Tea-loving fairies in a Door County garden

Are any of you Master Gardeners? I'm not but I sure want to be, and I have my name on a waiting list for the classes the next time they're offered locally. When I heard the Door County, Wisconsin Master Gardeners had a demonstration garden that was open to the public, I just had a feeling this was going to be something special. And wow, was it ever!

The entrance to The Garden Door is impressive, and the rose bushes peeking through were laden with lots of tiny buds about to bloom. I still can't quite get over the fact that it looks like early spring in Wisconsin!

Upon entering you are immediately greeted by this Garden Kaleidoscope, created by Sturgeon Bay artist Robert Anderson, that gives you some of the most amazing floral views you can imagine.



This type of kaleidoscope is a "teleidoscope," which creates patterns from objects outside the kaleidoscope rather than what is inside the object case found in the traditional kaleidoscope. I thought this was simply a marvelous merging of art and garden!

Another of my favorite features of the gardens was this fairy garden. Apparently, the Door County fairies enjoy teatime!


I started to brush the leaves away for this photo but then decided no, I like them being there as it seems more natural that way.

This little vignette was cute as well. Later I went in a nursery and noticed that these small dollhouse-sized wire fixtures were popular in their dish gardens. I think I am going to be raiding the dollhouse section of my local crafts store so I can perhaps create a fairy "corner" in my tea garden!

The fairies enjoy a wide variety of decorating styles, clearly.

Here, I like the fact that a few foxglove blossoms have drifted into the scene.

There was so much to see in this garden, including this pretty Spiral Herb Garden.

This gazebo was a beautiful focal point for the gardens.

I loved seeing what was blooming in the rose garden.

These pretty pink ones are called 'Morning Magic.'

The pond garden was so serene, and like everything else there very well-tended. My hat is definitely off to the Door County Master Gardeners and their partners in this effort at the University of Wisconsin Peninsular Agricultural Research Station.

And finally, as promised yesterday I wanted to thank you for enduring my trip photos by offering a giveaway of this Tea Kettle Spout Cleaning Brush I found at the Door County Coffee & Tea Company! Despite the "kettle" in the name, I think it's really for cleaning the spouts of teapots and coffeepots as well as tea kettles. I tried it on two of my teapots, and one had a very narrow spout so I had to use the brush from the inside of the pot, but that's fine too. Just leave an "enter me" comment to today's post before 7 a.m. EST tomorrow and one of these can be yours!