This site is an archive of ChiotsRun.com. For the latest information about Susy and her adventrures, visit the Cultivate Simple site.
Thank you for all your support over the years!

Shelburne Farms: The Formal Gardens

August 31st, 2016

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.
shelburne farms formal gardens 1
shelburne farms formal gardens 9
shelburne farms formal gardens 6
shelburne farms formal gardens 8
shelburne farms formal gardens 14
shelburne farms formal gardens 5
shelburne farms formal gardens 13
shelburne farms formal gardens 10
shelburne farms formal gardens 4
shelburne farms formal gardens 7
shelburne farms formal gardens 12
shelburne farms formal gardens 17
shelburne farms formal gardens 11
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!
shelburne farms formal gardens 3
shelburne farms formal gardens 2
Inside the house there were arrangements here and there, all lovely and all from the gardens, many from the market garden cutting garden.
shelburne farms formal gardens 15
shelburne farms formal gardens 16
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

August 30th, 2016

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.
shelburne farms edible gardens 1
shelburne farms edible gardens 13
shelburne farms edible gardens 2
shelburne farms edible gardens 11
shelburne farms edible gardens 3
shelburne farms edible gardens 12
shelburne farms edible gardens 4
shelburne farms edible gardens 14
shelburne farms edible gardens 5
shelburne farms edible gardens 6
shelburne farms edible gardens 7
shelburne farms edible gardens 15
shelburne farms edible gardens 8
shelburne farms edible gardens 9
shelburne farms edible gardens 10
shelburne farms edible gardens 16
shelburne farms edible gardens 17
shelburne farms edible gardens 18
shelburne farms edible gardens 19
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

August 29th, 2016

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.
cottage on South Hero
cottage on south hero 1
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.
Shelburne Farms barn 5
Shelburne Farms barn 4
Shelburne Farms barn 3
Shelburne Farms barn 6
Shelburne Farms barn 1
Shelburne Farms barn 2
Shelburne Farms 2
Shelburne Farms 3
Shelburne Farms house
Shelburne Farms
Shelburne Farms barn 3
Shelburne Farms barn 1
Shelburne Farms barn 2
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

August 28th, 2016

“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

cloudy_skies
rain
Ice Storm 1
digging in the soil
Main edible garden 2

Friday Favorite: This Combination

August 26th, 2016

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.
dahlia and hydrangea 1
dahlia and hydrangea 2
dahlia and hydrangea 3
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?

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

Admin