Our first visit of the year right at the very end of winter shows the garden just as it is starting to come alive again
While the evergreens and the grass in the full sun are green the woods are mostly still dormant. At our last house in Columbus we had a family of white squirels we really enjoyed.
The early spring flowers were starting to bloom in some of the more sheltered areas. I have been to the garden many time and do not recall seeing the face on the tree. I guess when there is a lot to look at we tend to miss the perfectly obvious.
Just another comparison is the winter woods with the stream meandering along and the new growth developing behind the lady on the turtle. This sculpture is the finale of a whole story maze I'll be adding in a later addition. It is actually complex enough I may need to put it on another page separate from the garden.
Back in Columbus for a couple months we managed to work in one visit back here in mid year when the flowers are blooming.
Stopping first at the pond which was frozen on our last visit the critters abound. If you stay still (avoid tromping kids) the bull frogs will start calling. Looking up Ohio snakes I find the snake in the water is unimaginatively called a water snake. Whenever I get near these ponds I am always on the lookout for the dragonflies.
Since it was rather hot we took the shady path through the woods and the boardwalk over the wetlands where we spotted this raccoon track in the mud.
You may notice that I have not gotten to any flowers yet. I think the balls on the left are leeks, but I have to get in one final critter.
Finally getting into the promised flowers are some purple stalks that look suspiciously like wild flowers, a lily that seems to be mascarading as an azalea, and what I think is a dahila. Later as we get into northeast Ohio in August there will be some huge dahilas. For right now I am getting out of the muggy heat and back into air conditioning. I also added one more coleus to my collection on this other page.
With an early March snow storm I took the time to capture these images of the winter garden. Now in retirement we are trying to avoid this kid of weather. In later years I'll have photographs of these same areas as they look in the more pleasant seasons.
As always the lack of leaves and snow transform our view of a garden but all the seasons have their own beauty. I was fast enough this time to get here before others got a chance to disturb the pristine landscape. The pond is near the children's area with the two girls reading. The rocks are actually the waterfall feature.
The Innis Wood Garden Metro Park in Westerville, Ohio has been one of our favorites since well before we retired. It also represents one of the mixed blessings of our tax system. The family originally owned most of eastern Westerville and over the years was forced to sell portions for development to maintain the remainder and finally had to donate this residual to the park system to preserve it for the future. A lot of private property and farms that have been in the family over 200 years are facing the same dire straights and the gaping maw of development. Home and property ownership is somewhat of a legal fiction. Even after the mortgage is paid miss a couple tax payments and see what you really own.
Here are just a few views of this lovely garden with so many styles and features. The trellis system above is the rose garden I'll include in more detail later. The small pond with cattails and lilly pads is off to the left of the roses and the shaded lawn and formal gardens are behind me. There are a lot of natural undeveloped trail areas and the tree house is in the children's area I'll also feature at a later time. The Big Bugs covered on this other page were shown here.