The Grand Garden Show on Mackinac Island // Garden Answer

hey guys we're on Mackinac Island in Michigan we're here for proven winners fourth annual Grand Garden Show and it has been amazing this island is like a step back in time there are no cars it's all horse and buggy and bicycles a really different feel and the whole thing is just loaded with flowers it's just amazing so I want to show you some of the gardens and just kind of give you a little bit of a tour of where we're at so at the Grand Hotel there is a proper dress code after six o'clock men must be attired in coat and tie and ladies cannot be attired in slacks so we have to wear skirts and dresses and things like that which is a very different experience for me we're heading to the tea gardens it is so beautiful down here and kind of a fun fact you can probably see the hotel right above me it has the record for the world's longest from force at 660 feet we just procured some bicycles and a bicycle in the year yeah so this will be interesting but we're going to go check out some of the houses and hopefully show you guys some of the awesome gardens we're on this road the Iroquois 11 we're on the right I thought Iroquois was 9 or 10 or 10 oh yeah so we should take a right yeah over here yeah we can go straight like I said there are no cars on the island so there are either horse rides horse and carriage or bikes yeah so we are on bikes right now rolling around and it's kind of you mid but it's really nice but look it look at that can't beat that this is the entrance to the Iroquois hotel and this is another one a proven winner signature Gardens we've showed you four-star greenhouse in Michigan and a pleasant view in New Hampshire and those were both signature gardens as well so we're going to take you down this pathway and show you all of this beautiful color so many pretty plants and then around the corner to see the amazing view you guys are going to love it so the reason I love this garden so much is it's not huge I mean this is just a small walkway leading to the back side of the hotel and it is so full of color it just shows you how much you can do in not a very big space so they think that I'm seeing a lot of especially on this Isle Bay Island they have been using the Surefire begonias like crazy these right in here this red that you see they are just phenomenal but there's a lot of other things in this space that I love the hydrangeas are looking beautiful as well as this bro Walia right here which is one of my faves for shade and then more lemon coral you can see this lemon coral down here we've seen that it's kind of a recurring theme through all these gardens a lot of this being used another thing I noticed on this island is a lot of rock walls a lot of retaining walls a lot of decorative just raised bed type things and a lot of it is just dry stacked there's no mortar there's nothing it's just individually placed stones everything's hand done and they've done an amazing job just beautiful work there's people eating this is kind of their dining area so I'm not going to say a whole lot but just take in the view look at this so a lot of the plantings up here are kept really low and tight so they don't get in the way of the view because look at this and if we come out a little bit further you can see all of the beds that have been planted up those big splashes of color really inspiring I'm told they do quite a few intimate weddings out in this grassy area I think that would just be perfect this is the next garden this is Brigadoon and all the gardens that were showing you today including the Iroquois hotel are ones that have been created and maintained by Jack Barnwell and his team and the thing that amazes me the most about this group of people is that they do everything without cars it's all with bicycles and horse and carriage so all of their tools their everything they haul around just behind their bikes if it's big stuff it's with horse and carriage so it's something that I just never dreamed of somebody doing but they do a beautiful job I mean just take a look right here look at this colorful border packed full of annuals and great colors I love the color palette the Pink's whites purples and the pale yellow it's really pleasing and these meteor showers of verbena attract the Monarchs like crazy so if you want to attract monarchs plant meteor showers verbena I'm going to plant a lot of it next year all right let's head to the back ooh before we go to the back there look at this you guys so the fine line buckthorns right here these green taller green shrubs here that's a really interesting choice to me usually you see evergreens in places like this the real formal evergreens I really like that they chose something different it makes it unique amazing hydrangeas here and then if you follow up you can see the horse the barn and throughout this garden they've got some really beautiful carriages a lot of these homeowners it's really important to them to maintain the history and the feel and the traditions of the island and I think that's what brings people here it's so such a neat back in time it's really charming very different from any place I've ever been they've also got artists posted in the gardens and they're painting beautiful pictures okay we're going to hop back on our bikes and go see a couple more Gardens this is Holly hot cottage because of Alba hollyhocks planted along the front of the fence and that's traditionally what's planted there so we're going to go through this garden and then the one right next door that's called edge cliff I gave tours through these gardens yesterday to a bunch of gardeners so we'll just go right in one of my favorite things about this house is all the rock work come and take a look this is all limestone from Eden Wisconsin and it's all a hand placed hand carved dry stacked they brought in over 275 tons I don't know if I already said that 275 tons of stone into this garden it's amazing and this whole renovation so the whole house and landscape renovation happened about three years ago and look at it already it already looks like a mature landscape no words so beautiful mix of plants to all the hookers and hydrangeas the sedum right here I think that's a rock and grow beautiful and then here's more sure-fire begonia right here and the lemon coral sedum so popular this season I'm planning on using a lot of that next year look at this wall these are all granite boulders and they're from the Upper Peninsula and they were all stacked some with machine if they had it because you know there's no cars and no machinery on the island so you can get a special permit if you've got big projects or you know home renovations things like that and so some of these were stacked that way but you can see that they have meticulously placed these rocks and cut them so that everything fits just perfectly and again that was all Jack barnwell's crew that did all of this work another thing that I think is really cool is they've been trying to add an Abel's into all of their landscapes over the last couple of years so you have these terrorist levels full of gorgeous plants and then you look right over here and there's a big zucchini and next to that there's tomatoes and peppers and other things and I love that I love seeing practical mixed in with the pretty up here this Vista is just beautiful I happen to love urns and anything that looks like that so that just calls to me so this garden ends with a really woodsy feeling area and I love the grass in between the stones it's so pretty ok let's go to the next one this is the Stroh house and my favorite part about it as well all the color and the hydrangeas check them out so I'm seeing a lot of large stones with grass in between really pretty way of doing pathways look at these double impatiens I need these in my life I don't know much history about this house but boy it is just absolutely gorgeous look at the box hedge right here just kind of a nice frame for this area there's another one right there I love that that just gives structure without really having any like rock or or any difference in the landscape it's all flat right here but that kind of makes it look like it's bumping up really neat you might notice that we are right next to the Grand Hotel next-door neighbors this is like a little woodland walk look at this I bet this is beautiful at night when the lights are lit here oh my you guys you guys would just love it if you guys ever get a chance to come to the Grand Garden Show definitely a bucket list thing to do it's so worth it so inspirational so one thing that Jack Barnwell said in his presentation this morning which I loved was if you have something in your garden that you don't like that's ugly or that's just not doing it it's not thriving or producing like it should rip it out that is my mo like if something is not making you happy in the garden just get rid of it and putting SUP put something in there that you love and I know that that like his fingernails on a chalkboard to some of you guys you guys don't like the waste or whatever but I think it's a waste to have something in your yard that you don't think is pretty what a beauty you are whoa did you get that want to take a bite out of you hey oh this is a neat one I'm gonna hang back a little bit because there's another tour going on up front there but look at the bonsai how cool this one's got lots of funny a little art hanging out toads and hedgehogs there's an eagle and an owl I saw um I was kind of like that like I don't have a lot of that my own garden but it kind of it's kind of women whimsy I don't know it makes me laugh so see there's a cat this is really nice just brimming with color and foliage the coleus and the impatiens and just the supertunias it all looks so pretty I love it it looks like we've got some supertunia Vista bubblegum in these urns which I have a ton of planted at home if you've been watching our videos you probably remember seeing us plant a bunch this past May so that's at you guys we only covered like four or five of the gardens that are on this tour there were 14 total and they were all beautiful they all were unique but we only had so much time so I hope you enjoyed seeing what we were able to capture there's a few things that I'm taking home for sure a major inspiration in the way of planting perennials of just lots of color it's totally worth it and makes Gardens stand out and makes them really just just pop there's a few in particular like the Surefire begonias and the meteor showers verbena yet verbena not verbena that I saw planted a lot and I really liked it the second thing was take things out if you don't like it if it doesn't work in your garden take it out um you know love where you live love your garden and the third thing is to slow down a little bit the whole feel of this island is a step back in time there's no cars there's no running around you need to take a bicycle or horse and carriage to get to where you need to go and there's something about that you know slowing down and enjoying the slower pace and not trying to get so much done so quickly enjoying life hope you guys enjoyed this video and we will see you in the next one bye

Channel: Garden Answer

Views: 101,050

Rating: 4.9636664 out of 5

Keywords: Garden, Answer, Laura, Flower, gardening, gardener, beautiful, succulents, diy, grow, green, Proven, Winners

Id: jA6Rluwqkio

Length: 12min 54sec (774 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 31 2016