Gated gardens ignite your imagination and draw you in.  Savannah Georgia, Charleston South Carolina, and New Orleans, Louisiana are my favorite walking cities mainly because of their famed courtyard gardens.  If there is a gate I can peak through, or the trickle of a fountain to be heard, my inner voyeur comes out with little or no shame in sight.

My travels through the American south and England inspires me to add to my own garden.  I have enjoyed incorporating iron gates and urns, fountains, statuary, topiary, shutters, and bird baths.  Though I ended up with a backyard in multiple colors from the many varieties of azaleas and roses that came with the house, it is the evergreen gardens I love best.  I’m drawn to the evergreens: boxwood, myrtle, bay, lavender, strawberry trees, olive trees, Carolina laurels.  And I love herbs: mint, sage, thyme, rosemary, and in the summer, basil.  Rosemary Verey’s garden in the Cottswolds was a dear favorite.

The garden I dream of visiting next–Sissinghurst.