After touring
Tammy Schmitt's garden as part of the 2017 Garden bloggers' Fling, we headed to Linda Hostetler's garden, arriving along with the 3 other buses of camera-ready bloggers. The crowded venue and mix of sun and shade had me struggling to capture the beauty of the place.
I never managed a good photo of the front of the property. Most of my shots focused on plant vignettes.
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| There were a lot of Japanese maples in this garden, all beautiful |
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| The maples in this area of the front garden were placed in full sun at mid-day, something I could never do in my own garden. The face plaque shown on the right was sited at the middle front of the bed shown on the left. |
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| This large bed occupied the middle of a lawn area |
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| Another good-looking Japanese maple, surrounded by other colorful foliage and flowers, with the house just visible in the background |
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| There were nice patches of shade along the margins of the front garden, like this one |
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| and this more formal section |
Heading back along the side of the house brought us to a patio. My immediate focus was the stream and the pond it flowed into.
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| I loved the fullness of the planting around this stream |
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| The stream fed into this pond, which was an integral part of the patio on the side of the house |
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| And here's one of the pond's resident amphibians |
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| The area next to the pond was also densely planted |
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| A wider view of the area surrounding the pond, caught as I was on my way back to the bus at the end of our visit |
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| Although I didn't get a good photo of the patio itself, I snapped a few close-ups of the features surrounding it, including a Japanese maple under-planted with Japanese forest grass, a cute table topper featuring frogs, and bunnies guarding a conifer |
Beyond the pond and the patio was a good-sized shed, complete with adornments of its own.
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| 3 sides of the shed are shown here |
My only clear shot of the house was this one from the back.
Beyond the wide gravel area behind the house was a huge backyard, already chock full of bloggers when I made it to this point.
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| A wood arbor marked the entrance to the back garden |
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| This stacked stone wall with its own seating area was just to the left as I walked through the arbor, if I remember correctly |
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| This is the far end of the wall and seating area shown in the prior photo |
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| Another colorful planting scheme, accompanied by equally colorful ornaments |
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| This spiral flagstone circle was much larger than the segment captured in this photo. Edged by lawn, it created an area for the eye to rest in what was otherwise a densely planted garden. |
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| Shady areas lined the area along the fence on one side of the property and we once again encountered a stream |
Cobalt blue features appeared throughout the back garden. They stood out against all the lush green but also contributed to the tranquility of the space.
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| Blue arbors marked transition points in the garden and blue umbrellas and furniture provided places to sit and enjoy the view. There was also a blue birdcage, occupied by a spiky agave. |
But the centerpiece of the back garden, at least in my opinion, was another pond. There was a gazebo within easy viewing distance but I didn't get a photo of that either.
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| View looking across the pond, which had a small wood bridge crossing the stream that fed it |
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| I didn't have a chance to look for more frogs here |
At about this point in my rounds of the garden, the call rang out to head back to the buses for a trip to the Stone Tower Winery and lunch. I managed a few more shots as I hurried to catch up.
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| This plant combination stood just beyond the bridge over the stream leading to the pond |
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| And this seating area was tucked into a corner |
I enjoyed this garden tremendously. To wrap up, here are just a few close-ups of some of the stunning plants I saw:
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Cercis canadensis 'Rising Sun', Curcuma alismatifolia (I think), Filipendula?, yellow and burgundy Hemerocallis, Hydrangea, Asiatic lily, and Iris ensata? (Other than the daylilies, these plants don't generally grow in my area so some of my IDs are guesses.) |
I've covered only about a third of the gardens I saw during the Fling. I plan to cover the rest but my remaining posts are likely to be strung out over a longer period. In the meantime, if you're interested, check out the posts of other Flingers, the links to which can be found
here.
Best wishes for a great weekend!
All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
