Monday, June 28, 2010

Our Garden in The Garden Tour with Art and Quilts

The garden tour was a success! Local Master Gardeners arranged to have 5 local gardens toured and mine was one of them. Each garden also had a display of beautiful quilts and an artist with a display of some of their art. Gloria Aspinall had a display of some of her beautiful pictures. She purposely coordinated her art with each garden scene.  And, it worked out that the quilts also were chosen to go with the garden. Everything looked beautiful. 
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I have this little gate that we use mainly to discourage the deer from walking up the steps then down the steps. No lie! This little bit of gate is enough to spook town deer.
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By my Pink and Yellow little garden house is this wall. How clever to place a quilt there. I use all these rakes. The middle one was my dad’s.
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You are looking into the garden from the canvas covered carport. For the garden tour we parked the cars along the side of the house and set chairs in this area. I made cookies, coffee and some of my special sweet bread rolls.  Our guest relaxed and stayed a bit to visit.  As the local newspapers used to say: “A good time was had by all”. Our yard used to be open. To protect the garden from deer in a space saving way, Ted hung a cattle panel. I have a couple of Earth Boxes planted with woodbine. It survives winter right where it is .  The juniper tree is also one of many trees that the birds plant and I pot up.  Notice Gloria Aspinall’s display of small paintings. She also had a few bigger pieces.
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Rose William Baffin arches high over the garden gate.  The tree in front is a quince.  I have found that the best way for us to be able to pick nice, clean fruit is by paper bagging each fruit. There are 6 fruit. But as big as quince get that is ok. The bags protect the fruit from hail and insects. They ripen just fine under the bag. Notice the painting.

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Notice how Gloria chose a painting with bright pink to match the water Lilly.  The hail really did temporary damage on the water lillies.
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The festivities did not stop the robin from his personal grooming

24 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Gloria! Your garden looks so good, and the quilts and paintings add more charm to it! Love the look of pink stones, and what a great bird shot!

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  2. Gloria, this is a wonderful setting. I am surprised more people don't think of doing this, combining an art show with beautiful gardens. This is definitely "art in the garden."

    Eileen

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  3. Tatyana, thank you. The pink limestone is native to our area. Even our local gravel is pink. The birds take their daily baths on this stone I purposely put into the pond.

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  4. Gatsby Gardens, yes the idea about the quilts and art came from our very creative Master Gardeners. They did a good job!

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  5. Yay! I would have loved to be on this tour and see your pretty gardens. The idea of combining art with artistic flowers is so clever...

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  6. Gloria, your garden looks wonderful. I love how the artist coordinated her pieces to elements in the garden. How great that, despite your recent hail, the waterlily managed to eek out a bloom too. Mr. Robin looks very happy out there in his personal pond too.

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  7. Hi Kate - you know I am still looking forward to you coming to visit! We'll have coffee & breakfast in the garden.

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  8. Hi Clare, yes one water lilly. Before the hail there were 11 buds! I have at least 3 maybe 4 water lilly baskets in the bottom of the pond.

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  9. Gloria, The mixture of your beautiful gardens and the beautiful artwork was inspired! Congratulations on your success. (BTW, I love your use of rakes as garden decor.) -Jean

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  10. Thanks for the tour Gloria, second best to being their in person. It is great how the art was chosen to match your garden.

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  11. Hi Gloria, how beautiful everything looks! The extra touches of the quilts and paintings look fabulous (although it's all gorgeous without them, of course!). Wish I could have been there for the garden tour but viewing it on your blog is the next best thing!

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  12. Hi Jean - Thanks, my rakes are decor and still I use them all.

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  13. Melanie, Thanks - the day was fun!

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  14. Hi Jan, you are too kind. If you are ever in the Black Hills you need to come and visit! G

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  15. Hello Gloria, everything looks so lovely, garden, quilts, artwork - everything!
    I think your little pale pink garden house looks lovely with the rakes displayed in such an artistic way!

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  16. Oh, how fun. If I lived near, I would have loved to see this.
    So interesting to read about the quince. I've heard about putting bottles over small pears to have them grow into the bottles, but not about protecting the fruit the way you do. Cool.
    How nice that you have your dads rake, and how nice to display it the way you do.
    Love the little robin washing up.

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  17. Thank you so much for this Gloria. I felt like I got to go on the tour with you. She did such a good job matching everything to your garden. I'm so impressed. I love your wall with the three rakes. It looks so artistic, the color of the wall and chairs and the way the rakes are hung.

    It also looks like good weather there. We are so hot here right now.~~Dee

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  18. I am in awe of your beautiful event on so many levels. :)

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  19. What an honor. Even the robins came to visit. Lovely photos, Gloria.

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  20. Hi Jim, Thanks! I will have to check on your blog and see how those amazing hostas are doing! :)

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  21. Heidi, Gippslandgardener, Thank you - It is so much fun to see your comments all the way from Australia. I can imagine your world with winter and it makes me happy to enjoy another summer day. But, I think I read where you said your winters are milder. :)

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  22. Thank you Mother Nature Garden -

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  23. Hi Grace! Yes, the robins stay. They love the pond. I'm glad I moved the pond so that I can see it from the kitchen window. I didn't buy the Cinco de Mayo Rose - It was being sold here local. I looked at the tag and it said zone 6 to 7. That poor baby would probably die here in zone 4. So I will have to admire it in your beautiful garden.

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