St. Matthews Tudor-style home part of 2022 Kilgore Home & Garden Tour

Some folks get into expanding or gardening due to the fact of a particular variety of plant, these types of as roses or orchids. Others are drawn to the hobby as a calming, meditative exercise. For Bob Bobrow, the enterprise started 18 many years ago as a way to catch the attention of hummingbirds into his St. Matthews yard.

Setting up compact

“The garden started out compact in 2004 and step by step grew to fill our whole great deal,” Bobrow informed The Courier Journal. “Every enlargement was prompted by discovering a new plant or plant type that we required to incorporate in the backyard garden or a need to bring in wildlife — hummingbirds, goldfinch, butterflies, and dragonflies, for example.”

The home and garden of Robert Bobrow will be part of the Kilgore Garden Tour. May 18, 2022

Right now, the immaculate garden consists of every thing from primary flora like daylilies, irises, peonies, hostas, and roses, to a lot less-frequent plants these types of as crossvine, lady slippers, spigelia marilandica, toad lilies, Turk’s cap lilies, Canada lilies, cup crops, and a selection of peonies. The house also boasts a sizeable selection of significant rocks, as properly as 20 types of Japanese maple.

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A tree commencing

“(I) got began … on the Japanese maple kick when I was about 9 or 10 several years outdated,” Bobrow defined. “My uncle … had an orchard and … some ornamental trees, and I remember him taking me out one particular day and showing me this tree that experienced crimson leaves. In 1969 … they weren’t that widespread around here.”

A Japanese maple tree in the front yard of Robert Bobrow. Borrow had the tree moved from another home to avoid is being damaged by a sidewalk installation. Bobrow's home will be part of the Kilgore Garden Tour. May 18, 2022

A long time afterwards, Bobrow and his brothers inherited the land — and he remembered the tree. With a whole lot of effort and many supporting fingers, he was in a position to transfer the maple to his front garden, in which it even now sits to this day.

Other elements of the yard are also Japanese-impressed, including the smaller koi pond, as effectively as the birdbath set on the side of the driveway.

“The birdbath is wabi-sabi design and style,” Bobrow defined. “The notion (is that) that you really don’t want one thing perfect. You just want a organic glimpse.”

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The home and garden of Robert Bobrow will be part of the Kilgore Garden Tour. May 18, 2022

Itoh peonies — hybrids from a tree peony bred with an herbaceous peony, developed by Japanese horticulturist Dr. Toichi Itoh — are sprinkled all through.

“I love peonies,” Bobrow exclaimed. “You can not actually get significantly prettier than that. … The (Itoh peonies) have a yellow cast to them regular peonies don’t … and there’s a great deal additional shade variation to them.”

Preferred florals

Bobrow’s yard boasts a myriad of plants, but he says his favorites are the Canada lilies, which are native to North The united states.

The home and garden of Robert Bobrow will be part of the Kilgore Garden Tour. May 18, 2022

“It’s a definitely really plant,” he explained. “It’ll get (a few to eight feet) tall, then (the) blooms will splay and fall around, and they cling significantly like the blooms of the columbine.”

He’s also fond of the numerous peonies he has planted, which include the Itohs. But when it will come to the most effective section of the back garden alone, Bobrow says it’s a blend of owning the finished house and the act of placing in the perform to generate it.

“Every night, if it’s great, we’re sitting out right here,” he reported, incorporating that in the mornings, he’ll be seated on the opposite conclude. A number of chairs and benches are distribute during so that the views from all angles can be relished in various means, based on where the sun hits at any unique time of day. 

A single purple iris stands out from the greenery in the garden of Robert Bobrow. Bobrow's home will be part of the Kilgore Garden Tour. May 18, 2022

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“In the close, which is the most fulfilling component,” he claimed. “But something about undertaking it all your self can make it much more pleasing. … I imagine any individual who is a authentic gardener has a definitely solid control impulse, (since) you are developing your own earth.”

Bobrow’s backyard garden is one of seven that are remaining showcased in the 2022 Kilgore Residence & Garden Tour.