four different gardens

Sue and I went on the Teeny Tiny Garden Tour today, featuring thirteen different gardens open for viewing.  It's an annual fundraiser for Hospice and a great way to spend a sunny Sunday.  Of the ones we visited, four stand out as very special. Each is very different.

This is Abkhazi Gardens, which is actually not teeny-tiny, but is a Victoria heritage garden built by an exiled Russian prince and his wife in the 1940s. It features amazingly large specimen trees and exquisite flowers. I'll call this the historic garden.

There's also a wonderful pond just full of lovely water lilies.

The second garden is a cottage garden set in a very small yard on a quiet back street in the heart of Oak Bay. This house a cottage style from the early 1900s with a sweet front porch.

It's very tidy and organized with lots of vegetables and varied foliage.  The one on the left is a lovely hosta in bloom. On the right another sweet one but I don't know the name.  This garden was very understated with mostly white flowers.

And at the very bottom of the yard is this sweet little painting studio.  

Garden number three was a garden of whimsy on a regular street but once you passed the gate you were in a fantasy land.  Fabulous plants set off with garage sale finds, bottles, fountains, mirrors and all kinds of treasures.  

And finally, the English Country Garden, thirty years a labour of love, with banks of roses, arbours, pathways and a gorgeous mix of flowering plants.

Going to see these gardens was a complete inspiration for the garden we're making here at Yukon Street. Now all I have to do is decide what kind of garden I want to create.