Secret Gardens You Can Visit

A secret garden does not need a sign to announce its presence, it just needs to be private so that it is not open to visitors. One thing that almost all gardeners enjoy is looking round other peoples gardens and thanks to an Open Days program it is now possible to take a peek inside some of these “secret gardens”. This article by Douglas Hunt which I found on the Hometalk website takes you on a tour of gardens in Jacksonville.

If a gardener can?t be in his or her own garden, where?s the next best place? Someone else?s, of course. And thanks to the Garden Conservancy?s Open Days program, you can walk through the gate of private gardens that you might not otherwise ever be able to see.
The program began in 1995 and is modeled on England?s National Gardens Scheme. Since then, thousands of gardens from coast to coast?including my own garden in New York?s Hudson Valley?have been included.
Each year, almost 50 percent of the gardens are new to the program, and I knew a road trip was in the offing when I found out the Garden Conservancy was going to have its first Open Day in Jacksonville, an hour and a half up the coast from me, last weekend. Just as I expected, the gardens offered beauty and inspiration at every turn.
This year the program includes gardens in 16 states and runs through the beginning of November. To find an Open Day near you, see the schedule here:
https://www.gardenconservancy.org/opendays/open-days-schedule

A screened-in porch filled with comfortable furniture overlooks this side yard

Lesson of the day: you can’t go wrong with good, old, statuary

A small rose garden was turned into a potager of stacked raised beds topped by strawberry pots.