Yesterday the Solhem homeowners’ association had an open gardens day. There will be a countrywide open gardens day in two weeks; this is a mini version of the same thing. Ingrid and I briefly visited four gardens in our neighbourhood while Adrian was attending a birthday party.

For some reason I didn’t bring a camera. Somehow this decision seemed to make sense at the time.

The gardens were of course all very different. But afterwards I thought about what they had in common that made them interesting. What does an interesting garden have?

• Water elements. One of them had a beautiful pond with a deep blue mosaic bottom. But even the tiniest pond and the smallest bird bath adds life. Which is an odd thing to say given that water is not alive and the most of rest of the garden is… So maybe it adds something else. Reflection?
• Level differences. Not one of the gardens was flat, and the flat parts were generally the least interesting ones, no matter how pretty the bushes and flowers.
• Rooms – places to discover. All of these gardens had parts that were hidden from view, not because they were on the other side of the house but because the garden had intentionally been divided into rooms.
• Architectural, large man-made structures. A beautifully designed trellis, a stone wall, a gate or an arch, a stone path…
• Decorations. Small sculptures, hanging decorations in trees, etc.

For some reason when I think about adding any large structure to our garden, like a trellis wall or even a stone path, I feel a resistance. The same with decorative elements like metal sculptures or glass details. It just feels wrong. But when I see them in place in others’ gardens, I invariably like them.