I talk about our bed and breakfast gardens frequently. There are a number of reasons for that: gardens can be enjoyed for a number of reasons. One is for their purely visual appeal. Colors and shapes of flowers and foliage are a wonder in their variety. They can be seen as an overall impression like a painting, or by its individual parts…the individual plants themselves. Silver-gray, bright green and chartreuse are all leaf-colors that are used to enhance the visual appeal of the garden. Bright sun or shade or a cloudy day will show you that the same garden never actually looks the same…the garden in the morning is vastly different from the late afternoon or early evening garden. The visual experience is always new.

Another way to experience our bed and breakfast gardens is by using your nose. Plant material and the earth deliver to you a whole new level of appreciation in the garden. Our garden is filled with plants whose scent is wonderful. Of course the flowers of roses, peonies, lavender and many others are heavenly. With many of them, you don’t even need to be very near them to experience the wonderful fragrance.

But there are many sensory details and surprises out in the garden. Herbs are mixed in with the perennials and annuals. In fact, my favorite way to walk through the gardens includes touching many of the plants to release the scent from their leaves. Catnip, lavender, dill, fennel, creeping thyme and santolina are all delights to the touch and to the nose! And then there is the smell of the earth…on a cool Asheville morning, the smell of the damp ground is heaven!

And what does this all add up to? My vote goes for “theraputic” as the overall impression. A garden is a visually layered sensory experience. And to do it justice, you need to make yourself consciously slow down…and by doing so, this Asheville bed and breakfast garden will also encourage you to breathe deeply, move slowly and deliberately take in all that is around you. A truly lovely way to start or end your day in Asheville. Enjoy!