Secret Garden Party at The Friendship Garden

The owners of this beautiful property located off of Asheville Highway love to share plants with friends and neighbors, and they receive many unusual and interesting plants in return. Their talent for painting wonderful compositions using many diverse cultivars will have you taking notes for your own garden wish list. They have chosen varieties not only for their complementary colors but also for their varying sizes and differing foliage shapes to achieve a wonderful balance throughout the garden.

Several islands of trees, shrubs and perennials are scattered throughout the lawn. You will come across many water features, such as a toppled pottery jar with water flowing out that creates the illusion that it just tipped over.

In the center of the backyard, the couple has created a koi pond that is deep enough so that animal predators do not disturb the colorful fish. The pond and small stream have been planted with aquatic plants, grasses and tropicals to look as though they occurred naturally.

The most outstanding feature in this garden is the long curving border that defines one side of the property. A succession of small garden rooms has been created, each with an individual theme. The rooms have been composed with a background of oak leaf hydrangeas, a live oak, crepe myrtles and holly trees. Some of the rooms have seating where the visitor can pause to admire the individual plants up close. Shade loving perennials thrive underneath the canopy of the trees, and the edges of the border are full of sun-loving shrubs, perennials and annuals that provide year-long color and interest to the garden.

Much of the statuary, parts of a fence and other structures are discarded antiques the owners have rescued, refurbished and given a new home in their garden. Some of the walkways were made from bricks taken from an old building slated for demolition. You will be awestruck by the creativity and energy of this couple who celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary last year.