Friday, August 7, 2009

Garden Tours!

These aren't photos of my neighbors' yards.
They belong to some of my local gardening friends.

Some friends of mine and I visit each others' gardens once-a-week during the summers.
We've been doing this for several years, and it's really fun to see how things change from year-to-year.

These photos were taken July 8 and July 10.

This is my friend Nancy's yard.


Look who we found "crashing the party!" Do you recognize this fellow?
This is friend Joan's yard. This little tour will take you from the driveway, all around the house and back out in one of the corners of her yard. :-) I know you'll enjoy the tour... we did!

Here's Nancy, sitting on these huge foundation stones... just to give some perspective as to their size!
This Wednesday, everyone comes to my house! :-)

And we had fun! :-) And I forgot to use my camera!

And we had another garden tour (at Carolyn's) this past Wednesday. And guess who forgot their camera? Batting -1000.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi SG~~ What a great idea. I hope you'll remember the camera next time. If the rest of the gardens are as gorgeous as these, it will be a royal treat.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I can see how you keep each other inspired. One would keep things up and someone is always around to enjoy your hard work.

Randy said...

How wonderful! I wish our neighbors loved to garden as much!--Randy

Helen/patientgardener said...

What a fun way to share your garden with friends.

Pat said...

Lucky you to know so many people who garden.
That has to be fun !!
Know a few....but their not into it like me.
Neat tour,thanks.

Weeping Sore said...

It's wonderful to do what gardens intend us to do: enjoy them. Visiting your friends' gardens is fun too because you get to simply enjoy the scenery without the work.

Chloe m said...

That is awonderful way to bond with your neighbors. So pretty and green, that grass is!
Rosey

Anonymous said...

That is a great idea. You are lucky to have enough neighbors with a common interest.

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

How fun! My friends and I did this a few years ago, it was a lot of fun. Your friends have pretty gardens!

Gail said...

What a great idea ahady! I am going to suggest this to a few gardening friends...we can inspire each other like you and your friends do! Thank you for sharing the tours! gail

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Grace! Now, if you'll click on Nancy's photo, you'll see the person I think looks like your sister! ;-) I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate the photo, as she's very pretty.

I will do my best to get photos. We visit Eileen this coming Wednesday.


Hi Lisa, It's fun to see the progress and/or how things change from year to year.

Jamie and Randy, Some of my neighbors do love to garden as much as I do, but these aren't neighbors. Just friends within a 30 mile radius.

Patient Gardener, You're right. Periodically we get together for garden craft projects. Today we had a great time making little flower pot creations... a post will be forthcoming! ;-)

Patsi, We're a variety of people that enjoy our gardens. A couple of people in our group only just began gardening 4 or 5 years ago and are enjoying the learning process. Everyone has benefited by the inspiration of visiting each others' gardens. :-)

Weeping Sore, Absolutely. Plus we have such a good time together. We always enjoy a little refreshment following the tours (and some fun conversation as well!) :-)

Rosey, These past 2 years have been exceptional, in that we've had great rainfall and moderate temperatures. Usually, at this time of year, our grass is quite dormant/brown. I assume it will yet happen.

Chad and Brandy, Neighbors and Friends. :-)

Catherine, You need to revive your group. We've used an occasional craft. Next week we're going to make small hyperturfa troughs.

Gail, You will love doing this! You already have friends with whom you gather... just get them together! :-)

Kathleen said...

Wonderful way to spend time together Shady Gardener. My neighbors and I have been talking about doing this with just our cul-de-sac. We hardly ever get to see whats in each others gardens (except what you can view from the street). Now you've inspired me to bring it up again (or issue an invitation). Glad you had your camera this time ~ your friends do have nice gardens.

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

I love visiting other people's gardens--it's fun and a great way to get ideas. PLUS you don't have to weed other people's gardens! ;-)

troutbirder said...

Very nice. For me the nice thing about these visits is when the subject of exchanges come up. Usually planned for spring divide and transplant season.

Shady Gardener said...

Kathleen, You will enjoy being able to spend more time with each other, too. :-)

Monica, You're right! However, if anyone wants to help me weed... I may Just Let Them! ;-)

Troutbirder - Absolutely! Now that most of the gardens are becoming "mature," we are beginning to share. A special day next Spring would be a great idea!!

Nutty Gnome said...

I love this idea - and the fact that I get to nosey at other peoples' gardens (and houses!)and get ideas for my own! :)

Shady Gardener said...

Nutty Gnome, You're right. :-) Do you have something like this already organized?

Jan said...

Your friends, Nancy & Joan, both have wonderful yards and gardens, Shady! Such a variety of plants and interesting features! It sounds like such fun to visit gardens like you guys do! You missed photographing your own tour (!) and that of Carolyn's...but you were having so much fun, it's understandable! (Plus, you were probably otherwise preoccupied, as the hostess of your own!).

Frances said...

Hi Shady, what a wonderful thing to have many gardening friends close by. Those are some wonderful stones too, and your friend ain't bad either! HA Loved the Canna in D Pot, brilliant! Here is the answer about the hypertufa post you asked about:

Sure, Shady, here is the link:

http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/2008/11/27/troughs-recycled/

I would look at some other info online besides mine though, I am no expert. Do remember to not unmold for several days. Patsi at Garden Endeavors is doing a series of posts about her making a hypertufa too.

http://www.pseewald.com/2009/08/update-hypertufa-planter.html

Good luck with them and don't forget to have fun!

Frances

Shady Gardener said...

Jan, isn't that just the way?? But, now that I don't have a camera, I'm going to miss some prize photos tomorrow - unless someone else takes a few and mails them to me! :-)

Hi Frances, We are Really looking forward to our Friday workshop. Thank you for your information. I've been watching Patsi... it'll be fun to see how hers turns out.

It will be a challenge to create a post, but I'll see if someone can take photos and send them to me! :-)

Anonymous said...

Shady ~ Just back from a quick tour of your most recent posts... great photos, nice canna info - a most enjoyable garden tour, overall! Nice to see what you've been up to this summer. /Deb

Shady Gardener said...

Summer? Summer? It's going so fast, I'm afraid it'll be over and I won't know how that happened! ;0

Corner Gardener Sue said...

It's good to know there are others who like sticking things into the dirt. I love going to see others' gardens. I'm sorry about your camera. Did you pick one out yet?