We have been attending the annual Animal Rescue Fund (ARF) Garden tour now for five years.  Each year we are amazed at the breathtaking gardens on the tour and think they simply cannot top the previous year’s offering.  To our pleasure every year we find more stunning, fabulous gardens and grounds included on the agenda than we had hoped to see.  Rotating what towns the tours are conducted in, garden enthusiasts eagerly sign up for this well organized event with anticipation.  However, one does not have to have a green thumb or be an avid gardener to enjoy this experience.  It is a day of lavish gardens, bountiful floral arrangements, sprawling lawns and majestic trees that easily equal the most stunning botanical garden parks.

East Hampton Gardens were on this year’s tour and the spectacular, well appointed homes did not disappoint.  This was the 23rd Annual Garden Tour event.  Floral content, creative landscaping, majestic trees and secret garden paths were only a small sampling of the treasures to be discovered. The garden tours feature stunning homes, artful landscaping with pools and patio areas to envy.

One home’s owners celebrated their Lithuanian heritage with a folktale mosaic tile on the outside of their pool house with flecks of amber-like stones imbedded in it. Another home highlighted its southern style veranda, complete with pink gingham covered chairs, white wrought iron furniture and delicate wind chimes accenting the setting.  As guests passed the veranda, walking along the garden path near the house, soft piano music could be heard emitting from the interior.

This year’s “celebrity” home on the tour was the famed cook book author, host of Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garden. Her gardens feature designs by Edwina von Gal and by Joseph W. Tyree.  Extensive perennials, annuals, roses, vegetables and herbs created an absolutely enviable vision by any standards.  The access to fresh, succulent herbs and vegetables made it easy to see how Ms. Garten produces the marvelous dishes she is known for both on her television program and in her books.  Lucky are the guests that are invited to enjoy her culinary wizardry!

The tour continued with a magnificent ten acre property that was both stunning in its size, structure and design of the contemporary house as well as the natural plantings surrounding the glass walled home.  Each location on the tour offered something unique, whether it was the view of Georgica Pond opening to the Atlantic, a rustic garden inspired by Victoria Fensterer, the designer of Grey Gardens or ornamental statues that reflect the home owners’ love of pets, Asian influences, or the sea.

The ARF Garden Tour is a wonderful way to discover the beauty of the East End, to gather ideas for a home garden and to contribute to a worthy cause, the cats and dogs at the ARF Adoption Center.  Throughout the year ARF continues to hold fund raising events, just as pleasurable as this one.  Kristina Lang Lewis, Director of Marketing and Communications invites readers to keep checking their website for upcoming events and watch early next spring for the date for the 24th Annual Garden Tour.  It is not to be missed!  For more information about ARF visit www.arfhamptons.org

Animal Rescue Fund (ARF)