Sneak Peak: Arden Park Garden Tour

Tonight I got to go on a sneak peak of the homes that will be in the Arden Park Garden Tour on September 17th. First of all, can I say that I can not wait until I retire and have the time and money to implement what these people have? Seriously, I liked my garden....UNTIL I visited the rest of the garden's on the tour. Now I am secretly plotting to become their new BFF's, just so I can hang out in THEIR gardens.....
The tour includes 6 homes in the Arden Park neighborhood. I was happy to see so many of them integrating edibles into their yards. Unlike me though, the edibles are all in the backyard. But most of them also don't have a corner lot like I do where a lot of my yard is in the front yard. Some of the people on the tour referred to me as "artichoke girl". Yes, that's me, I'm the one that has artichokes growing in my front yard (and I'm proud of it).

This tour made me realize how different we can all be as gardeners. Some love lawns for playing croquet, some are like me and can't wait to get rid of more lawn. Some are plant collectors- whether it be orchids, or fruit tree's. It was clear that I am the only 1) Certified wildlife habitat, 2) the only children's garden, and 3) the only person with bermuda grass. Yay! I'm not in competition with anyone else! haha!

My favorite garden on the tour is Mary's. She has the magazine perfect garden that we all want. Okay, I want her garden. I may have joked once or twenty times that I'd just like to retire in HER garden. It was that awesome.

This gate? Yeah, that's the entrance to her vegetable garden. How awesome is that?

On the other side of that gate is this: a dreamy vegetable garden full of several raised beds.

If it weren't for the fact that Mary was soooo nice, I would find something to complain about out of pure jealousy. But she was just as awesome as her garden was.

Plus, I love her cat. And I'm not a cat person.

And I loved her fence. Her fence! Man, up until now a fence was just a fence to me- but this is gorgeous. As much as I could have stayed all evening here, we needed to push forward to my place (which, by the way, I'm feeling rather "blech" about tonight after seeing these places). Now I am regretting yanking a majority of my summer vegetable garden to make way for fall (I think last week I said "I'm not gonna let a garden tour get me behind on my fall chores!" Yeah, wish I hadn't done that)

Our last garden on the tour is just around the corner from me. It is SUPER cute, full of edibles, and they appear to be the only garden in the Sacramento area that had a really awesome year with their vegetable garden. While the rest of us are cursing at our tomatoes, and yanking out our summer squash: their garden is still flourishing. (again, here I go with the jealousy)

Not only that, but if you turn around you see this. Don't you just want to dive in? It was kind of a hot evening.... and there was a big floating mattress nearby.....I was so tempted!

After the tour we went Elayne's home; she's a member of the garden club and was on the tour last year. She's lucky enough to be on a full acre, and although she's not on the tour this year we got to go hang out for some homegrown appetizers and some wine. We talked plants, politics, and about ripping out some of the lawn in our neighborhood parks to build community gardens. These were my kind of ladies :)

If you'd like more information on the Arden Park Garden Tour, please check out my previous post here. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. The tour is September 17th from 10am-3pm. If you're a reader of mine and go on the tour, please come by and say hi to me. More important, feed my ego and tell me you love my garden (even if you don't). I may have some giveaways for you if you do :)