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Health & Fitness

Every Garden Can Be A Grand Garden!

The Missouri Botanical Garden Tour left me amazed and inspired. You, too, can create a "grand garden" worthy of a garden tour!

On June 13th I attended the Missouri Botanical Garden tour.  It is held every three years and showcases the best gardens in the St. Louis area.  The gardens are all over the city- from Town & Country to Portland Place. 

It’s obvious that the owners of these gardens put love, sweat and tears (and a fair amount of pocket change!) into every inch of their gardens.  Our tour guide told me that one of the gardens had a Bobcat tearing up the landscape just a few days prior to the event.  You would have never known it- it looked just splendid!

One of the gardeners hybridizes hostas and daylilies.  Another built a pool and surrounding landscape to reflect her love of yoga.  Still another turned the entire back yard into a series of ponds, waterfalls and pools.  They had some of the biggest koi I have ever seen! 

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Yet another eliminated all the honeysuckle from her property, replacing it with ponds and native plantings to attract wildlife.  They have had over 110 different varieties of birds visit the pond in the new landscape.  To an avid gardener, it was a perfect day!

Going though my photos gave me some great ideas for my own garden.  I had photographed specific vignettes, paying close attention to elements I found pleasing.  I am always changing portions of my garden, looking to add new plants, statuary or perhaps a water feature. 

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While I was visiting these gardens, I realized that any gardener could have a grand garden.  Perhaps you don’t have acres and acres of property to create a formal English parterre, complete with precisely clipped boxwood and lush David Austin roses, but we all can have grandness regardless of the size of our garden. 

Love all the English landscapes but live in an apartment or condo?  Why not place a clipped boxwood in a classic cast iron urn? 

Looking for some antique garden ornaments to spruce up your patio?   Head down to Cherokee Street and check out the antique shops.  

Longing for a water feature that won’t break the bank?  There are some charming styles online.  I even found one that was a set of stacked stones- called a “Rock Cairn” similar to the style in the “yoga garden” in Ladue.  Water runs up a tube in the center of the stones and pools over the rocks, creating a very peaceful, serene sound.  You’ll find that many sources sell them and they’re under $150. 

Are you looking for some knockout planting combinations?  I love the mix of pale purple Agapanthus mixed with white Angelonia at the English garden in Ladue.  They were planted inside clipped boxwood, but you can get the same effect by placing them in a container.  It’s a very sophisticated combination and one that anyone can replicate. 

Hydrangeas were abundant in nearly every garden.  Oak leaf hydrangeas with the conical white flower head; enormous Mopheads with pink or blue blooms, and snow white Annabelles made a real impact.  Most can be purchased at Lowes and Home Depot cheaply and, in a few years, your landscape will be lush, full and the envy of the neighborhood. 

Boxwood not only were clipped as shrubs, but also used as edging.  ‘Morris Midget’ is a variety that stays very small and is perfect for use as a border planting.  It can be sheared often, remaining compact and dense.  One of the gardens used the boxwood as an edging for a herb garden.

So, don’t think because your home and yard aren't large, you can’t garden in a grand style.   We can create grandness by borrowing ideas and planting schemes from grand gardens we admire.   Perhaps you will find inspiration in some of the photos I took on the tour.  They’re all attainable, giving our gardens the grandness we desire.

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