Last year we visited the Cheekwood Botanical Garden before Spring had sprung. This visit at the end of summer all the foliage was fully developed but the fall color had not yet arrived.
Inside the conservatory is a large train setup including Thomas and a model of the Cheekwood Mansion much easier to photograph here than on the grounds. The cute little Lady Bug Commuter Car was flitting from stop to stop with only a short pause.
Outside the budding engineer is fascinated with the larger scale model.
The flowers were in bloom and I captured a few Coleus to add to my collection. Flowers are fine but this huge garden is mostly focused on the landscapes, art, and the sculpture walk.
The garden does not need to pack a 20 acre garden in a 5 acre plot like so many. They still have these open vistas like the overlook for the Japanese Garden.
One of several wooded areas houses the sculpture walk starting with this large block of Yugoslavian granite not even given a name.
I am more into these small sculptures of the woodland critters.
Fascinating from an engineering perspective is the Glass Bridge. We normally look at glass as fragle but more accurately would be brittle. Shaped properly it can be quite strong sort of like the concept that Concrete Ships don't sink like a brick.
Also somewhat of an engineering marvel is called Blue Pesher. This sort of builds on the concept of ancient people using caves with a small opening in the ceiling to track sun and moon movements to predict the seasons and the best time for planting , harvest, and ceremonies.
The bent wooden pillars are called Steeple Dance and the more thought provoking piece is called Crawling Lady Hare.
Getting up closer to the mansion which is now an art museum are more conventional sculptures installed by the Cheeks. Lori's sister would love the rooster.
These stairs lead up to a side entrance with a small patio, probably used as the family entrance, overlooking the lawn with two lion sculptures. After all every mansion should have lions.
Not really visible from the patio is a reflecting pool with the maidiens at each end. The round pool is in the center of the lawn behind the mansion.
Somewhere along the way I found this owl for Lori. The plant that looks like a sculpture was tucked into a corner near the front formal entrance to the mansion.
Just a couple more water features were the fountain pool being repaired and the three little girls shivering in the birdbath.
Close to the mansion was a natural wild flower prairie grass maze. I am not sure what to call it except fun with even a little girl sculpture nestled in the bushes.
The flowers, butterfly, and lily pad were all along the woodland gardens over the hill in front of the mansion. The little pink puffs marked the start of the sculpture walk which runs behind the mansion. The clouds look a lot more ominous than they really were at 2pm but I just liked their shapes.
Located in the western suburbs of Nashville, Tennessee near the start of the Natchez Trace, the Cheekwood Botanical Garden was another on our list of gardens we could visit for free. The Cheek family were major wholesale grocers in the late 1800s and developed the famous coffee brand named after the Maxwell House hotel in Nashville. The large country estate was created by Mabel "Wood" and Leslie "Cheek" after the family sold Maxwell House coffee to what is now General Foods just before the Great Depression. Great timing!
And such a wonderful country estate it was with this huge house on the hill overlooking the many gardens. While family legend holds the house was built to accommodate Mabel's huge mirror it was probably more building a dream made possible by the $40 million from the Maxwell House sale. The photograph of the mansion was taken very near to the waterfall that trickles down the ravine leading to more of this lovely 50 plus acre estate. Fortunately in the 1950s a consortium of Nashville art interests were able to purchase the property which combined with the adjacent Warner Parks leaves the estate looking much like it's original concept.
From formal gardens and plantings to simple woodland paths, there is a huge variety of garden types adequately spaced to be enjoyed each on their own although we did not have the time to adequately explore any of them properly so we will be back next year for more.
Here a particular fitting touch is the bamboo lined pathway leading to the Japanese garden area. In the actual garden they seem to have the concept right but to make a truly spectacular Japanese garden requires a lot of time and the attention of a master.
I did not get a chance to explore down the woodland path until next year when I'll discover it's actually an art walk. One of the major funding sources for purchasing Cheekwood was the disbanded downtown art museum which is now located here at Cheekwood.
I included these last pictures here to show the contrast of the seasons. Here in early Spring the garden is just starting to awake and it will be a whole lot different in the late fall next year. This visit was primarily a rest stop on the way to the trace and part of a campaign to convince my country music fan wife a longer visit to Nashville was really a good idea.