Location Scouting: Garden In The Round

Photograph of Gardens and pond
–An elevated look at the gardens, pond and the Winter Solstice house

One of the things that Dawn and I love to do is location scouting.  We will find a new site that we have heard of or that we have seen somewhere, and we just pack up the camera gear, maybe a picnic lunch and get in the car and go.  Hopefully we find it, but sometimes even if we don’t, we always find some new place by Serendipity.

Today, we took my mom with us.  She needed to get out of the house anyway and it was a nice day for a drive.  We went to a location that we were first made aware of from a wedding we helped with from one of our young photographer friends.  The garden location was somewhat out in the middle of nowhere, but we were able to find it with a little help from the bride remembering the name of it and directions from Google Maps.

The Gardens were donated to the parks department by the wife of a county doctor when she passed away in 2011, the Parks Dept. has done a good job of keeping it looking great.

The garden is made in the round, it has 365 days delineated and all the seasons.  There is a bricked pathway around a round pond in the center of the gardens.  Every two bricks there is a brick engraved with a day of the year, every holiday also has an engraved brick.  The four seasons are marked with sign posts.

At the 4 quadrants there is a structure of some sort: a green house, a visitor sign in hut, a twelve foot platform to climb and see the gardens at a higher vantage point, and a brick “Solstice” building that was under construction.

We ran into a friend and another photographer who was getting ready for a maternity shoot at the gardens, so I guess it is not a big secret location any more, but we are still keeping it in our back pocket for when we need it.

Photograph of Gardens and the brick
–Mom and Dawn walking on the circular brick path, every two bricks has a day of the year engraved on it.

 

Photograph of mom and Dawn
My mother and Dawn on the platform above the gardens.

 

Photograph of bricks with each day engraved on it
–Follow the brick road, in a circle, with all the days of the calendar on it.

 

Photograph of the lookout platform overlooking the gardens
–Sit an relax and enjoy looking at the gardens, or go above for a better view of the entire gardens.

 

Photograph of Dawn in one of the isles at the Gardens
–Dawn striking a pose at the gardens.

 

Photograph of one of the statues at the Gardens
–Placed around the gardens you will find many things, here is a statue.

 

Photograph of the guest sign in house at the Gardens
–Mom adding our names to the guest book at the gardens.

 

Photograph of the house house at the Gardens
–Along the brick road is a hot house, you can also take a short cut taking the grass path.

 

Photograph of the plants and Month post at the Gardens
–Each month has its own post calling it out.

 

Photograph of an old row boat at the Gardens
–Some things at the gardens are on the outside of the brick road, like this old row boat.

 

photograph of the winter solstice house at the gardens
–They are always making changes to the gardens, here is a new building being built.

 

photograph of the name of the bulding
–We need to come back here in the winter.

 

photograph of the greenhouse
–A working greenhouse at the gardens, this one is growing tomatoes among other things.

 

photograph of wooden details at the Gardens
–No matter where you look you will find wonderful details in the gardens.

 

photograph of the round goldfish pond at the Gardens-16
–At the center of the garden is a round gold fish pond.

 

photograph of friends at the gardens Gardens-17
–We ran into our friend Hanha sporting her vintage wardrobe look, she has a lovely vintage store that you should check out. Beauty BULL Vintage

 

photograph of a trellis at the Gardens-18
–Outside of the gardens there is much to find, like this ivy covered trellis.

 

photograph of a litle shack Gardens-19
–A rustic building on the side of the gardens.