Garden Tour!!!!

I went on my first official garden tour yesterday....of other people's gardens!!! A neighbour, M, that came over and introduced herself when we first arrived here came knocking on my door wanting to know if I was interested in coming over to see what wonderful things were poking their heads through in her garden. Yes! Yes! Yes! I took her on the garden tour in my kitchen and living room. Our cup runneth over and we are running out of room. Good news is that we are pretty much done with our indoor planting. Now it's time to sit back and watch them grow.

Then Ernie and I headed to her house where I met her dog and 2 of her three persian cats. She has a black persian that looks just like my Misha did. Black with copper eyes. They also have Lou who is this massive white with grey spots. Adorable. Ernie was intrigued but quite overwhelmed. New house, new people, new cats and a new dog that is quite high energy and he doesn't do well with that. Then we toured her garden which is a very organic, sort of an alpine garden. Her home is a log cabin surrounded by tall trees so I think she doesn't get a lot of sunlight which somewhat limits flower choices but you wouldn't know it to look at what she has going on. Although it is still very early and normally we are still covered in snow at this time of year, she has a number of things popping through the ground. Peony trees, clematis, hellebores, poppies. My little gardener walked around lopping the heads off of some of the weeds and grass and chowing down like the little cow he is.

From there, we went for our walk down the lane to one of her friend's place, K, where Ernie met more people and more dogs, Spike and Bunny. It became very clear how poorly socialized Ernie is and I have no one to blame but myself. He was a nervous Nelly and pulled a tasmanian devil when one of the dogs got too close too quickly. Teeth gnashing, head twisting, insane possessed growl which just set the other dogs off. Some work required there for sure. I ended up having to carry him for the garden tour. K's house gets much more sunshine so her plants are popping even more and she is less limited. She has this amazing grapevine growing up and along a pergola on her deck.

M, has promised to introduce me to the best places to buy plants. Home businesses where you can purchase speciality plants. M & K and another neighbour take regular trips to the garden stores and also do tours of some local gardens on the island. I can't tell you how excited I am to find people who share my love of gardening!

When we left K's we continued our walk down the path toward the ocean and around where she pointed out different houses and provided me with a little history on some of them. Ernie was great walking with his new friend. It was a glorious sunny day and a great way to spend the afternoon. Just what the doctor ordered. Sure beat painting the dining room. I guess I'll get that job done today. Garden tours always take priority!