The Castle, Yew Dell Botanical Gardens

Finally, I paid a visit to Yew Dell Botanical Gardens today, after several failed attempts. Yew Dell is situated in Crestwood, Kentucky, a large bedroom community just northeast of Louisville. Today was a picture perfect day, with beautiful blue skies and just the slightest breeze, to pay a visit to the gardens, albeit late Fall and most of the color on the trees is down. And yes, those are pepper plants in the foreground of this first image that greet you at the entrance to the gardens.

You can Google Yew Dell Botanical Gardens and their website comes right up. On their 'About' page, they offer this:

Yew Dell is a nationally-recognized center of gardening and sustainable horticulture that offers extensive display gardens, a diverse slate of educational programs, family-oriented community events, ongoing research into new and better garden plants, and a wide range of private event facilities. Yew Dell offers something for everyone from homeowners and beginning gardeners to green industry professionals, school children and families, hikers, academics in plant and environmental fields and more. Yew Dell Botanical Gardens is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Preservation Project of the Garden Conservancy, a national non-profit dedicated to preserving the Nation's most exceptional gardens.

A little background on the origin of this beautiful garden. Thomas Klein, an internationally known expert plantsman, and his wife, purchased 33 acres just north of Louisville in 1941. Spending the next 60 years, they built an exquisite estate, a successful nursery and a vast collection of unusual plants and outstanding gardens. Having a flair for architecture, Klein built several structures on the property which he termed Yew Dell. After Klein's death in 1998, several individuals decided to purchase the property to preserve the estate and the accompanying gardens. And I, for one, am very happy they did.

The gardens are situated in a small centralized area of the estate. Of all of the images I captured today, here are two vantage points of the Castle and the Overlook Garden which sits right off the Castle Terrace. Klein built the Castle as a pool house and the terrace was the pool. The Castle is now used for social functions while the terrace allows visitors to sit and look out over the Overlook Garden.

No doubt Yew Dell was gorgeous earlier this Fall. I do have more images I'll post soon. And yes, I'll be going back to Yew Dell especially this Spring and earlier in the Fall next year. Here is a list of the places I've visited recently to capture the beautiful reds, oranges, yellows and greens of Fall over the past two to three weeks: Blackacre Nature Preserve, Mustatatuck National Wildlife Refuge, Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest, Cherokee Park, the scenic route to Leavenworth, Indiana, the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, and of course, Yew Dell. Click older posts at the bottom to go to those pages or click the keyword on the sidebar. Needless to say, I'm a tad weary. Hope you have a wonderful week. ENJOY!