Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Virginia Gardener, a stop on the 2017 Garden Bloggers Fling

I know what you're thinking..."she's still posting about the 2017 Garden Blogger's Fling? That happened last June!!!"...I know. It's crazy. This is almost the end, just a couple more to go.

This garden was one of the last stops on the Fling, not that I planned my posts that way. From the Fling itinerary: "Virginia’s garden is a classic estate garden that surrounds her historic home built in 1790. Her garden features an herb garden, a secret garden, and bountiful perennial borders as well as views of the rolling hills of world famous horse country." Did ya catch that? Her home was built in 1790. That's 228 years ago. I can't even wrap my head around that! So we move on...

Love the gutter, love the rain chain. Can't imagine that much water falling from the sky in the summertime.

I'm not one who usually appreciates a formal garden, but this place really captured my heart.

Even before I saw these...

Did you think he was real? Even for a second? I did. I spend so much time in the desert SW I temporarily forgot where I was...

I think we were told what part of the house is original and what is an addition, but sadly I wasn't paying attention then. There was an adorable Corgi (my missing Lila on vacation means I must love on every sweet dog that crosses my path) and I had to use the bathroom. Thankfully this kind homeowner allowed that. I even took a photo of the flowers in the bathroom but decided maybe that was too personal to share. They were stunning.

There was a lovely deck off the back of the house.

With a view for miles and miles...

The Lotus were an unexpected feature.

Normally I'm not a fan of weeping Blue Atlas Cedar, but this one gets a pass.

This garden was huge, you're getting that, right?

There were more Lotus in the pond, along with frogs, frogs!

And fish, this pond was a treasure.

With bloggers...

And without...

The pool side included a dripping urn, surprisingly I loved it.

Looking out beyond the edges of the garden...

And walking back towards the lower part of the property where the buses dropped us off, and picked us back up again.

This looked like a commercial operation at first glance.

But now I believe it was all part of Virginia Gardener's homestead. What a life, I appreciate her inviting us to share it for the afternoon.

All material © 2009-2018 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

22 comments:

  1. I did think you had finished already with your Fling posts, but I really appreciate you posting about this garden. I was practically comatose by the time we got here (so tired and sick -- plus, that bus ride), and I really remember little of it. You got some wonderful shots of the house, garden and beautiful setting, that captured the charm of this place really well. I wish I had noticed those Lotus, they're such cool plants even if not flowering.

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    1. That bus ride....omg! I think that’s when Heather asked the driver to leave the bus running with the a/c on... otherwise I might not have made it to the end of that trip.

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  2. It is wonderful for us cold climate folks to see green growing things right now. So I am glad you held off posting until now. I am guessing she had help designing this garden and also has maintenance help. Do you know if that is the case? It is really lovely.

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    1. That is the problem with holding off so long to post, I don’t remember! She gave us a little talk when we first arrived and probably shared that info...

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  3. You and Pam are both incredibly adept at getting great photos even with a lot of others crowding the stage to get their shots. I completely missed the frogs! (I love frogs, which I haven't seen locally in decades.) I also missed the agaves and the life-like lizard.

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    1. If there’s an Agave....I will find it! (Or at least I like to think so...)

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  4. What a beautiful garden and home. It must take quite a bit of time and energy to maintain it but it looks like she has found a way to do it. Thanks for the tour.

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  5. Verdant, calming, touches of whimsy and a Blue Atlas Cedar that even Danger likes. What a swell garden!

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    1. Oh I love B.A.C....LOVE! Just not the weeping ones...

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  6. Oh to have a garden with frogs... sigh! Ever since I spend a few months in the Poconos, and fell asleep each night to their song, I've dreamed of having frogs. Oh, and the rest of that massive garden was lovely, too. Still, the frogs are what made my heart flutter the most. And turn green.

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    1. I too would love to have frogs. Makes me think of when Sean told me his neighbors complained about the frogs being too loud....can you imagine?

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  7. This was worth waiting for. I love seeing all this green. Nice that it was large enough that you weren't tripping over one another. Those views! I also thought the lizard was real before I thought that that type of lizard wouldn't be there. Frogs. Too much fun.

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    1. Frogs and lizards and lots of space...it was a great garden.

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  8. Drinking in the most floral of these images (just above the magnificent lotus with frogs), I was brought up short: The D.C. Fling was in late June, yes? So what tall purple globe Allium would be in bloom then?

    Here, not so far from Virginia's garden but a good half zone cooler and several hundred feet higher, A. giganteum is the last of the tall-globe ornamental onions to bloom, peaking during the first week of June. Makes me want to study bulb listings a little more closely to see if there are some hybrids I haven't known of that would take the globe season a little deeper into June (with the bonus of extended effect from the follow-on seedheads.

    Another possibility is that the alliums in this garden are replanted annually, particularly if these are part of a cutting garden. I imagine it's possible to extend flowering period by staggering the planting times, but only up to a point; most onions are sensitive to day length.

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    1. Yes, late June. I hope you are able to get answers, I know nothing about Allium!

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  9. where the hell did everyone go ?? I need to perfect the art of either surging ahead or hanging back ! I was able to walk through the house and I was quite charmed by the rooms I saw. It was a winter house to me.

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    1. I walked through the garden and then doubled back and took more photos. And I saw a little of the house when I used the restroom.... it was charming!

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  10. "I'm not one who usually appreciates a formal garden, but this place really captured my heart." I had similar thoughts as I was looking at your photos of this garden. It's so vibrant and green, yet peaceful in its simplicity, especially seeing these photos in January.

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    1. Glad I was able to capture that successfully.

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  11. It distresses me to hear that there are gardeners who would like to have frogs but are currently without them.

    A memorable garden program in my town was by a landscaper who specialized in water features. First question from the audience: "How do you attract frogs?". He laughed and said he knew that would be the first question because it always was, at these talks and from his clients. People who hired him inevitably asked him to supply frogs for the pools or cascades he was making. He declined to do so, but guaranteed in his contract that if no frogs had showed up within 30 days of the finished installation, he would supply some at no charge. "I've been in this business for 15 years, and I've never had to come up with any frogs."

    This is the experience of gardeners in piedmont and western Virginia, even those in the absolute middle of cities (admittedly, ours are small as cities go). The water garden guy's talk made me realize that we could have frogs with very little effort, and we did shortly afterward. Digging out a foot-deep spot for a 4-foot circular preformed black pool was the bulk of the work. The edges were covered by flat stones (no pretense of natural pond), and a few flat rocks were set on an overturned plant container in the center so that they sit just above water level. Frogs moved onto the center stones within hours of completion. There are no plants in the pool, just reflected sky (and nearby plants in season). Barley pads keep algae at bay; every other season or so we drain it and clean out the bottom. (Frogs wait out the afternoon this takes, hanging out in the nearby plantings.)Photo

    It may be that things are not so easy in drier ecosystems or more seriously urbanized or industrialized areas, but it's worth a shot...

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    1. I can't speak to the other gardener's issues with attracting frogs, but my husband believes ours is due to the fact the water (stock tank pond) is inaccessible to them. I've made sure to have lots of overhanging plants, things in and out of the water, that would allow them to access — but still no. I've brought home tadpoles and once, a frog appeared, but he was only here for a couple of days. None of my neighbors have ponds or water features, and in the summer time there is no water source nearby, since it is so dry here in those months.

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