A local APLD (Association of Professional Landscape Designers) officer asked me to put a garden on their joint garden tour with Foothill College. Since the theme this year is small gardens, I just volunteered my own garden. Last Wednesday (5/27) was the day and about 50 people came for the tour.
First benefit for me is the extra motivation to finish up a few neglected projects such as this garbage can enclosure that my wife thought I over-engineered. I am a little disappointed that no one commented on the white-on-blue Tree of Gondor pattern that I spent many hours to paint on the side wall. I guess either The Lord of the Rings trilogy is not very popular with my mostly female visitors, or I am the odd one who is too obsessed with these details. I really like a lot of the set designs in those movies.
I worked hard for about a week to prepare for this tour and my garden has never looked better. It is just like you clean up your house when you have guests coming. Maybe I should host more tours in the future.
I prepared a list of abour 470 different plants in my garden, but the most asked about plant is this clump of Paris polyphylla in my side yard. This is a perennial in the lily family with some medicinal properties. It is native to Southwest China and Bhutan, Nepal, Vietnam. I mail ordered my plant from World Plants Nursery in 2003, and it has been trouble-free ever since. I am a little jaded about this plant, but it has grown into a striking clump with 16 stems. I never get any fruits though, probably from lack of cross pollination.
I noticed the LOTR design right away! Of course, I confused it with the door to the Mines of Moria in the first movie, but the designs are similar. I’m surprised that the tourists didn’t figure it out – even if they’re female, they’re probably connected with a lot of LOTR nerds. Who isn’t?
It doesn’t really match the stuff I used to see in your garden, though – especially items like the rusty metal frog-dragon your son picked out some time ago. But the color matches the blue gate in the back area….
Did you manage to get rid of 40% of the stuff, which I believe was the goal a couple of years ago?
I’d be glad to show you and Sophie my glorified Gondor garbage enclosure this summer. Is Ram a fan of LOTR too? Maybe I should paint the door to Moria somewhere else, but the little hammer reminds me of communist party insignia. Fortunately for me, Mei is not enforcing the 40% rule and I now have more plants than ever.