Koi meets girl

Did you know there are quite a few koi in the Elgin area? Koi is the expensive version of carp you actually want to keep alive, because they swim around in your backyard pond and help you show off for the neighbors. I was taken aback at how many people have ponds in their backyards! Today I went on the annual garden walk, traipsing through nicely-manicured lawns in search of unique and interesting ideas for my garden. What I noticed were koi. One koi, a large white one with orange spots, swam up to the edge of the pond where I was standing and stared at me for a few seconds.

Aside from the koi, I wasn't really overwhelmed by the gardens I saw, except for one that had been on the garden walk a couple of years ago. I was impressed with that one then, as well as today. It's a huge yard with lots of garden beds, and it is a riot of color! The front has purple and pink and red, created by delphinium and clematis and roses and daisies and poppies, and the shadier back has gorgeous hosta and tall trees. There's even a Japanese garden, with the raked sand, connected to the deck in the back. It's amazing, it really is!

The rest of the gardens were ok. A couple were too eatsy-neatsy for my taste. There's not a lot in bloom this time of year, which was a disadvantage. I didn't see anything new and outstanding, as mentioned before, but the old favorites such as coreopsis and hosta were doing well. Still, for the most part, people obviously worked hard at their gardens and presented lovely spots of suburban outdoorsiness. It's not like my yard is garden walk-worthy, so I do admire the efforts of others. My garden is a likely candidate for the "Gardens of Shame" walk, if there is such a thing.