I began writing this description of the Peg Bier Garden on July 7, then life went other directions for a while. Seeing several recent posts about the 2017 Garden Bloggers Fling prompted me to take it up again. There has been a flurry of signup activity for the upcoming anniversary Austin Fling in May which I will not be able to attend, so I am a bit wistful in looking back at the gardens we visited in the D.C. area.
My home state of North Carolina borders Virginia and supports many of the same plants as we saw during the Fling. I felt at home in this garden. The owner Peg Bier greeted us as we unboarded around 4:30 pm on Saturday, June 24, 2017.
Off to the right of where Peg was standing is a little secluded secret garden that was home to a little fairy collection. Amidst the hellebores and ferns an azalea was still blooming.
Behind these gorgeous elephant ears, Kris had zeroed in on an interesting hanging specimen.
Beneath a small tree a memorial plaque was surrounded by a verdant array of hostas, ferns, heucheras and more.
A stone path led out into the lawn, revealing sunshine and pots of brightly colored flowers.
This was a lovely collection of container plantings under a dogwood and of course, I loved the blue hydrangea in back.
I no longer remember the precise route but within a couple of minutes I found myself in a peaceful wooded area near some service buildings. The birds seemed to own the place and sang freely. I stood for a couple of minutes listening to an eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus). Turn up the volume and listen for two repetitions of the towhee’s signature “drink! your tea.”
A serene path with dappled sunlight guided me along past a small lawn with spheres and over a wooden bridge.
Free from the tree canopy, this open section is planted with iris, echinacea, lychnis among many other things.
Here, a more formal grouping of evergreens and bench create a vision of calm, with attractive brickwork curving around the tree.
Green, cool, restful…
This seating area was one of my favorite spots in this Virginia garden.
There was lots of color to be found as well, so I will finish with some of Peg’s lovely containers. Love those blue pots.
Hope you enjoyed touring this special garden.
What a beautiful garden. It really has a calm and serene feeling to it and I can imagine sitting amongst the plants and just listening to the sounds of nature. It seems like there are so many layers to the plantings, a real full garden.
There were so many wonderful vignettes throughout the garden–lovely and peaceful.
How fun that you captured the birdsong on your phone! You picked up much more of the garden’s color than I did I think. It’s been fun to see this garden covered by different bloggers – taken together, they capture how truly wonderful a place it was.
Hi Kris. Just went back to your post and so glad I did. I had missed that Peg was in those YouTube videos from Merrifield’s. You’re right, it is fun to see what each of us focused on. There’s some overlap and some surprises of things I never saw.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful garden. The owner is very artistic with her plantings.
Thanks for taking time to come along. Was fun to see all the gardens on the Fling.
Thank you for sharing this garden tour. This is the beauty of blogging we can see gardens from around the world that we will probably never see for real.
So glad you enjoyed the virtual tour Brian.
This really is a lovely garden, and those pots are great!
Glad you liked it Cathy. It was such a great experience to attend the Fling, see the gardens and meet the wonderful gardeners and garden bloggers.
I won’t make next year’s Fling either – it’s impossible for me to take time off in May. I’m kind of bummed about it. Great review of Peg’s garden – I loved the short video.
Too bad you’ll also miss the Fling Jason. I know you’ve attended quite a few. Glad you liked the video! I took several at various gardens and it’s fun to listen to the excitement and energy of the people in the background.