Does Your GARDEN Mimic Your DREAM Garden ?

I think we all have dreams, fantasies about the perfect home, dream garden , perfect spouse, perfect job, perfect life...a dreaming soul is in all of us. And if I had a dream garden that I would love to have, that I would aspire to...it would be this one in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. I have written about how this garden ' draws me to it ' , every time I go on my walks. It is , out of all the glorious gardens there, my very favorite.

Outwardly, from the sidewalk in front...the casual stroller would not immediately notice this garden. But when you walk past the opening here...this is what you see,

 Wow, I do believe I catch my breath every time I see it.

 18th century design.

I love the small clipped boxwoods or hollies. The curved lines of the crushed shell paths , mixed with pebbles if I recall correctly....seem to lure you around the garden with your eyes.

To the right of the garden. I have to take all these shots from behind massive wrought iron gates , as my dream garden is out of direct reach to me.

I cannot set even my foot on the curved paths, without permission of course.

I hate to ask permission to do anything...not shy, actually assertive enough to go ahead and just do what I want to do .

But this is gated off , and I am in in bit of a paralyzed state when I am there.
If I ever am fortunate to see a real person out there, I will try to see if I can come inside. So far, I have not ever seen anyone outside.

I look out at it, and wonder what it would be like to go further  in ... there is a back larger garden area.

behind this guy...

This very handsome bronze statue, with his one broken forearm, always dances in my garden.

He is their centerpiece.

My daughter took this shot of me in early April, holding on tight to the bars of my dream garden. That is pretty much what I do when I am not taking pictures of it.

Staring and smiling, holding on tight.

Glad the homeowner's have not called the police on me before.

Alert, " Woman holding on tight to our garden gates in front , and looking dreamy."

That's me.

Oh !

forgot to show you the historic marker -plaque that describes this historic garden. Here you can read it for yourself:

Just click the picture to make it larger and read all the info. The John Blake garden, done in a  pattern style. Or parterre design info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parterre

Getting back to my earlier title to this post...Does your garden mimic your dream garden ? I thought that I am trying, unable to maintain mine like this one, as all of the historic Charleston gardens seem to have professional landscapers-caretakers come around and take care of them.

All I have is me, in the  yard-lady category.

Me will have to do though.

Here is part of mine below, overgrown, no clipped hollies surround, no winding pebble paths, no dancing teasing bronze statue... but it has a' feel ' of the other garden..at least to me.

 Late May.

Late June, today. Little wild out there isn't it ? Lush, needs further weeding and trimming.

But it is my garden, getting closer to my own dream garden at my own house.

I am sure this made you think of your dream garden .

Maybe it is already in your own backyard.

I do love my garden.

Have a great day,

going to be another scorcher here in the Deep south today...high 90's again,

Gina

 " All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirits. " Proverbs 16:2

VISIONS that I SAW Walking around CHARLESTON , SC

Here is more of my pictures from a hot June visit to Charleston, SC. These will be some of those odd and end pictures , I always love to show Charleston accents and the flavor of the city as I believe it helps us with our garden ideas and inspirations.

 I love reflections in old wavy glass windows, and this store has fresh flower arrangements every time I pass it.

I love these fruit basket statues. I see these at many homes here.

Putting small statuary on top of your brick columns at your house always adds something to your visual palette , as you look at your home.

 Old brass doorbell.

Dripping , cascading fountain off The Battery. I felt like this picture can almost make you hear the water .

Humor me and pretend it does.

A lovely winding brick walk, leading into a home. It is rare to see a gate open here.

How overflowing and lush can a person make a window box ? This person would win a prize if it was a contest. Crammed full of begonias, coleuses, grasses, and some hibiscuses.

See the newspaper on the walk ? I imagined what it would be like for that to be MY newspaper and I lived here.

Imagination central resides in my head.

Most statuary is painted black here , or left bare.

More baskets on the iron fencing. I love this idea.

I bet you think you know what I took a picture of here ? You're wrong.

I wanted to get a shot of the cute , vintage sprinkler..to the left of the iron centerpiece. I enjoy seeing the very simple elements in gardens, I wish it had been on as I love the sight of old sprinklers and their slower watering method.
It calms something in me.

 I have shown this in some of my older posts on Charleston ( many from last Summer ), but will show again is the landscaping technique often used here with their brick borders. Most of the bricks are inserted downwards in to the ground. Not the simple side by side usual way we all do bricks. I believe this is to help with no encroachment from the yard into wherever the border is. This method involves more bricks and more labor.
But in the long run will last longer.

 Here is a wider shot, so love the brick accent area here. I love the quality of old bricks, imperfections in layout, made me smile just to see it.

 Another antique doorbell outside of a home.

Pretty typical about how treacherous it can be to walk around here. Always try to wear tennis shoes, not sandals...as the large trees have uprooted most of  the sidewalks around town.

Want this ? I will warn you, that Charleston can cause the greedy-garden-me-wants-it to erupt in your heart.

Copper downspouts.

Would you LOOK at this crape myrtle ?!! What on earth is the owner feeding this to make it so unbelievably profuse for us ?

Ok, again...I am going to stop here, but I have about 50 more pictures that I will divide up sort of like this:

A awesome white wooden garden gate entry ( you will love this )

Heavy fabulous wood door and iron entry

Short trip to Edisto Island  w/ big plastic cow entry

Stay tuned, have a good day wherever you are,

Gina

" I will never leave thee..." Hebrews 13:5

My Back PORCH Garden DROP Catch-all SPOT

My new garden catch all spot

I needed to do something with this spot on my back porch area, that I had moved my large Adirondack chair from. The funny thing is, I never sat in that chair, as it was always covered up with miscellaneous ' junk ' and some necessities as we come and go.

Then I decided to put this wrought iron garden table I had, that had been sitting in the driveway, close to  the house for over 6 months as I could not find a good spot for it. I cleaned it off, lifted it up here, and then put all my stuff that I felt I needed...plus some unnecessary stuff I did not need,

on top.

 Case in point. 

 I put a large vintage planter in the back, and put some of my garden tools in it.

I then placed the St. Francis statue I found one day on the road to the right of it, some seashells below him...

 Our tennis shoes below everything, I used to have a planter rack I put these on, but they always ended up here so I left them.

I found this statue outside of a home on an evening walk,  it is probably about 20 years old or so, they had a large garden at this home.

Lucky find.

My only weapon against my mosquitoes , always handy..and when I put them in here...they don't fall over as much.

Since it is one of those tables with holes in the iron, dirt can fall through more than accumulating on top. Maxine's leash is in the vintage Mexican wood bowl there. She knows it is there and she gingerly picks it up before she takes it and runs insanely towards the front yard.

I also keep some other garden tools in this hand-painted letter holder I use for tools instead.

Some of my plant tags are in here..

Some just in a plastic plant container that I will transfer once I remember to scrap off the dirt of them...and some...LOTS, are in a ziploc bag inside my house.

I kind of have a hodge-podge of some hand painted art ( or in the cases that I painted them, extreme PRIMITIVE folk art). The angel I had my husband weatherproofed for me , and I liked that she was colorful in that corner. I collect some folk art angel paintings, and no...I do not believe real angels look like this, as in the Bible they are portrayed as fierce warriors or messengers of  God. I don't believe angels or fairies are running around my garden, sprinkling ' life ' or good spirits. 

 

I just like that these types of folk art angels represent ' Good ', the good in all of us, or maybe the good in me ( just gotta realize it is there )...you guys are going to have to find whatever represents the ' Good ' in you , yourselves.

Whew, that was a long tirade about angels wasn't it ?

Sorry,

back to my little porch..

I like to use mirrors on my porch to reflect the light and my garden to me.

I have a gigantic Crape Myrtle, I planted only about 5 years ago, that is so beautiful with it's white blossoms showing through my lattice.

That's my little hand-painted Charleston , South Carolina scene brick...I have had this sitting here and there, but now I can see it every time I walk by my table. I encourage you to use little reminders or keepsakes outside too.

I just put this Art Deco vintage mirror up yesterday. Now I have three on my little porch.

Bought this on eBay. Just type in Folk Art angel paintings and a bunch will pop up. Buy one and support an artist . Or if you like landscapes or florals, type that in the Search box, and find you some art on wood ( for outside ), and then weatherproof it with shellac or polyurethane .

I love when the sun shines in here.

That's my news sprinkler, I have moved that to the front as I am watering today.  I am the sprinkler system at our house.

Patiently waiting for me to let her inside.

Yawning at me to hurry so she can take her 12th nap of the day.

It's really filling in in my garden now.

Hope your day  is good , I am running to Lowes to buy some mulch.

Bless you,

Gina

 ' The LORD is my light and salvation---whom shall I fear ? " Psalm 27:1