A member of our bookgroup has a garden, like all of ours, that is a walled courtyard with pea gravel and stone paths. It's nicely designed and mature.
It has an open view of the Sandia mountains to the south, which I didn't actually capture in photos -- the mountains are truly the focal point from any spot in her garden and I never got a clear shot, just a few ridges to the east being teased by fluffy clouds.
Her garden has a settled, balanced serenity, contained by views that frame it. It's a composed garden. She does not have rustic coyote fences, her garden is sculpturally bounded by low adobe walls that allow the view to be part of the garden.
She has a graceful crape myrtle tree, with delicate pink flowers that were just gone by. It's an old one, that had obviously been there for decades of Santa Fe winters that sometimes hit 10 below (and in 2011 got to 22 below in one disastrous stretch). Crape myrtles do not survive below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. They don't grow here. Hers was beautiful.
In a strange bit of perfection, her plants were all in bloom at once. Butterflybush plants don't bloom until mid or late summer. This was still June.
Her delicate red flowered pineleaf penstemon was still flowering in June. Big yellow torch lilies - kniphofia - were in full bloom. Giant pink hollyhocks showed off their towers of flowers. How can this all be in full open flower all at once?
And there were roses in full bloom, of course there were.
Her purple smokebush was fluffy and flowery. I grew one in Connecticut and had to sacrifice the flowers in order to cut it to shape. Without pruning it got to be a wild monster. Here the flowers are not sacrificed and the shape is lovely.
Everything just seemed to be in perfect balance -- the framed views, the coordinated blooming plants, the settled maturity of it all. Nothing was self seeded or running about in a jumble.
I admire the easy, wilder look of some gardens, but this one was quietly composed. Shrubs were well pruned, flagstone paths were wide, nothing spilled over the edges. Nothing hid the views of sky and mountains, and the mix of tall shade and open sun areas was just right.
Her patio was huge and its size fit the openness and proportions of the big courtyard and the big skies beyond.
Bits of whimsy -- sculptures and lanterns and a bridge and rock rivers -- were scattered about, although I didn't get many pictures of those as I was focused on the plants. But even the whimsy felt balanced, just enough in her big space.
This garden was serene, composed, framed and balanced.