{"id":23539,"date":"2014-07-27T18:00:02","date_gmt":"2014-07-27T23:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=23539"},"modified":"2014-07-28T11:27:57","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T16:27:57","slug":"good-garden-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=23539","title":{"rendered":"A City Garden Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love a good garden tour. \u00a0Don’t you?\u00a0 It’s especially nice when it’s in the city.\u00a0 Friends of ours have an adorable home that they have put a lot of love into, and some of that love ended up in their picturesque backyard garden.\u00a0 Designer Jon Carloftis<\/a> (you can see more of his designs here<\/a>, here, <\/a>here<\/a>) had a hand in it, and he tweaks it every now and then.\u00a0 When Jordan visited a few weeks ago, we stopped in for a tour and took along a camera.\u00a0 Not only is the garden lovely, but it has an amazing little guest house that makes me want to get asked to a sleep-over.<\/h3>\n

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\"Garden<\/h3>\n

Here’s the thing about Bill and Beverly’s garden that should interest all of you.\u00a0 It isn’t huge, and the plants aren’t exotic.\u00a0 However, the basic design is good.\u00a0 As we stepped out of the kitchen onto the back patio, this was our view.\u00a0 The guest house once was a\u00a0 shed with a driveway leading up to it.\u00a0 The shed and the driveway are long gone.<\/h3>\n

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\"Bill\/Bev<\/p>\n

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The patio is brick and is surrounded by boxwoods.\u00a0 A nicely built pergola provides just the right amount of shade.<\/h3>\n

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\"Bill\/Bev<\/p>\n

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This terrarium is spending the summer outdoors in the dining area.<\/h3>\n

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\"Garden<\/p>\n

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The annuals and perennials can all be easily found at any garden center, but they were lush and inviting.\u00a0 There was no way anyone could resist taking a stroll through the welcoming paths.<\/h3>\n

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\"Garden<\/h3>\n

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The cosmos and hostas looked as if they have been sipping on some steroids.\u00a0 I’ve never seen any look as fab as they were.<\/h3>\n

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\"Bill\/Bev<\/p>\n

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There are plans in the works to turn the grassy area in front of the guest house into a vegetable garden next summer.<\/h3>\n

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\"Bill\/Bev<\/p>\n

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Oh, and by the way, the vine growing on this pergola is a clematis that is about three years old.\u00a0 It blooms in the fall.<\/h3>\n

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\"Bill\/Bev<\/p>\n

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Now, let’s take a peek inside the guest cottage.\u00a0 It is just the right size.\u00a0 There’s this lounge area that has a loft over it.\u00a0 That ladder you see in the corner becomes the make-shift steps to the loft which could easily be another sleeping area.<\/h3>\n

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\"Bill\/Bev<\/p>\n

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The couple has beautiful antiques handed down from their ancestors, and they used a few in the guest house. Beverly loves to mix rustic with refined and promised me that I can take photos of their home’s interior soon.\u00a0 Let’s just put it this way:\u00a0 She has a Steinway baby grand piano in the same room with a wooden chicken coop that has a silver tray on it.\u00a0 I love that approach to decorating!!!<\/h3>\n

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\"Bill\/Bev<\/h3>\n

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Sometimes they use the cottage to catch up on their work.\u00a0 Isn’t this a great way to store away their books and papers?<\/h3>\n

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\"Bill\/Bev<\/p>\n

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There’s this bright bedroom.\u00a0 The walls are neutral, and the yellow bedspreads give it all the color it needs.<\/h3>\n

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\"Bill\/Bev<\/p>\n

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Wouldn’t you love to wake up to this view?\u00a0 I love how the flowers and the beds are all yellow.\u00a0 There’s a bath adjoining this room.<\/h3>\n

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\"IMG_8180\"<\/p>\n

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We can learn many lessons from this space:\u00a0 Any city lot can become an oasis, a garden doesn’t have to be huge to be magnificent, ordinary plants and shrubs can be spectacular when they are part of a good garden design, and you don’t need a huge area to have a guest cottage.<\/h3>\n

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\"Bill\/Bev<\/p>\n

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And one more thing:\u00a0 Have fun with it!<\/h3>\n

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\u00a0We had a great week-end.\u00a0 Jordan and Mr. Spring spent the week-end camping and kayaking.\u00a0 They realize that when their little one arrives (here<\/a>), they might have to upgrade to a canoe.\u00a0 I visited my parents and enjoyed their summer flowers (here<\/a>).\u00a0 The newlyweds (here <\/a>and here<\/a>) stopped in for an overnight, and it was great to see their tanned faces after their tropical honeymoon.<\/h3>\n

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Thank you all for stopping by The 2 Seasons<\/em> today.\u00a0 We really appreciate your spending some of your precious time with us.\u00a0 If you would like to see our blog in your email six mornings a week, you can subscribe here<\/span><\/a>.<\/h3>\n

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Take care.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love a good garden tour. \u00a0Don’t you?\u00a0 It’s especially nice when it’s in the city.\u00a0 Friends of ours have an adorable home that they have put a lot of love into, and some of that love ended up in their picturesque backyard garden.\u00a0 Designer Jon Carloftis (you can see more of his designs here, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[13,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23539"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23539"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23577,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23539\/revisions\/23577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}