Mommy and me: A garden play date

Sorry if you were hoping to read about children in the garden. Ok, yeah, that is one mis-leading title. Saturday was a planned garden date with my Mom and I...but not exactly a play date. Instead a day spent on the "Secret Garden Tour" hosted by Four Seasons Garden Club of Kenosha, WI. A tour of 6 private gardens most in the Pleasant Prairie/Carol Beach area. The day was perfect, rain had been threatened, but by 11 when I met Mom, the sun was out, low humidity, upper 70's...a beautiful Wisconsin day. All the gardens were enjoyable, some more than others. The plant snob in me didn't have much to see, but each garden sparked ideas in me. Overall I found several themes between the gardens...the importance of sitting areas within a garden space, the added interest containers can bring throughout a yard / garden, the importance of whimsy, and how the use of water features takes a garden to another level.

The light was not ideal to take a picture of this grouping of three wooden barrel planters each with a trellis to give height. the perfect solution to hiding a work area behind a garage.


Several gardens used non-traditional planting "containers"




Others used excellent plant combinations or groupings of containers



All six gardens had great sitting areas...a couple of my favorites:




This very impressive, very large water feature included one of the best looking bio-filter, natural rock filtering areas I've seen.



I found this use of a garden ornament to highlight and echo the colors of the plants to be very compelling.



It was a very enjoyable way to spend the day, just Mom and I. Made even better by a lunch al fresco at the Kenosha Yacht Club watching the boats go by. And of course, a bit of dreaming about a house on this empty lot with this view...where you could be anywhere.



Thanks Mom for the invite, great day. Love you.