NxNA Garden Tour - Clark Garden

After getting back in the car, I realized 1) it was getting to be very hot, 2) I still had at least 7 gardens I wanted to get to, and 3) if I was going to get to all those gardens I really needed to get a move on.  No more lollygagging (and yet I still took a crap-load of photos).

I drove through (and around) the neighborhood to get to the Clark Garden - a very large lot shaded by large oaks.

I parked my car along the street, got out, and took this photo:

Talk about planning right?  A nice little parking spot in the shade with a path to the house.

As most of the other houses had owners and/or friends manning a greeting table in the driveway, I thought maybe I should head over to see if there was anything of interest I should know about for the garden.

A view from the top of the driveway.

About half-way down the driveway there's a little wood separator in the grass.  I'm not exactly sure why...maybe it's the line drawn in the sand to signify where the ivy will have to stop?  I honestly took the photo because I love the line.

Seeing that there wasn't anyone in the driveway, I snapped a shot of one of the 'islands' and then headed back up the driveway to wander down the original pathway.

A staked mallow plant, rockrose and some other plants in an island bed.

Getting back to my car, I started walking down the path toward the house, and thought that the curve of the path and the focal point of the birdbath was pretty awesome.

Until I got a little further down and realized that it was even MORE AWESOME.  Awesomer, if you will.

Like seriously, all I could think of while following the trail was "This is like a lesson from Saxon Holt!"

I got to the backyard and saw a rudbeckia reaching for the sky, and felt compelled to take a photo - I love photos of sunflowers (or sunflower-like flowers) reaching for the sky.  One of my favorite photos from our honeymoon was a field of sunflowers reaching for the sky backed by an old church.

Rudbeckia reaching for the sky.

Fellow garden tour folks

A wide angle of the back yard.

In all honesty, I was waiting for the other tour goers to leave the little brick plinth so I could get a closer look at the blue hydrangeas.  Hydrangeas are something that I always associated with grandmothers (even though mine never grew anything), and locations that weren't Colorado (I don't remember any one growing them in Colorado).  As true blue flowers are fairly rare, I became obsessed with Nikko Blue Hydrangeas when I moved down here.  I even went as far as to buy a plant, and different plant fertilizers to try to force one half pink and one half blue.  Unfortunately, the hydrangea died before I could even start my science experiment.

Blue hydrangeas

Continuing on around the yard, I noticed an old bench with a wren house on it.

It was about at this point that I was able to speak a little with the home owner.  She told me that the oak tree was estimated to be a couple hundred years old.  And as such, I felt that it deserved a picture.

On the opposite end of the yard, there was a giant lightbulb:

Okay, I honestly don't know what it actually is other than a pretty garden ornament, I just couldn't get over how lightbulb-esque it looks.

A view back at the brick plinth.  I'm not exactly sure what it's actually supposed to be - was it a fireplace?  is it supposed to have something on top?  In any case, the plants and statuary around it makes it a nice focal point.

On my way out on the driveway, I noticed a candy stripe rose - 

And then I noticed how cool the driveway looked - It's very 'southern' - basically any time I see a roadway (Old Spicewood Springs Road is good for this) or walk with trees arching over it, I always think, "how southern!" I'm not exactly sure why this is the case, but it is.  I've learned to just go with it.