Field Trip – A South Minneapolis Garden

I like visiting gardens – both public and private.  I like to see what plants people use and what “objects” they use, if any.  I like seeing the colors and textures and variety.  I notice whether there’s symmetry or asymmetry in the garden and whether that “feels” right or not.

Sunday, I visited the garden of a friend who lives in South Minneapolis.  She’s a long-time gardener, too.  Her plant love is lilies – more specifically, Asiatic and Oriental lilies (not your regular day lily).  I have a few Asiatic lilies and one Martagon lily but am allergic to the Oriental lilies, so I avoid those in my own garden.  And,even though her garden contains a lot of them, it's such an inviting space, I always want to stay and enjoy it!

As all gardeners do, we’ve shared plants over the years.  I gave her a Martagon lily some years back, and Sunday, I put my name on a spiderwort in her garden! (I couldn’t take it with me because there’s just too much else going on here to get it planted in a reasonable amount of time.)  Lucky for me, my friend is patient!

Her garden has undergone some significant changes in the last year or so.  She’s ripped out an old and overpowering grape vine and installed a nice (care free) trellis.  She’s installed a new covering for her deck (which faces west and gets a TON of afternoon sun).  She had a new shed put in and decided the view from the deck was entirely “too white.” So, she added these gorgeous branches, which came down from her tree.  I LOVE this idea and would like to do something similar in my own garden for the new sitting area.

Have you been inspired by visiting a fellow gardener’s garden?  What idea(s) have you borrowed?