Gardens – I love gardening and I love to see others’ gardens. They are oftentimes so much full of creativity and love for both the plants and the home. Some are more for ‘use’ with vegetables and fruits, others are just for beauty and again others are for fun.
Last weekend I have been on a garden tour in Clairemont in San Diego, Southern California. And it was really a tour from ‘beautiful’ to ‘amazing ideas’ to ‘oh my gosh!’
From morning to late afternoon private homes opened their front and back yards to show their passion for gardening. Many of them have amazing ideas, some live their hobby in the backyard, others want to create a place where to relax. The range is from succulent gardens that need nearly no water to a jungle like environment. Some have a lot of flowers and others play a lot with rocks of all colors. The variety is really amazing.
I personally prefer the more greener ones with lots of flowers and of course vegetables. Many yards are small but still transformed into creative beauties. Some are huge places where a vegetable garden is also possible, a green house, patios and lawns. Many times the houses themselves look great and are well maintained.
We saw all the gardens, 12 in all, had lunch after half of them, just to clear our minds and be ready to see more. I came home with new ideas but mainly with the knowledge of what is possible here in Southern California: everything if with a clever irrigating system.
1. The first garden was made mainly with succulents and was a real masterpiece on a small place.
2. The second offered a lot of ideas, space still to develop and was designed for entertaining friends with a huge kitchen outside.
3. The next one had a small backyard with a terrace and succulents around, many of them in pots. The front yard is special.
4. Here someone likes playing with trains and tracks. A wonderful landscape recalling old times, two trains running around, passing through tunnels and crossing rivers. Bushes that look like trees, small flowers that seem to be flowering bushes in the landscape. Very playful.
5. A big backyard opening to a canyon with an amazing view is already something. This has a balcony full of hanging succulents and tillandsias and a a few spots where to sit and enjoy the sunset. Chickens roaming around, plants in pots and a lot of pathways through little flower patches.
6. The sixth and the last one before lunch is amazingly green and full of hundreds of different flowers. Already the house is amazing, Mexican style painted in red-brown with blue-green accentuation. A colorful greenhouse made of old windows and doors, many places where to sit, a good composting system and an even better water collecting system.
We had lunch in a Thai restaurant with yummy Tom Yum Gai soup and fried rice before going to see the second half of the garden tour.
7. Our next garden to visit after lunch was again inspired by other succulent gardens. Very creative: they used old rain gutters painting them in vibrant colors and using them for also very colorful succulents. They are hanging along the fence of the backyard.
8. The eighth one transformed his front yard from an insignificant front lawn into a sloping front around a wonderful pepper tree. A dry river bed made with rocks, Mexican lobelia, rock rose, California sage bush and more. Very interesting design!
9. The next garden was beautiful but not that spectacular. The backyard is mainly a terrace with patches of flowers and vegetables, beautiful flowering trees and much place to hang around.
10. In this garden someone loves to relax Mediterranean style. Again a garden facing a canyon with a spectacular view, a covered balcony with lots of hanging flowers and plants and a view on a huge lawn surrounded by flowers. Really inviting: the deck chairs under a pergola.
11. The last ones are definitely much more our style: full of green and flowers, parts with sun and parts with shade. A beautiful trompe l’oeil on the wall, nice places were to sit and read a book, an inviting barbecue place and many, many flowers. Very nice: the many bird houses. They were even on sale.
12. The last garden of the garden tour is a kind of jungle. It was for me like entering some part of the Amazonian region. Full of palm trees on more levels, wooden bridges and pathways, lots of little details and really the feeling of being somewhere else than in the hot and dry San Diego.
I loved also the last one, amazing, OMG, wow, but thinking about it it would have to much shade for me. And in addition I like open spaces with lots of flowers and a vegetable garden. I got a lot of ideas but I now know that I can really do everything I want and it will grow the whole year. I just need a good irrigation system.
Clairemont, San Diego, California/USA:
For further information:
Garden Tour Clairemont
