Shelburne Farms: The Formal Gardens
On the second day, we went back to Shelburne farms for a tour of the house and gardens followed by afternoon tea. The formal gardens are fairly new, they’re currently being restored to their former glory. There’s a long way to go yet, to get them back to their prime, but there is still a lot of beauty in them. The perennial borders and the rose garden were both very lovely. I really love the hardscaping in a formal garden. It’s generally quite an expense, which is probably why I appreciate it. I know that I will never had hardscaping that comes close to the amazing things seen in this garden.
I loved this giant plant by the back door, I’m not sure what it is (perhaps one of you will know), but I must get some for my garden. With the size/scale of my garden, this plant would fit right in here!
Inside the house there were arrangements here and there, all lovely and all from the gardens, many from the market garden cutting garden.
This garden will get better and better as the years go by. Our guide was telling us about the future plans to restore certain areas. The peony garden and rose garden will fill in and look better and better with each passing year. Shelburne Farms is a must visit if you’re a gardener.
What’s your favorite formal garden feature?
See more posts about Shelburne Farms:
Shelburne Farms
The Market Garden
The Edible Garden
Shelburne Farms: The Edible Garden
The first day we went to Shelburne Farms was spent looking around the barns, talking to the cows, pigs, chickens, and touring the potager behind the big barn. It’s a lovely space, filled with perennial fruits and vegetables and a wide variety of annual vegetables and flowers as well. The design was nice, informal, but very productive and well done.
I hope you enjoyed that tour of the edible gardens.
See more posts about Shelburne Farms:
Shelburne Farms
The Market Garden
The Formal Garden
Shelburne Farms
The first week of August I was in Vermont with a friend. We rented a little cabin on Lake Champlain and spent four days relaxing and visiting a few interesting places in the area.
The first day we went to Shelburne Farms, which is a fantastic place to spend a day or weekend. The first day we toured the barn, ate dinner from the food truck in the barnyard (featuring food grown on the farm), toured the formal gardens by the house, and did a cheese tasting of their award winning cheeses.
It was lovely, we enjoyed it so much we purchased tickets for tea and a house tour for the following day and went back. The edible gardens were lovely, I’ll be posting a few series of photos in the coming days to show you the various gardens at the farm.
What are some of your favorite vacation garden visits?
See more posts about Shelburne Farms:
The Market Garden
The Formal Garden
The Edible Garden
Quote of the Day: Henry Beston
“Nature must never be anything else but an alliance. Alas, I know well enough that nature has her hostile moods, and I am equally aware that we must often face and fight as we can her waywardness, her divine profusion, and her divine irrationality. Even then, I will have it, the alliance holds. When we begin to consider nature as something to be robbed greedily like an unguarded treasure, or used as an enemy, we put ourselves in thought outside of nature of which we are inescapably a part. Be it storm and flood, hail and fire, or the yielding furrow and the fruitful plain, an alliance it is, and that alliance is the cornerstone of our humanity.”
Henry Beston in Northern Farm
Friday Favorite: This Combination
As the season progresses I find myself enjoying very specific combinations of plants, both for color, shape, and feel. Maybe this is because I’m in the process of creating a garden, I am constantly looking for the right combination for the right location. Right now I’m in love with this combination of colors, the lime green of the ‘Annabelle’ hydrangea as they dry paired with the deep purple/pink of the ‘Thomas Edison’ dahlia. Maybe I’m loving them especially because they are right by the front door, which means I see them all day long as go in and out.
The dahlias are a little less than stellar, for some reason the earwigs have been chowing down on them like there’s nothing else to eat in the garden. Even in their raggedy state, they’re quite lovely, I’ve never been one to expect perfection in any plant.
What’s your favorite combination in the garden right now?
Filed under Around the Garden | Comments (2)