Oak Spring Garden Tour

2024 - Part 1

This will mostly be an appreciation post, 5 years in the making. I was finally able to attend the Oak Spring Garden Tour this year, which walked us through Bunny Mellon’s property and various gardens. It was a beautiful day with perfect weather, and I highly recommend checking it out next year if you haven’t gone.

Typical Virginia countryside, with both stone and wooden fences in the distance.

One of the things that really struck me was how the main house was more like a series of houses - it didn’t seem big or ostentatious in any way, but rather a compound of many human-scale structures each with its own purpose.

A bit of quick sketching at the entrance to the compound.

Many smaller buildings with gardens in all the in-between spaces.

We met Mrs. Mellon’s former driver, who was very kind and had lots of good stories - one of which was that she requested for an apple to be put in her primary bedroom window every morning so that the birds would come and have a snack:

A few details that stuck out to me on the property:

1. Horse head hitching post with lamp. 2. Built-in stone fountain. 3. Wooden gate door. 4. One of many sitting areas in the gardens. 5 & 6. Metal faux bois bench. 7. Exterior stone stairs. 8 & 9. The greenery growing between the stone flooring.

I think a major design decision throughout the property - buildings and gardens - was to make a series of small, intimate spaces. The gardens themselves were broken up, whether by elevation (there were multiple tiers), walkways, rows of particular flowers or foliage, low walls or linear fountains. Each smaller space was enclosed in some way and had a place to sit and enjoy the scenery.

A large amalgamation of smaller, intimate spaces.

The garden had a large variety of beautiful flowers. I took a few close-ups for future paintings:

The next post will show details of the espalier trees, the greenhouse, the trompe l’oeil paintings, and the library.

Anna