Garden Tour: House #4 Oyster Bay Cove

The fourth and final house on the Garden Tour along Long Island's Gold Coast was in Oyster Bay Cove, NY. The home on this property was originally built for Thomas F. Young, a colonial merchant in 1863. It was later owned by Charles Lewis Tiffany II, son of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The Colonial Revival home is beautiful in its own right, but the five acres of property are stunning.

The pool garden is green and simple with lawn, a Japanese holly hedge and a natural stonewall dividing it from the cutting garden. Above, the view of the pool from the covered patio. 

Overlooking the pool, this patio is the perfect place to relax out of the sun and enjoy a glass of lemonade. Behind the couch and chairs is a small kitchenette, cabinet space and a small table.

To the left of the pool, the stonewall fence is planted with Nepeta (Catmint) and Rosa 'Carefree Wonder.' Behind it is the cutting garden.

The cutting garden (above) is planted with all sorts of beautiful flowers. Currently blooming were magnificent blooms of white Phlox.

Adjacent to the cutting garden is a bountiful vegetable garden. A black walnut tree shades the corner of this garden in the background.

Behind the pool and next to the covered patio was a glass greenhouse for potting and overwintering plants.

Wisteria grew along the sides and top of the pergola by the covered patio. Potted Hibiscus added color.

To the right of the pool, steps lead down to a grassy lower courtyard, framed by brick walls. One length of this garden is planted with heirloom lilacs, underplanted with perennial geraniums and bulbs. This area looked like a great place for some lawn games!

The shade garden is overhung by a large flowering cherry tree. Planted along the brick wall were various Ferns and Hostas. Beyond the wall is another 20 acres of preserved land which contains a stream, pond and wetlands with rare ferns and wild orchids.

Each house on this tour was different but each beautiful in it's own right. I hope you enjoyed coming along with me!

Be sure to check out the other homes on the Garden Tour:
House #1: Centre Island
House #2: Lattingtown
House #3: Bayville 

Garden Tour: House #3 Bayville

Located in Bayville, NY, this garden was the third house on the Garden Tour along Long Island's Gold Coast. In 1974, the homeowner purchased this house and has done much of the gardening herself.

I loved the beds around the trees in the front yard, surrounded by the stonework.

The homeowner always had a soft spot for lilies and over the years has added to her collection. Today, she is a member of the American Day Lily Society and has well over 1,000 varieties of lilies in her garden, each labeled with the name of the lily as well as the year it was hybridized.

The house has the distinction of being an official "Display Garden of the American Hemerocallis Society."

Unfortunately, on the day of the tour, the gardens were not in bloom. She had a large photograph on display for visitors to see her garden in all its glory.

**Update!**
The homeowner invited everyone from the tour back to her house this week to view her lilies in full bloom. And it was worth the wait!

Here is the front garden in full bloom.

 Her display of Daylilies and Hydrangeas were truly spectacular.

 The backyard was a pie-shape and her lilies filled in every spot.

So many different colors and varieties. It was easy to spend over an hour just wandering through the gardens, looking at the different shapes and petals and also learning the names.

Here were three of my favorites:

It was so wonderful for the homeowner to invite us all back to her house to see the lilies in bloom. It's amazing what a difference few weeks can make!

Do you have any daylilies? Which are your favorite?

Be sure to check out the other homes on the Garden Tour:
House #1: Centre Island
House #2: Lattingtown
House #4: Oyster Bay Cove

Private Gardens of Seattle

Last week, I was lucky enough to attend the Garden Bloggers Fling in Seattle, WA. Although many garden bloggers have been meeting in various cities for the past four years, this was my first time attending. It was wonderful to put faces to the blogs I read and to meet garden bloggers from all over the country - some blog for fun, some for professional reasons, some are garden book writers, some are photographers and some have jobs completely unrelated to gardening. But the common thread was the love of gardening, horticulture and landscape design.

Each of the four days was carefully planned by the Fling organizers so that we were able to see both private and public gardens in the Seattle area. I am excited to share with you my photos of the trip, but for the sake of space, I will divide the blog posts into sections. So be sure to come back to read it all!

Here are some of my personal favorites from the private gardens we visited:

Garden #1: Tucker Garden
Shelagh Tucker spent years working to turn her front yard into a xeriscape (a style of landscape design requiring little or no irrigation or other maintenance designed specifically to cope with dry conditions and for water conservation). The sun was shining down on her front yard, decorated with steps, stones and drought tolerant plants. 

In contrast, her backyard was lush with plants, grass and trees. My two favorites were a Dahlia and Clematis combination in a small courtyard:

And the pond:

Garden #2: Birrell Garden
Shelagh's next door neighbors, Suzette & Jim Birrell, had an equally impressive garden. A contrast to the xeriscape, Suzette's front yard was lush and overflowing with flowers, shrubs and trees. Every nook and cranny was planted with something beautiful. 

The backyard was curved, which gave the small space a comfortable feel. She had an impressive vegetable garden with peas, chard, cabbage, beets and artichokes - just to name a few! 

Although we were treated to blue skies on the day of our visit, the owners say the shed was painted bright blue after "the bluest skies you've ever seen" in Seattle. It must be lovely to look at that color on the gray and rainy days, I'm sure!
 

Garden #3: Epping Garden
The garden of Michelle and Christopher Epping is a past winner of the Pacific Northwest Gardens Competition (3rd place in 2007). Their home is located in Newcastle, just outside of Seattle, and sits on top of a hill. We were again treated with clear, sunny skies and from the house, we could see the Seattle skyline, Olympic Mountains and Lake Washington.

Their garden had many layers and paths winding all around the garden. Here are some of my favorite things from this garden:

Garden #4: Lane Garden
Nearly every inch of Denise Lane's one acre garden in Medina, WA was landscaped with plants, paths and unique garden accents. 
We enjoyed lunch on the the stone patio that was recently transformed from a pickle-ball court. The patio now features an outdoor kitchen, gas fire tables and multiple seating areas.

Her gardens had both sunny perennial beds and shady woodlands. I especially loved the beautiful displays of Calla Lilies and Astillbe:

The beautiful glass fiddleheads were created by glassblower Barbara Sanderson.

But my favorite was the "Ruins." Flowers dripped from the pillars above, and below, the water cascaded into the pond over a large stone leaf:

Have a look at this photo below. Can you spot me?

She had 3 long mirrors placed at the back of one flower bed. They provided an interesting perspective!

Garden #5: Edwards Forkner Garden
Lorene Edwards Forkner's garden was filled with eclectic garden accents, many of which she is highlighting in her upcoming book "Handmade Garden Projects: Step-by-Step Instructions for Creative Garden Features, Containers, Lighting and More".

Some of my favorite creations in her garden were these:

Rusted mailbox nestled among the Sisyrinchium striatum

Topiaries living in an old wagon

A terrarium inside an industrial sized light feature

Vintage travel trailer as a place to relax or entertain

Inside the travel trailer

Garden #6: Farley Garden
The last private garden we toured was the home of Kate Farley, a landscape designer, who specializes in garden structure. 
I was impressed with the tunnel she created in the front yard from her shrubs.

The potting shed in the backyard was furnished with vintage tools and found objects:

Walking around to the back of the house I was amazed at the show of color from the sunny bed filled with purple Delphinium, pale Phlox, magenta Poppies and orange Astromeria, set off by two purple trellis:

Nestled in the shade, an old tree house surrounds a tree trunk and is now covered in climbing rose branches:

Stay tuned for more from my Garden Blogger's Fling to Seattle - next I'll highlight some of the public gardens we visited!