If I could have my fantasy garden it would be... A walled garden with a secret entrance. A big old tree with a limb strong enough to support a swing, a flagstone area where I could serve tea, winding paths and a small pool.
Vines and roses, all the old favorites from years gone by. A rustic table and chairs where I could serve tea, a place to lounge and read a good book. Those of you who know me know where I'm coming from :o). A certain book left it's mark on a little girl many years ago and that's when my love of growing things was born.

Annette

Oh Annette, that sounds lovely!

And would Mary, Colin and Dicken be sharing your secret garden Annette? I've always wanted a walled garden too but had to settle for hedge. Oh well, dreams never die.

Forgot to add this to my previous post.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Secret Garden

The one I will have next year, or the year after that, or the one after that one. I like my garden. I dislike some things, but each season brings another chance to make it more like what I imagine in my head. It's why I do what I do.

Christine at least you have a hedge, I had to settle for a stockade type fence, doesn't look too bad when covered in vines tho LOL.

Annette

A garden in France! :-)

I think I could have the garden that I wish for IF:

1. Money were no object (hire Piet Oudolf to design my meadow garden).

2. Homeowners Association would let me have my freedom (allow me to plant my meadow in a garden).

3. There were no Japanese beetles.

If I could figure out how to grow a formal parterre here without it looking out of place, I'd love one.

Cameron

PS -- The deer and I are getting along okay. They just passed by the window and passed by my garden. I have zinnias, cosmos and marigolds growing at the edges and they could care less.

I love my garden as is! Every year I am adding few things, like rose bushes, blueberry bushes, arbor, groundcovers. I would love a sitting wall, ability to grow some plants that just too stubborn to grow here for me, and rabbits munching on neighbor's grass - they don't grow anything anyway.
Otherwise, I am very happy and grateful for my garden.

~Natalie

I echo Tom.

Chris

If money were no object, with hired help, and it could become transformed without waiting, I would want a smaller version of Versailles as would fit on my acreage. The water gardens, the statuary, the topiaries and parterres. That's the fantasy.

I also want a maze like in 'the shining' - wherever that was filmed. I have a place for it, I have a design, so it could be a reality. I just can't seem to convince myself to undertake all that work (and wait all those years) just yet.

I want my garden. But with more time, more space, more help, more money....

How do you make that happen?

I almost always have to remove a plant to plant a new one, now. I'd like to quit having tours for a year and completely redo a few areas. That's coming. Maybe in 2011. I suppose I could still have tours and hand out hard hats at the gate!

I've always wanted to add a knot garden. I have a spot of lawn I may be able to use - but I also think I want a jet of water shooting from the 'lawn'. What is that called - an invisible fountain? So I have to decide between the two...

I think I want to visit all of your gardens and certainly Annette's!

Mickie

I posted a similar thread back in spring, about 'Dream Gardens'. I said then that I would a) like that I didn't have any HT roses-only David Austin and old garden roses b) that I didn't have so many hot colors in the summer garden.

I still feel the same about that first one. I like the look of the older roses (David Austin comes close). I wish I didn't have any HT roses, especially the brighter colored ones.

I have half changed my mind about the second. I still much prefer soothing pastel colors to hot. If I could change it I likely would. I like the colors that are in my garden in spring, a mix of lighter shades and jewel-tones. But, looking back over summer, I really didn't hate the hot colors. I think maybe it is because things are starting to mature.

But right now I am wishing I had a greenhouse. Not those plastic fold-up kind, or the ones with plastic siding. I want a real one with glass, that is warm in winter. I would like to go and sit out there when it is cold out, tending the tropicals, sipping tea, and reading a book. I would also like more space, as I am starting to run out of room. I want another shade garden too!

And enough room to a) have those larger plants, shrubs, grasses I have never had room for, b) plant more of my favorite plants to expand my collections, c) little areas that I could play around with those designs I have always had in mind.

And an arboretum, with lots of interesting evergreens! And a forested sort of area that I could plant woodlandy plants and natives (with lots of moss and ferns). And a pond. And a stream/wetland area to dabble in bog plants (just think of the pitcher plants!). And...and...and...
Well, you get the idea ;-)
CMK

CMK- Is that all? :-) Maybe you can swap your hybrid tea roses with someone (neighbor, friend) for their old-fashioned roses? At least the old-fashioned roses are often more cold resistant and don't have to be winter protected. I know I'm going to switch next year...if I have any HT that make it through this winter.

Tasha Tutor's gardens!

I want the 22-acre gardens at Filoli in Woodside, CA - specifically, that idyllic Garden House! - with George Clooney as Head Gardener. Woohoo!

I would love to have a walled garden. On a garden tour in England it was amazing how they plan their garden walls. One woman had her brick walls lined up so that the town's church steeple was the focal point. It was amazing. Then there were walls made to look like ruins with plants hanging from the nooks and crannies and also walls of shrubbery separating cool and hot garden themes. I would jump at the chance to have any one of the above options!!

Lavender, you may want one of these in your rose garden! It is ONE rose covering it. Here's a weblink.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Thyme2dig- Wow! That's impressive. What kind of rose is that, Himalayan Musk?

Walled gardens are such a neat idea. I would love to have some kind of enclosure around my "dream" rose garden. It would probably only bloom in June, but for 4-6 weeks, it would be incredible! Of course, with our increasingly short growing season, that would be about half my summer :)

Okay, since most old-fashioned roses are supposed to bloom 4-6 weeks that would be maybe end of May, June and the first week of July ;)

I love Sissinghurst. The rose on the arbor is a species rose, R. mulligani. Of all the gardens I toured in England, it was my favorite. I liked Barnsely house, too. On this side of the pond, I like the Chicago Botanic Garden, Longwood and Kingwood in Mansfield, Ohio.

Mickie

Mickie, I agree that Sissinghurst was absolutely fantastic. So many different areas to enjoy. And the arial views were incredible.

In fact, if money were no object, I would want Sissinghurst!!! Plenty of walled gardens there! LOL!!!

Im working on my dream garden now (for this house that is, ) i divided my backyard in half. the back half has a wooden fence (to be painted white) with a row of tall arborvitae , and what will be a retaining wall garden. to divide the yard i have a row of pink KO roses thatll form a hedge. In the middle is an arbor with a gate, with roses to climb (ordered them). If you stand back through the arbor there will be a statue of Hebe, a roman girl. I want a circle of roses around her. I planted a dwarf weeping cherry tree to the right with a little bench to sit under. I already have 2 peegee hydrangeas gracing that area as well.
If money were no object, id love a stream in there and id redo my chainlink with solid white vinyl. And id wish away my neighbors cat, who likes to attack the birds i feed.
Its fun to dream!!!

holleygarden, I've always wanted a place to plant a maze,too. Funny you should mention The Shining, one time I looked it up on the internet to find out where the maze was filmed and found out that the maze was made of styrofoam! Now I don't remember if it was the entire maze or the interior where most of the scenes were shot. They sprayed it with some type of foam to create the snow effect. Several years ago, someone on the GW, in one of the forums(here? shrubs? design?)began a maze with small arborvitae. He/She was starting to plant them and was worried deer would eat holes in her maze! If this person is still out there, could we have an update please?

That's crazy! I always that it was filmed at a real place with a real maze - not styrofoam!!! The things Hollywood thinks up! I could make a styrofoam maze really easily! lol

I, too, would love to hear from someone that planted a maze. I have been thinking for a couple of years exactly what plant to use, and I'm thinking now about cedar trees. They grow well here, grow fairly fast, would be thick enough. I could even spread the cost out over a couple of years by planting every other one the first year then filling in the next. Hmmm.....perhaps one day a reality!

Love the idea of walled gardens (loved that book, too, Annette and bought a beautiful copy not too many years ago in hopes that I could share it with a granddaughter some day). Would love to visit Sissinghurst in person. That rose is amazingly beautiful.

jkom, if you get your dream garden, may I come visit. I will gladly put in some weeding time for a conversation with your gardener! teehee.

Cynthia

The Cloisters in NYC. If you haven't been there you just can't imagine how wonderful it all is. You can spend hours and hours looking at each plant and reading about it and then moving on to the next garden . It is a series of different gardens , not just one. I could gladly work there if I lived there...or just go at odd times and just sit and meditate. It is hard to describe how peaceful it is.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Cloisters

I lived in Germany when I was a child, and believed that the Black Forest was one of the most beautiful places in the entire world, a real fairytale land. Since I will probably never get to see it again in my lifetime, it will always remain as I remember it. The only place that even comes close here in America are the beautiful mountains of the south-eastern states. Maybe I will live there someday. (And there will be a cobblestone courtyard with a clock tower in the main square)!

Holley,here's some info I just found. I didn't search any further than this, but I know I read somewhere that styrofoam was used.

Here is a link that might be useful: Maze in The Shining

In July, we went to Path of Life Garden in Windsor, VT and they had a maze of 800 yews. The entire property was pretty darned amazing.

It would be nice to have Monet's Gardens... and the gardeners at Giverny! :-)

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Here is a link that might be useful: our visit to Monet's gardens in May 2009

I'd have to agree with Thyme2dig and others that Sissinghurst would do, until something better comes along. :-)

ThinMan

I just looked at Cameron's photos of Monet's gardens and I think I want those instead. WOW!

Wait just a little longer...

Crud. This is too hard.

TM

Lol - dh recently read Setting the Table, by a restauranteur who has a bunch of restaurants in NYC, and said that now he has a reason he would want to go there. I was going nuts trying to remember the name of The Cloisters as a place I would want to visit! I'd also love to visit Sissinghurst and Giverney.

As for what I would want for myself - a pond with irises and water lilies, a walled garden instead of just the perennial border of my garden room, roses, and, well, just lots more areas to do differently in different color schemes, etc. Of course, I would also need a full-time staff to help me maintain it!

Btw, another of my favorite public gardens is the one in Madison, WI. We were there last summer, and dh and I are going back to Madison next week for our 10 year anniversary. The main plan is to visit some wineries, but I may sneak in a visit to the botanic gardens.

Another must see garden is our National Arboretum in the District. It is in the middle of an area of the District that is a rough, tough spot for those who live there, but the aboretum is magical. I wish the neighbors would spend more time there. Wonderful place.

Nope! Not done yet!

I love the sound of a walled garden too. Count me in for one! Do you think if we ordered them in bulk we could all get a discount? ;-D
CMK

And here I am with a walled garden and can't seem to get it the way I want it at all. Goes to show you that when you get something you may not know how to make the most of it. I am not half the gardener that the rest of you are. How about you all come and visit and help me and then you can be part of it. I would so love the help and advice :)

Caroline makes a good point.

I'm moving plants inside, and as much as I'd like to have a fancy victorian greenhouse with real glass, polycarbonate makes a good substitute and I have running water and electricity. The cat thinks it's a haven, the dog thinks it is a gymnasium. A folding bamboo tray table and some little chairs turn it into a place for a cozy lunch on a cold windy day.

Maybe it's age, but I'm learning to busily make the best of my situation instead of dreaming beyond my grasp.

I would really like to emulate the Lurie Gardens in Chicago. A meadow is a good start.

Nell

Realistically, I have neither the time or the energy to cope with anything more than my postage stamp size garden. But given the choice, my dream garden would be one that would get me a walled garden to grow all the beautiful cottage type of plants (and the right climate to go with them) and would end in a beach on the shoreline, as I also love the sea. Such a place actually exists - it's the garden at Jura House, in the Scottish Hebridean island of Jura. You can walk from the garden to the shore and enjoy breathtaking views of the sea. And entering its walled garden I felt like Mary :-).

Eduarda

Here is a link that might be useful: The garden at Jura House, Scotland