Picture Perfect 

(This is a 2018 garden description. Gardens for this year’s tour can be found here.)

A riot of color pulls you up the walk under an old and stately copper beech. This is Lori’s dream garden and it is far from the manicured lawn, roses and ‘pom pom’ shrubbery that passed for a garden when they moved in fifteen years ago. Feeling inexperienced as a gardener, but with a love of flowers and color, she dug in anyway and slowly the dream unfolded. Out came most of the lawn and the ‘pom poms' and a tired old sweet gum that cast a shadow and roots over much of the garden you see before you. 

Lori created a picture-board full of plant and garden images to guide her vision for a series of garden rooms to be used by family and friends. She and her brother, who pick-axed his way through heavy clay soil and old tree roots, made this picture-perfect garden a reality. 

A path to your left brings you around and through a colorful palette of ninebark, foxglove, salvia, roses, and sedum that surrounds a tall Japanese maple—the focal point of this patio garden and seating area. In spring, loads of tulips, azaleas, and flowering cherry spill over with color. 

A planter full of yellow meconopsis leads around the house to a shady side garden with fuchsias and then to the backyard pool and gardens. A colorfully planted flower bed is an inviting transition from patio to pool deck. A series of steps at the south end of the pool leads to a hillside garden, a trampoline and a playhouse retreat for children. 

With a dog, three cats, a bunny, and a bearded dragon lizard, the owner made these gardens to be enjoyed and used, not just admired. 

Wheelchair accessible.