Garden Tour-Paula's

A day late and a dollar short as they say. My good friend Laura has been good enough to get the ball rolling with her wonderful pictures of Centerbrook and Ivoryton garden tour last Saturday. It was great to finally see each other in person after so many months of just emailing, phoning and of course blogging. She was as beautiful as always and never without a smile on her face. I was so lucky to be able to leave work early and join her.

THANK YOU George!!! and on a Saturday no less. I owe you big time!!!





I'll start with the house that on the tour was #1

But in our opinion is always #1.....



Paula's house....what can I say in words that can even begin to explain how utterly enchanting it is. From the moment you walk in you know someone special lives here. Someone who's home is their sanctuary. She doesn't over fuss about her decor but yet it looks like everything has found it perfect spot. It is a knack I suppose not all of us possess but all of us aspire to. The candlestick is one she bought from me a few years ago and I almost didn't recognize it because it looked so much better when she displays it in this old shadowbox.

A crown shaped planter type thingy......which everyone else that came in the shop would pick up and say " what would you do with that?"

Paula doesn't have to ask.....she just knows as soon as she sees it.

An antique artillery basket that she bought years ago brimming with silk flowers ( or as we now call permanent flowers....sounds so much nicer).

Tab curtains that she made hung from wisteria vines adds to the outdoor feeling.

Brown transferware cups that she picked up recently at Gather. A new shop that opened in Ivoryton last year. Laura and I will show pictures of the shop which we visited at the end of garden tour along with some of the goodies bought. Oh that's right we ate some of the goodies in the car....... but not all were edible.

Every year she picks a different color scheme for her windowboxes.......this year it was purples and pinks. Supertunias, heliotrope, strobilanthus, and a pink oxalis just called hardy pink ( zone 5).

An old scale pan holding bridal veil.

Waves of Catmint ( nepeta six hills giant) around an outcropping.

I love this wire Gothic looking chair...almost big enough for 2. Planted behind it is an Annabelle hydrangea just in bud. One of the first hydrangea to flower but will turn greenish as it ages. Easy to grow and always flowers unlike some Macrophylla's that flower on old wood.

Now we're in the little court yard of the Birds Nest Inn. I love the handle of this planter. Not sure if it came that way or she attached it but it so perfect. It's planted with an oxalis called burgundy and rex begonia....both do well planted in the shade.

Here's that cute little crown thingy again....this time planted with blue zepher Brachycome. Some people pronounce it Bracky- comb. Some pronounce it Bra-Kick-O- Mee. I like the later better. You decide???

I think Laura showed this one already. But it's so nice I'll show it twice!!!! Ok that was a little silly. It has streptocarpella and an alpine perennial (that of course I can't remember the name of???). If you really want to know I'll get the name for you.

Mr Toad that Paula says has been there for years in her pond. You can't really tell from here but he was huge. Well bigger then I have in my garden but then I don't have a pond.

A meat grinder planter with succulents in the foreground.

Paula had lent her collection of watering cans to every house on the tour so as to identify them. They got brought back to her all filled with grasses and salvia just sitting there in her yard by her shed. Soooo pretty!!!!

Well that's it for now.....I'll post more tomorrow.

Poor Laura was having problems with her camera, but I think she managed to get quite a lot of great images. Way better then I did.

See you all soon,

Carole