Entry #8: Lorel Vidlund's welcoming space for neighbors

Posted on Wed, Jul 14, 2010 : 5:59 a.m.

Entry #8: Lorel Vidlund's welcoming space for neighbors

By Pam Stout

Summer Garden Contest entry #8 by Lorel Vidlund

Photo courtesy of Lorel Vidlund

Last month we asked you to tell us about your garden, and we received many beautiful photos and stories about creative gardens around town.

Lorel Vidlund's garden is entry #8 to our Summer Garden Contest. Click below this story in the "More Info" section to check out previous entries.

Vidlund describes her garden:

"This garden is a welcoming place for our entire neighborhood. Conversations begin here, and new friendships have started over the years. We added a front patio space adjacent to the garden just outside our front door three years ago. It’s our “front porch” tucked in behind the colors and fragrances of the perennial garden on one side and a beautiful full growth of sweet autumn clematis growing on a fence and trellis on the other side. It’s our favorite place to have breakfasts and dinners during the warm, languid days of summer. We bought the house in 1997, and there was no garden in the front yard … now the garden fills most of the space. I divide and share perennials freely, and when I look at plants friends have given me in return, I truly do feel the “community” that this garden has created."

Like Vidlund's garden? Keep watching this space daily to see more beautiful entries to our Summer Garden Contest.

After we've showcased all the gardens that were submitted, we'll post a poll and let you vote on your favorite. The garden with the most votes at the close of the poll will be featured in an upcoming story in the print edition of AnnArbor.com.

Comments

Lynn

Fri, Aug 13, 2010 : 3:56 p.m.

I may be biased (o.k., I am biased), but my sister Lorel's garden is an inspiration to me. I am "Grasshopper" to her "Master." She is what a garderner should be: she shares plants, she shares ideas, she shares knowledge, she uses her own elbow grease (rather than hiring out), she loves to get down and dirty in the soil! What you see in her garden is the direct result of her passion and her personal attention. If you are walking down the street and see her in the yard she will say "hello" and answer any and all questions you have about what she's got growing. Many of the plants that I have growing in my Lansing garden started out as cuttings from Lorel's garden. Now that's what I call "gardening!"