A GARDEN VISIT

For a person who harps on the joy and importance of getting in every garden you can (there’s always a takeaway!), I don’t really go on nearly enough garden tours. However, our master gardener group recently had the opportunity to tour The Christopher Farm and Gardens, an expansive private garden that is often open for charity events.

It is a huge property with several diverse garden areas, lots of garden art, ponds and certainly many thousands of tons of rock.

Here are a few shots from our visit.

Off the conservatory there was an 8-foot wire form planted with mandevilla and sweet potato vine. It was quite impressive.

A lot of annual salvia was used.

There is a Heritage Garden, shown here, and a separate kitchen garden. Both had raised beds made of 4x4s, which I thought looked quite nice.

A Japanese garden had a lovely stream and a pond with koi.

Along the top of the Japanese garden a walkway made with these pavers guides visitors to the next garden.

An enormous grape arbor is too fun to not walk through.

I think this is the kitchen garden, but it may have been a separate cutting garden. Either way I still like the raised beds and the gravel.

Several areas encouraged you to walk OVER the water on small stone bridges. How can you resist?

Thanks to a reader for helping me identify the plant below as Achillea ptarmica ‘The Pearl’. It’s quite lovely!

About three weeks before we visited they’d had a terrible hailstorm and all of their hostas were in absolute tatters. I felt terrible for them.

I don’t know what tree this was but I loved this little starfish-like cluster of pinecones.

All of the glass art around the garden was made by local artists. I thought it looked quite nice in this bed.

Have you visited any great gardens this year?

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Comments

Lisa Greenbow says: August 17, 2017 at 9:04 pm

Have not visited any garden other than friends. I would love to go on a garden tour.

Joanna at Gingham Gardens says: August 18, 2017 at 2:10 pm

I love visiting other gardens. It's my favorite thing to do in the summer when I'm not working in my own. Stop by when you have a few minutes to browse. I'd love to have you!

LINDA from Each Little World says: August 18, 2017 at 2:34 pm

Love those raised beds. Makes everything look so neat and organized plus so much easier to weed or work in. Went on a couple of nice tours this summer and decided not to post about them until the winter when nothing is happening locally in our gardens.

Todd Attoe says: August 19, 2017 at 5:08 pm

Everything about your tour was beautiful. Thanks for sharing. I have to get away from my gardening long enough to enjoy other people's creations as I would look at it. Very nice.

Anonymous says: August 30, 2017 at 6:58 pm

I believe the plant you mentioned as possibly being from the buttercup family is actually Achillea ptarmica 'The Pearl'. I really like this plant; very hardy.

- Erin Schanen says: August 30, 2017 at 7:30 pm
  
  Thank you! You are definitely correct. I really appreciate that. I'm going to go edit the post to get the correct information in there.
  
Michelle H. says: January 7, 2018 at 12:41 pm

I couldn’t agree more! I try to get to as many gardens as I can, especially when I travel. This year, I went to the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx, for the Dale Chihuly exhibit. We went on a Friday night and again on Saturday. It was a magical experience. Chihuly’s work just lends itself to a garden, and you have to see it at night. But the NYBG is an amazing place in and of itself.

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