Index of Virtual Garden Tours

When viewing these garden tours, click on the photos if you want to examine them in more detail. There's lots of cool ideas to be found....

This garden was like an outdoor art gallery. The backyard was designed to be low maintenance so there were tons of rocks and stones. And lots of art. The owner said all of the stained-glass pieces were given to him. Lucky duck. They had obviously paid big bucks for pieces including metal work and sculptures. I didn't take photos at the entry but the two garden gates were big, old (200+ years) window grates imported from Egypt and looked fabulous......[more]

This house is very old for this area. It's around 180 years old.....[more]






After visiting this property we learned that we were actually in the midst of a lot of unusual birds and we didn't see any of them: we were too busy walking briskly to avoid the mosquitoes. Darn!....[more]


Every so often we visit a garden where I have this crazy, visceral reaction and I feel like I'm going to cry. Seriously. There's something about the space that carries this huge emotional wave and I get verklempt. Often the garden is very obviously beautiful but there's also an extra something-something that just gets me. Fortunately I don't actually break down in tears but occasionally I teeter on the edge. Not sad tears. Just gutwrenchingly joyful, floating above the worries of the world peaceful happy tears. You know that kind, right?
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This stop on the garden tour was really more about the house than the garden. I was intrigued by the stone walls (and the bold choice of red and black furnishings):....[more]





This huge, 160 year-old stone house is up on a hill, surrounded by an acre of land right in the middle of small city. The home has been beautifully restored. The scale of the garden works perfectly with the big old trees and the architectural style....[more]



I post these garden tour photos to share ideas. Sometimes the gardens are really brilliant and I get a lot of inspiration. Other times they are not to my taste but I find it instructive to figure out why if it's not immediately obvious. In other words, I might see stuff I want to copy and other stuff I would never want in my garden but either way it can bring me closer to what I'm after. Mind you,...[more]



This garden was a big departure from the usual fare, and had that Wow factor as we entered the back yard. It has a Japanese influence with a lot of rocks and stones, a pond, evergreens, some Japanese maples, and many potted bonsai trees...[more]



This rural property looked like it had fallen into disrepair and the current owner was working very hard to resuscitate both the elaborate old Victorian home and the huge, once formal, gardens. I couldn’t get a good photo of the house at the front of the property because....[more]



Our first garden tour of the year started with a property that may well turn out to be our favourite of the year. It's a beautiful old brick home with a large back garden overlooking a valley and a river. The garden is nine years old. The structures and pathways were masterfully planned out and constructed....[more]

This was the first stop on a rural farm house and garden tour. When you know the garden is young and the plants are huge, there's got to be a secret ingredient involved.... [see more...]

The garden writer for the local paper kindly opens his garden once a year for everyone to have a look. This garden definitely has that WOW factor when you cross the threshold into the side and back gardens.... [see more...]

On this final part of the Hort Society tour, I saw this shed and knew I had to create the Garden Shed Hall of Fame. I'd spent so much time gushing over sheds, it was time to put them all together and show them off. An old inground swimming pool was transformed into a pond and garden.... [see more...]

Have you got a best side for photographs? Well, this pond doesn't. Any side is a good side. The plantings look beautiful from any angle. It's on a suburban lot and packed with fish. [see more...]

A 50' x 70' lot packed with really tall perennials, and a few secret pathways. Fantastic shed/sleeping cottage. Property is backed by a huge commercial storage building. [see more...]

Neat recycled doors, beautiful waterlily pond, and huge perennial/veggie combination bed. [see more...]

Sloping former farm property in the country overlooking a valley and river. [see more...]

Lovely sloped rock garden, huge lot overlooking a valley and river.[see more...]

Heavily wooded country lot with lots of ferns, greenery, and a river.[see more...]

Newly planted garden and pond with oodles of small stones, neat birdhouse, big beds.[see more...]

Three year-old small town garden with lots of charm.[see more...]

Huge garden at a garden nursery. How do they manage both the business and the garden? There's also a 3 minute film clip of the gardens as well.[see more...]

This secret garden on the edge of some woods overlooks farm fields. It's carefully guarded by this dragon.[see more...]

A small city garden with huge trees, flagstone paths, a little fish pond and nice deep borders.[see more...]

This front yard English cottage style garden wasn't even on the tour but we all had to go have a look.[see more...]

My visit to Hampton Court Gardens in England (May 2005)[see more...]

Three year-old garden in a small town on a fairly small sloping lot. Lots of garden art/junk charm.[see more...]

These homeowners built their dream home in a new small town subdivision and then purchased the adjoining lot. They have a massive veggie garden and lovely back sloped garden and pond. The man said it's a 'full-time executive position' taking care of all that garden. His wife did not seem as thrilled with the volume of work....[see more...]

Here's a tour of my own garden from 2003 and then a update in 2006. A lot changed in those three years.... [2003 tour] [2006 tour] [2008 tour]

Want some garden art/junk ideas?
I've posted of my trash-to-treasure creations here.

Two weird surprises from my garden:
double raspberries
and double delphiniums

Also see more tours here: More Virtual Garden Tours