This is garden tour season. It is a pleasure to leave the weeding chores and go off to look at beautiful gardens where I am sure whole energetic crews took care of the weeding before we tourists arrive. The Lenox Garden Club arranged a wonderful tour of the Hidden Treasures of the Berkshires that sent me into fantasy mode pretty quick. Since I have no ancient specimen trees or bedrock boulders, this kind of shady garden is one of my keenest fantasies.

Of course, there is fantasy and then there is FANTASY. This not quite completed temple is actually a pool house. The pool is just to the right of the photo. This is not something I could fit into my own landscape, as those who have seen my previous post about our Cottage Ornee can readily appreciate. Besides, we have our own beloved Frog Pond and have no need of in-ground pools, no matter how lovely the stone surrounds.

The fence around the pool has espaliered apples, but these espaliers at the end of the house, with a gravel walk is the kind of fantasy I am quite happy indulging in.

The Berkshires are two hours away from Heath. Closer to home was the Rowe Old Home Days Garden Tour and this garden filled with the most lush vegetables I have ever seen is a fantasy I definitely aspire to. It is not clear in the photo, but there is a chicken run on the far side of the garden, and the yellow objects are currently (I’m not exactly sure what they were) chicken shelters. I know Carol Lively, the owner of this gardener, and love her fantasies. She has planted blue potatoes, striped beets, purple Brussel sprouts, white pumpkins, zebra tomatoes and on and on. I love a gardener with a sense of humor and an adventurous spirit.