We got a light dusting of snow last night and although I know summer is still months away sometimes “I like to close my eyes and imagine what it will be like when summer does come.” Like Olaf the snowman I am a little frozen here in Chicago and I am dreaming of feeling the summer sun and seeing green grass and trees.
My dreaming of a summer garden was officially kicked into high gear last week when I discovered the British television show called Love Your Garden on Netflix. Master gardener and television host Alan Titchmarsh gives deserving families the most amazing home gardens. Titchmarsh studied horticulture at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew and he has received the Victoria Medal of Honor, which is the highest accolade given in British gardening. His gardens designs are inspiring and they reminded me of the beauty and transformative power of nature.
One of the things that Titchmarsh includes in each show is an opportunity to see an mature inspirational garden that has elements that he would like to incorporate in the garden he is planning. This past summer I had an opportunity to visit a beautiful garden in Vienna. I went with my husband on his work trip and while we were there I got to see the Belvedere gardens so I thought I might do a little day dreaming about this gorgeous summer garden and share some of my photographs.
This baroque style palace and gardens were originally built as a summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1712. The gardens at Belvedere have a distinctively French feel with the gravel paths and trimmed boxwood hedges.
Here is the lower Belvedere palace. The stone work on all of the buildings is impressive and the gardens are filled with gorgeous stone statutes and fountains.
There was a series of cherubs for each month of the year that topped a long set of stairs that take you to the high point of the garden.
Here is the view as you approach the upper palace building and flower gardens.
Then here is the main lawn and flower garden.
There is an open lawn surrounded by this gorgeous boarder of flower beds filled with bright yellows and vibrant purples and pinks.
Another view of the ring of flowers that surounds the lawn. I love the purple salvia against the yellow marigolds and black-eyed Susans.
A close up of one of the marigolds blooms. They were so tall and the flowers were just gorgeous.
Then there was my favorite these white Dahlias with their rows of distinctive curved petals.
Happy bunches of blacked-Susans seemed to be drinking in the summer sun.
The mature tree lined paths and hedges are beautiful, but the thing I loved about this garden is that many of the flowers were plants I could actually grow. So these flowers have me thinking about a sunny flower bed I have on the side of my house and what it could be this summer. So until we are free from the frost I will just have to continue to watch and eagerly await the summer sun.
