The Mainview Garden was the first one we visited. Owned by Judy and Jay McDonald, it was on the way up Mt. Sequoyah. According to the handout we were given, their home and gardens lie on three and half acres. They had a few large trees, including a locust that serves as the form for a wisteria vine. It's season for bloom was over, but the vine was beautiful and I can imagine it would be quite lovely dressed in purple flowers. We enjoyed their little ponds with water plants, tadpoles, and goldfish. My favorite of their water features was the one with the moss cave (see picture above right). Their gardener is Melva Mellinger.
Our second stop was to the Survivor's Garden owned by Martha and Mark Haguewood. It's off of Mission. It is called "Survivor" because it survived damages from the strong winds and rain left over from Hurricane Ike and damages from the ice storm of 2009. They did lose 14 trees during all that and had to learn to sun gardening instead of shade gardening. The Haguewood's also had a water feature (did we go to a garden that didn't have one?); theirs had "rescued" Koi. The table and chairs in the shade was our favorite spot (and not just because it was hot out). You can hardly see it in the photo, but the form for a chandelier light is hanging from the tree above.
"Mascabado" at Mission de la Esperanza (Mission of Hope) was our third stop. It is the home of Denis and Hershey Garner. Our handout stated "Mascabado" to mean "unrefined" and naturally comfortable..... and it was. Here we were treated with lemonade and cookies. I loved a couple of the old trees they had there. The saltwater pool was really nice. It looked natural and had many plantings and stone around it. The old church pews under the refreshment pavillion were beautiful. Their water feature (besides the pool), was full of a sturdy blooming water lily as well as other water plants.
Our last stop was my favorite, I think because it seemed more natural. This garden is owned by Mary and Tom Dillard and helped along by Wesley Smith of Dirty Deeds. The garden thrives in the back-acres of Farmington. We loved Wesley's lily ponds up front which were full of tadpoles. They were all framed by rock and had rock paths. Here we saw excellent usage of ground cover between and around stones. Tom had three immature paw paw trees. They are lovely now, but should be even more so when they are grown. He had laying hens in a backyard enclosure. One feature my friend and I both enjoyed was the use of hollowed stumps as planters. This was repeated throughout the garden. Rock "sculptures" were found throughout as well. Butterflies and caterpillars both were at home in the Dillard Garden.
I took a lot of pictures but these will have to do for today. It's still hot and I'm tired!
Until next time........
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