As someone who knows absolutely nothing about gardening, and who is reluctant to rid himself of such blissful ignorance, I was less than ecstatic when my neighbor and friend Cara invited me to a garden tour in Connecticut this past weekend. It isn’t that I don’t enjoy looking at pretty flowers and perfectly manicured herbaceous borders, it’s just that I feel like an outsider in an alien world. There’s a chummy insularity to those who know the score when it comes to gardening and landscape design. They have a language of their own, a vocabulary as erudite as any Latin scholar’s. For someone who doesn’t know the difference between a hydrangea and a fire hydrant, it can be a bit intimidating.

So it came as something of a surprise to me when I found myself traipsing through Bunny Williams’s beautiful gardens in the hills of northwestern Connecticut, and ended up enjoying myself immensely.

What a thrill to be able to experience someone else’s hard work (and that of her devoted staff) without having to get a blister on my anything-but-green thumb, or a crick in my back from bending over the weed patch.

For a mere $5.00 donation to the Garden Conservancy, I was able to stumble from one stunning vista to the next, stupefied by the riot of colors and textures before me, and charmed by the elegance and grace of the display. And camera-in-hand, on a gorgeous summer day, I was able to snap away with abandon.

Bunny Williams has a marvelous eye for the simplest detail, not to mention the finest materials. Her skills as a gardener and interior designer mesh neatly in the house where the doors this day were wide open, creating a feeling of enormous warmth and hospitality. Even the private bedrooms and baths were open to the public, something I doubt most house tours would allow.

I’ve met Bunny Williams before and always admired her lack of artifice and down-to-earth charm. She was there, signing her lavishly designed coffee table books, including her latest An Affair with a House.

The title of that seems to sum up what’s so special about her home. It’s clearly a romance — a passion of a woman with endless ideas and ingenuity for the world around her. You can read more about her books and design business HERE.

There may have been one or two too many cutesy garden ornaments for my taste (although I did like Bunny’s bunny, nearly hidden by the hedge surrounding her front door.) And occasionally one felt that certain vignettes were a tad over-staged (even the compost heap looked like it had been styled for maximum “wow” effect).

But the overriding feeling one comes away with is a sense of generosity of spirit, order and organization, cleanliness and clean lines, and an abundance of care. There’s also humor and whimsy that softens the somewhat expected formality.

I was particularly struck by a small gardener’s shed, where the light filtered through old glass, barely illuminating the ghostly ornaments and antique cloches being stored, repaired or cleaned up for future use.

As a collector of antique wooden finials, I was completely smitten with a beat-up old finial tucked away in the work room. It seemed like a truly unique piece. But then, as I stepped outside and turned the corner, there was its twin, out in the open, drenched by the sun, defiantly off-kilter.

From the classical, yet rustic pool house to the lush flower beds that seem to have a mind of their own, the property is alive with a palpable energy.

The prodigious and productive mood is contagious. One comes away armed with ideas and inspirations, eager to tackle one’s own thorny issues in all terrains of life with an equal amount of grit and aplomb.