#gardenvisiting Archives - Page 7 of 7 - Andrea Whitely Garden Consultant

Success in a small garden requires attention to detail.

There’s a darling small formal garden in Atlanta that I was lucky enough to visit during September, which is filled to the brim with tiny vignettes of carefully manicured and perfectly planned spaces and then the very special surprise just when you think you have seen the whole garden, a most enchanting knot garden.

A folly of carefully clipped balls — A folly of carefully clipped spheres

This captivating garden owned and generously shared by Mary Wayne Dixon was just superb. A commitment to establishing a knot garden is significant, I always admire the patience of the Master Gardener who takes care of these features in botanical gardens but to contemplate and then successfully execute creating and maintaining one in your own home garden is quite an undertaking.

This is not just any knot garden it actually takes up most of the open space in the rear of the property and it is clipped to perfection and oh so delightful. It’s in 3D and very cleverly done using variegated and non-variegated plants all in great health and clipped flawlessly.

I loved the tree Vitex agnus-castus in the front garden almost as much as the bees did on this late summer afternoon, it was lush and healthy and just covered in blooms.

The espalier in the walled courtyard was absolutely stunning-check out how well it has been trained…now that’s disciplined gardening.

Boy oh Boy, they do things well in the USA and styling is one of them, I absolutely loved the styling of the back porch/garden room, everything was just positioned in the most exquisite way. How alluring is this space? Wouldn’t you just love to sit here on a Hotlanta afternoon with a nice cool glass of something and a few cheese straws to nibble on? I know I sure would!

This neighborhood was absolutely lovely, even the roundabout (which took our coach a very long time to negotiate) had seating for people to enjoy and come together as a community. I love that idea.

Late season flowering hydrangeas reminded us that Summer was not quite finished yet.

Have you ever tried to create a knot garden?

OK Friends, I must confess, I get very excited when I know that I’m going to see other people’s gardens. It’s no wonder really, after all I was the Co-ordinator of the Open Garden Scheme here in WA and Chairman of the Management Committee for years before that, so I guess I think of myself as a bit of an old timer when it comes to checking out other people’s spaces. I have seen the best of the best in this country that’s for sure.

I just love visiting gardens, not in a creepy sort of voyeuristic, peeping in people’s windows sort of way…. I just love seeing how other people interpret their private outdoor rooms, how they choose to connect with their land. I love to see which art pieces they buy or create, which plants they choose, which trees they plant. Breathe, Andrea, Breathe…..Hyperventilating…..So can you imagine how hard it was to contain myself at the prospect of seeing nine private gardens in three days during my recent trip to Atlanta to attend #GWA16 The Annual Garden Writers Association conference. I was just like a kid in a lolly shop on the inside (I’m not ashamed to admit) while maintaining my uber cool self on the outside -sure sure-who am I kidding? I could not wipe the smile off my face, my pointer figure had clicking fatigue from all the camera action taking place and my face was sore from smiling and making an “O” shape with my mouth, it’s a wonder one of those giant bumblebees didn’t fly right in….and yet this is my work?!

Garden communicators are a very happy lot-why wouldn’t we be? Let’s be real, getting to wander through stunning gardens surrounded by like-minded plant mad, garden crazy souls. I just loved getting back on the bus after each garden, listening to the chatter, even though on one of the days we were drenched by 2.5 inches of rain, we didn’t care one bit…the post viewing excitement was palpable, “did you see that?”, “how was the art?”, “what about those birdhouses” and “OMG did you see those pots?”

The gardens selected for this years’ conference were, well let’s just say a BIG WOW at every stop.

A hearty congratulations to the Selectors of this years’ private gardens they were really outstanding and this little Aussie did not mind one bit traveling 25 hours in a flying tube to spend precious time with my new found friends and reuniting with some dear older ones from my first conference last year.

Today, I am going to share just one of the incredibly lush beautifully presented gardens we saw…there’s more pics and more stories to follow…Thank you so much Candy Johnson for sharing this garden with us

OK so..now you want to have a look too, don’t you..you know you want too…well here you are…..just a peek mind you…