Thursday Jan. 3rd, Warm and sunny
This was a quickie. We had tried to raise the Monahan’s, owners of Upton Oaks, a small garden in the heart of the wine district of Marlborough, but had not established the contact. Our motel for the evening was just a few km from the garden and was right down the road from the Allan Scott vineyard, so we decided to call in on the garden. A knock at the door yielded no results and the large dog that greeted us/me at the door was quite docile despite its size, so we peered into the entrance area. The squeak of the front door that usually at this point in a garden trespass means trouble, turned out not to be the case. The young daughter, Ms. Monahan apparently home for the holiday and in what seemed to be full blown oxidation, said it was fine to see the garden and that she thinks she played our message on the machine late last night, whatever.
The first room of the garden was a color echo to the trim and detail of the quaint house, a bit twee for my taste. Next came the knot garden, impeccable maintained and in the center gap create by each weave, a harmonious color combination of perennials with an annual accent.
Pressing on we entered an area with a fairly conventional double perennial borders impeccably maintained. At the end of the borders, a simple yet elegant bench in the shade of Yellow-Black Locusts that we use at home. Yet separating the borders from the bench was a circular pool, a hole in the turf reflecting sky and sun and serving as an axis from the borders to a view into the olive nursery adjacent to the property as a bit of borrowed scenery.
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