our city's botanical garden sponsors a yearly event of touring gardens around the city. this year's was being held this weekend and the event showed the gardens of the rich and powerful in the upscale district of rosedale. rosedale is a 'community' that includes old grand mansions. it is a chance to see the beautifully kept gardens that the ordinary people only get to look at from outside the fence. i have shot some of the smaller and newer houses before but had never gone deep inside this community. i was hoping that this would be a good photo opportunity. also because partner paid for a ticket for the event.
today i visited 9 gardens. the first one was a small walk-in garden but beautifully laid out, with a mid-size (heated in the winter) swimming pool and jacuzzi spa that had thick glass covers so that the falling leaves or any insects cannot get in the water. its lounge room was as large as the pool with soft cushioned sofas and a fireplace. then the next four gardens were nice, with all the 'obligatory' peonies, lilies, roses and flaming japanese maple trees.
by this time, which was after one in the afternoon, my bladder was screaming for relief but as i walked back to the shuttle stop, i passed by 137 cluny and i thought since i was there i might as well see it and if i'm not impressed, i will just leave and go back to headquarters.
two water rills lined with river rocks flanked the entrance, the sounds of the water trickling mechanically like that of an aquarium, magically calms you (or my bladder) down. everything in this address was large. it was on a corner and one street was where the buses (yes, they needed bus routes so the helps can get to their places of work). between the house and the street is a large pebbled garden, the "fence" was a bank of imposing tall centuries-old trees (including a weeping fir tree) and raised beds of tri-colour beech and other hardy bushes thrive. there is a transitional area where indoors and outdoors seemed to merge, and you can see the garden proper through the glass walls.
the garden proper had three sections, all marked by more water rills. it had stopped raining and after the clouds parted the sun seemed to shine just on this property. the grand terrace (but they called it breakfast patio), all lined with large planters of beautiful flowering plants or roses, overlooked the south gardens, on one side a large gorgeous pool with grecian blue tiles, all protected from the east side by two banks tall spruces and other winter-hardy trees; the other side is the walk with a grassy lawn (the lawns were surprisingly dry after the rains, and that was because there were drainage at strategic points of the grounds and two rows of dolgo crabapple trees.
beyond are two large buildings: at the end of the pool, the columned greenhouse, with a small library (i say small as in there's still a larger space for everything else) and soft cushioned settées in white, separated by a beautifully clipped 'mandarin' bush on a large glassed coffee table. it houses a variety of orchids and other rare plants. there was a pebbled courtyard in front of this greenhouse lined with flowering and hard-to-find breeds of roses and in the centre was fountain.
the other building was an outdoor gymnasium, yes, as big as a mid-size gymnasium, but impeccably clean and well-maintained.
there are three gardeners looking after this property's garden, each with a section of his own in the gardens. two of them had master's degrees.
before the exit, which was the garage, sorry, i meant the carport, lined with red bricks, we got to see rare plants and trees and more climbing roses that spilled outside the concrete fence. outside, the brick fence was almost invisible as the enormous bushes of white roses covered the fence and i realized as i tried to find the shuttle stop that the exit was about two blocks from where i entered.
it was a big property; apparently, the owners bought the surrounding three properties to create this big one.
after an hour's tour of this address' gardens, all i could say was "wow! supercalifragelisticexpialidocious!" yes, there are some things that can be described by this word alone.
if you are so inclined, please see my other posting with a much shorter description:
http://365project.org/summerfield/365/2012-06-09
thank you for viewing, reading and commenting. i appreciate them very much.
