spaces and side the outside. He also talked about moving the fence to enlarge the garden and create a new seating area - mission accomplished as you can see in the photos above. Creating a waterfall into the big pond was also a motive for moving the fence and we collected so rocks but that project might acutally have to be put on the list for next year unless we get a long and warm Indian summer.

As for people visiting our garden, we love sharing our private sanctuary with others. I think it is the fact that when others enter the space they tell us how calming it is, how wonderful it is to hear the sound of water from the three water features as you wander around the garden. So as long as there are garden tours and we have projects to accomplish, we'll continue to participate and share our love of gardening with others of like mind.