The Garden Tour

We had an absolute blast at our garden tour yesterday.

And today I think I have never been so tired!

The tour went from 10 to 5. People began arriving at one second after 10. The last ones knocked on our door at about 5:15. (I was so pooped I just let them through to take a quick look at the back yard.) In between we had a constant stream of visitors. There were usually about 10 people here at a time; as soon as some left, more arrived. I estimate we saw at least 400 visitors. Between us, we probably talked to at least 300 of them!

It was fascinating to see what caught people’s eyes. That tin panel I bought last weekend? We hung it on the wall next to the kitchen window

and everyone thought we had tiles embedded in the wall. “Nope,” I’d say. “Pressed tin. Yard sale. Two bucks.” I wasn’t surprised that our tomato frame, made of bamboo, got a lot of attention.

Given that the tomatoes are only about two feet away from a whole stand of bamboo, I was surprised by how many people asked where we got the bamboo for the frame. “Ummm, we grow it,” I said, waving a hand at the rustling plants.

The bamboo received a great deal of attention. So many people are afraid to try it, and we spent a lot of time explaining that there are clumping bamboos and running bamboos, and how to live comfortably with both. Certainly it can be a problematic plant, but it doesn’t have to be.

As I expected the blooming clematis was popular, especially the purple one with lots of blooms.

Big blooms!

I love the back almost as much as the front.

It’s next to a butterfly bush that obligingly started blooming this week. Butterflies stopped by all day.

One lady noticed the fish in my little pond and was happy to have her guess confirmed that they are mosquito fish. She was even happier when I was able to tell her she can get them for free from the county’s vector control department. Some mosquito fish are destined for a happy new home this week!

The Aztec lily bulbs I got three weeks ago now have two blooms! Seemed like no one had seen these before.

We had fun staging some pots in the niches under our outdoor counter.

 

Because we had so much rain this winter, there were some nice calla lily blooms.

Many people brought cameras. One young woman spent quite a while taking pictures; she told me she’s a professional photographer of rock bands. Flowers probably made a peaceful change of subject! She had an impressive Canon SLR digital camera with a hunky 6” lens, which is why she was able to sit several feet away from a plant and take close ups. She took a number of the flowers in this pot.

“I’m late getting home,” she told me, snapping away. “But I don’t care!”

Even the trough with the perfectly ordinary red geraniums had its paparazzi. Perhaps it was the gnome.

Many people commented on the peacefulness our yard. Which was a tad ironic, because for part of the day, the wind was blowing 40+ mph and the rustling bamboo sounded more like a storm at sea! But it really is a haven that we get so much enjoyment from. I’m so glad we got to share it.