Gamble Garden Spring Tour: 2012

In the center are three to four different kinds of mint.  Yum

Every spring, Gamble Garden - a non profit community horticultural foundation located in Palo Alto, CA hosts a spring garden tour of five Palo Alto homes.  Its a weekend event filled with food, all things gardening, plant sales, a silent auction and other fun events.  Always open to new ideas and inspiration - we've been going to the garden tour for the last five or six years - sometimes with friends, sometimes, like this year, on our own.  Having just planted veggies in our own garden, we were exited to see what this year's tour theme of "beautiful designs with edibles" had in store for us.

Great way to recycle old corks and track what's in the garden - just remember - use water proof ink!

Our typical M.O. on tour day is to pack a picnic lunch to enjoy at Gamble Garden mid tour (they also offer a boxed lunch that you can buy ahead.) With addresses received in advance of the tour, we plot out which houses we'll see prior to lunch, which ones after, with a goal of walking as much of the route as possible.  (This year I walked a little less to mind my back, but am ecstatic to say that it held up pretty well throughout the day.)

As an FYI - the spring tour (which has a nominal fee) runs for two days - usually in late April or early May.  Gamble Garden's 2.5 acre property - which includes a historic home, a carriage and tea house, and formal and demonstration gardens - is open to the public - every day of the year - and is well worth the visit (for free).

Sweet little street cruiser

Every home on this year's tour had "edibles in the garden" in some way, shape or form.  Some were planted in  traditional raised planter beds, others were planted throughout the garden, and others in pots of every size.  I have to say, I really liked all of them - as we have a little of all three going on at home.

Lovely raised beds in a front yard

Interesting vertical garden in the back

It wasn't until after lunch though that I really fell in love.  With two gardens that is.  My dream garden - which I'm in the process of creating - is a composition of these next two gardens.  The main ingredients include:  lots of inviting sitting areas, a lawn big enough for a dog (or two) to play in, ample space for a veggie garden, a great space to entertain, some kind of cottage / guest house / office or separate structure, water elements, garden art, and last but certainly not least, ample space for a chicken coop and run. 

 

Front yard sitting area

Plenty of room for entertaining

A quiet place to get away from it all

More inviting sitting areas

A view from the pool

Comfortable seats surrounding the pool beckoned us to to stop and soak it all in - so we rested by the pool and "people watched" for a spell before heading back to visit the vegetable garden.  I'd seen colorful cages like these on a web-site somewhere before, but never "live".  I loved them immediately and was inspired to buy a few for our garden too.  Why settle for silver metal when you can have a splash of color instead?

Veggie beds with colorful cages

Some garden art to brighten a fence

I had a very hard time leaving this place.  Every nook and cranny of it spoke to my heart and soul.  Saying things like "why don't you stay a while longer?" I can well imagine the good times had here by this home's family and friends.  But off we finally went - to visit the final house on the tour.  Here we found a garden with it's vegetables planted all throughout the garden....and with a special surprise out in back.

Climbing trellis and a guest house on the right

A salad patch

My husband got there first and hurried back to find  me because he knew I'd be happy to see them.....five or six chickens in a beautiful big coop!  Oh how I look forward to enjoying fresh eggs from my own happy and healthy chickens one day.

Living the good life!

Fresh eggs anyone?

Gamble Garden itself is a terrific place to visit - especially when this event is going on.  They have a plant sale, their beautiful gardens, refreshments, a silent auction and a shop that as their brochure says - sells "well-loved-garden-themed home decor at sensational prices".  I always like to wander through the shop when we break for lunch. Picture a small low key antique store - with plates and pitchers and things like that inside - the odd garden bench and pots and so on outside. 

Leo inspecting the new pot

We found this beautiful stamped terracotta half pot outside and were offered a steep reduction on it's price. (The thing is pretty darn heavy and I think they were just happy to see it go.)  It's just what we need to disguise an air conditioning unit that was marring the "look and feel" of a sitting area we have at home. 

Early May

Speaking of home, we are pretty happy with the new pot , as well as the colored cages I found - inspired by those we saw on the tour.  (They were selling out like hotcakes and hard to find, but thanks to the help of a friend, I picked some purple and red ones up at Orchard Supply Hardware in Foster City).  Above is what it looked like in early May - and below is what it's looking like a month later.  Go Mother Nature go! 
 

Early June

In our backyard we've planted four different kinds of sunflowers from seeds, and have basil, peas, two different cucumbers, green onions, carrots, rosemary and two yellow Blondkopfchen cherry tomatoes.  Oh - and marigolds, an apricot and a fig tree too. (It's no wonder we were excited about this year's edible garden theme).

In our sunny (small) side yard, we have four different red tomatoes:  two Early Girls, one Husky cherry and one Sweet One Hundred cherry tomato.

In our courtyard - pots of basil, oregano, strawberries, and  lemon balm vie for space with succulents, roses, cacti, violas, hibiscus and cat nip for the cats.  Like those folks who opened their gardens to us on the tour this year, I'm looking forward to all that fresh produce turning into tasty meals in our very near future.

What tasty edibles grow in your garden?