I did not attend this tour, but MB Maher was in attendance at a preview held last weekend, and then was sworn to sit on the photos until after the tour, yesterday in fact. So rather than a narrative of a garden tour, this post will have to serve more as a disjointed montage of design ideas and a glimpse of the gardens on tour in this well-heeled community of Los Angeles. (The mayor’s residence, also on the tour, has been in Hancock Park since 1923 but was not available for preview since the mayor was at home that day.) These formal gardens celebrate the mediterranean climate of Los Angeles by drawing liberally from the Moorish, Spanish and Italian garden design tradition: courtyards, shaded seating areas, year-round presence of evergreen hedging, strong lines to guide the foot and eye, lots of potted plants, and containment and control of precious water, whether in pools or fountains (although I was informed some of these properties also included expansive lawns and rose gardens, which would guzzle rather than sip water supplies).
In the weeks leading up to the tour, Emily Green at the LA Times did a fantastic job of previewing some of the gardens on the tour, and I’ve provided links to her articles.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to go along on a faraway garden tour. I am forever grateful to gardeners who open their gardens for the public to enjoy and to those who post photos of the tours we cannot attend. I can’t quite decide what they used to do the last feature. Copper pipe, sprinkler tubing? Surely not pot tops? I wonder.
Can’t help with the last image. Whatever it is, it’s a nice touch. I’m really enjoying all the accounts of garden tours on blogs this spring.
Magifique ! somptueux ! enchanteur !!
J’adore ! bravo !
Merci ! Delphine