This is the 17th Annual Westminster (Vermont) Garden Tour, all on a hot (but so-far bearable) weekend. I went this morning before the temperatures rose all golliwag and concentrated my photo-taking on just one garden, that of Landscape Designer Gordon Hayward on McKinnon Road just near the village of Westminster West. I've featured the tour in previous blogs so some of these scenes may look familiar, though the photos were all taken afresh this morning. The setting, as you see, is glorious, off in the countryside amid dairy farms and artists studios, embraced by stone walls and woodlands.
According to the little booklet that I was given on the tour, "Since 1984, Gordon and Mary Hayward have been developing a one-and-a-half-acre garden around their 220-year-old farmhouse." It's the subject of their book, The Intimate Garden (W. W. Norton, 2005) and features a post-and-beam gazebo, an outdoor dining area, a four-quadrant herb garden, and a pool garden among other features.
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| One of many stone walls with part of the winter's wood supply stacked behind. |
With thanks to all the gardeners for opening their gardens to the community for this Westminster Garden Tour, a benefit for Westminster Cares.
