Decatur Spring Garden Tour, Sunday

Continuing my photo essay on the Decatur Garden Tour, here are Sunday’s finds. I volunteered in a lovely garden and my shift partner coincidentally lived in my neighborhood; we spent a very enjoyable afternoon chatting and welcoming visitors. The time flew by and I was still able to get to most of the gardens I hadn’t yet seen.

This garden, #2 in the Tour booklet, is bordered by the Agnes Scott/PATH Trail system, the Shoal Creek Watershed and the Oakhurst Community  Garden is right across the street. A big part of the garden is low lying, shady and wet; the path meanders through native sea oats, Virginia sweetspire, American beautyberry and bottlebrush buckeye. The house was built in 2010.

River Birch has fabulously shaggy bark and a copper colored trunk.

Garden #8 on W. Parkwood Rd offers one acre of winding paths through lush rhododendrons, camelias, roses and azaleas with the artist owner’s mosaic topped benches, tables and stones. This house is for sale, although I can’t see how the owners can bear to part with it.

The late Atlanta sculptor, Christine Sibley’s statue reigns over the koi pond in the Japanese style woodland garden.

Frogs and birds love to have water close to the ground, as shown in this leafy ceramic holder. You’ll deter mosquitoes and other pests by keeping it freshened.

Absolutely magical, there are hanging lanterns on each path, casting golden light over the deep greens.

Rose Hill was built in 2002 and the owners planted the steep hills in front with over 300 rose bushes. The pool and side gardens are more formally constructed than other gardens on the tour, but no less beautiful. One of the owners generously offered the gardens as subject matter, any time I care to return with my plein air easel.

The roses bordering a stone outcropping on the front terraced lawn.

Not quite large enough for laps, but certainly a good heat quencher on an August day.

Everyone agreed that this garden, #11 on Erie Ave., had the most intoxicating fragrances. Confederate Jasmine and native wisteria over the arbor near a guest house provide a cool respite from Georgia’s long, hot summers.

Can you ever have too many bird houses? Their ravenous appetites help to keep our gardens free of leaf eating insects.

Huron Street’s #12 garden is dedicated to plant sharing and rescue – my kind of folks! The couple used freecycle.com to obtain mullein, climbing roses and gardenias. The porch offers a view over side butterfly gardens with heuchera and ferns.

I posted about last September’s Decatur Garden Tour here, and plan to volunteer for that again in the fall. These gardens invigorate our senses, reconnect us with our neighborhoods and environment and help us to find ideas for our own spaces.