Behind Adobe Walls
The garden club of Santa Fe holds a tour of private gardens in July and earlier this week we went. The tour is called "Behind Adobe Walls" and has been a successful event here for years.
Somehow I thought it would be small groups led by garden club members, visiting homes in the city to see creative courtyard spaces hidden behind the walls that enclose historic and restored Santa Fe homes. I expected it to be a walking tour around the city, maybe with some shuttle vans to take groups of people here and there. I expected the gardens to be featured and discussed.
It wasn't that.
It was 250 people, assigned to 4 huge Greyhound luxury buses that drove us far out into the hills to see upscale homes filled with art. We saw four homes, all big and expansive and with killer views. Art docents were in each room to explain the collector's vision and the provenance of the artwork.
Each home's architect was mentioned and profiled. The gardens around each house were really "plant installations" -- another form of artwork that happened to be outside or flanking the front entry.
Interesting sculptures were tucked in among the plants. The focus was on the sculptures; the plants were background.
This was not a garden tour, at least not as I expected it. But Jim and I had a good time on the bus, the people were nice, and the homes were fantastic to see.
All were Santa Fe adobe style -- low slung stucco structures with walls and gates and portals and enclosed courtyards, and all were ornately and sumptuously decorated inside. Huge gourmet kitchens and natural stone showers the size of my living room were a theme.
No pictures were allowed indoors.
It was a rare chance to experience what it looks like to live in the hills, with views of mountain ranges all around. The afternoon was unsettled, with monsoon rains threatening, and that made the sky a glorious tapestry beyond anything in the art collections we saw.
I've never been on a garden tour where you had to put on those blue paper hospital booties before taking the tour, but that was how this one operated. And I can see why -- the homes we entered were impeccably kept, made of beautiful materials, and featuring white carpeting.
But for a dirt gardener who wants to see plants grown creatively in conditions similar to mine, blue paper shoe protectors and art docents were not at all what I expected.
Somehow I thought it would be small groups led by garden club members, visiting homes in the city to see creative courtyard spaces hidden behind the walls that enclose historic and restored Santa Fe homes. I expected it to be a walking tour around the city, maybe with some shuttle vans to take groups of people here and there. I expected the gardens to be featured and discussed.
It wasn't that.
It was 250 people, assigned to 4 huge Greyhound luxury buses that drove us far out into the hills to see upscale homes filled with art. We saw four homes, all big and expansive and with killer views. Art docents were in each room to explain the collector's vision and the provenance of the artwork.
Each home's architect was mentioned and profiled. The gardens around each house were really "plant installations" -- another form of artwork that happened to be outside or flanking the front entry.
Interesting sculptures were tucked in among the plants. The focus was on the sculptures; the plants were background.
This was not a garden tour, at least not as I expected it. But Jim and I had a good time on the bus, the people were nice, and the homes were fantastic to see.
All were Santa Fe adobe style -- low slung stucco structures with walls and gates and portals and enclosed courtyards, and all were ornately and sumptuously decorated inside. Huge gourmet kitchens and natural stone showers the size of my living room were a theme.
No pictures were allowed indoors.
It was a rare chance to experience what it looks like to live in the hills, with views of mountain ranges all around. The afternoon was unsettled, with monsoon rains threatening, and that made the sky a glorious tapestry beyond anything in the art collections we saw.
I've never been on a garden tour where you had to put on those blue paper hospital booties before taking the tour, but that was how this one operated. And I can see why -- the homes we entered were impeccably kept, made of beautiful materials, and featuring white carpeting.
But for a dirt gardener who wants to see plants grown creatively in conditions similar to mine, blue paper shoe protectors and art docents were not at all what I expected.
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