A Beautiful Garden in the Middle of a Ghost Town

Did you all have a good weekend?  It was way too fast for me 😉

Last Friday, I had to head a couple hours north of town to do a consult in Sedona, AZ.  Now, north of where I live is always cooler, which is a good thing during the summer.  

On my way there, I started to look for the tiny hillside town of Jerome, which is visible from the highway.  Known as the “largest ghost town”, Jerome is one of my favorite places to visit.

My family and I did visit there last month and I was pleasantly surprised to find beautiful, perennial gardens, window boxes, a garden made up of glass and junk and so much more….

I would like to share my visit with you if I may….

Largest ghost town

As you can see, Jerome sits on the side of a mountain.

Largest ghost town

Although many of the historic buildings have been restored and play host to artists, stores and visiting tourists – there are those buildings that have definitely seen better days.

When I saw this building where grass and trees were now growing inside one old rooms, I could just imagine what was housed inside during the 1800’s.

The town sits on a steep 30% slope.  So, over the years, some of the older buildings have started to slide down the mountainside, including the old town jail.

In fact, when our two oldest daughters were very young, we would visit Jerome and they would have fun crawling around the ruins of the old jail.  Now the jail is completely ruined and our youngest kids can’t get near it.

Now, although I love the town itself and the shopping, I must confess that I was determined to take pictures on this visit.  My goal was to find some gardens and I must say that I was very happy with what I was able to capture with my camera.

I can’t wait to share them with you….

I first came upon a garden that was full of flowering perennials, including this hollyhock (which is technically a biennial, but I’m not going to be technical today).

The garden was also host to roses in addition to the hollyhocks.

There were quite a few bees at work collecting pollen.  Interestingly, I didn’t see any honey bees, just bumble bees.

Okay, I realize that I am focusing a lot on hollyhocks, but they are just so pretty, aren’t they?

Once I was able to tear myself away from the hollyhocks, I did notice some of the other pretty perennials…

Isn’t this Heart-Leafed Golden Alexander wildflower pretty?

I really don’t like extra long common names like this one 😉

It grows in zones 3a – 8b, which means that it won’t grow in my low desert garden, but it is very pretty.  It can be grown from seed and does best in sunny locations.

 I just loved tiered gardens, don’t you?

There were so many beautiful plants to see, but this Red Valerian caught my eye.

Now I have grown Red Valerian (Centhranthus ruber), which is also known as ‘Jupiter’s Beard’.

I grew this in my first desert garden when we lived in a small house in Phoenix.

It grows in zones 5-10 and can be started from seed.

Eager to see what else there was to discover, I left this beautiful garden and pressed on…

I saw this Trumpet Vine growing on the side of this stone wall.  I have always liked Trumpet Vine, but haven’t grown it myself because it is deciduous in winter (loses its leaves) and I prefer using an evergreen vine such Purple Lilac Vine.

As I was walking, my husband and kids decided to take a break and play at the little park in the center of town.  Now, I only had about 20 minutes until we were to meet, so I hurried to see what else I could discover.

First, I stopped to enjoy the breathtaking view across the valley.  I could see the red mountains of Sedona in the distance…

Then I started walking towards one of the most interesting gardens that I have ever seen.

You know, I’m not sure that you could even call it a garden…

There are plants, but they are arranged around a bunch of ‘artistic junk’. 

I’m not sure why I am drawn to this unique garden, but I find it irresistible.

There are lots of old glass bottles, a steer skull hanging inside of a broken door, and so much more odd things that are hard to describe.  

On my way back to meet up with my husband and kids, I spotted some pretty planters along the sidewalk.  

 

I like how this restaurant filler their planter with quite a few herbs.  I think the flowering Verbena looks great alongside the herbs too, don’t you?

I spotted a beautiful Swallowtail butterfly and waited until it landed upon a Dianthus so I could take its picture…

Okay, so my time was up and I was going to be late to meet up with my husband and kids.  So I walked (I really don’t run all that well), back as fast as I could.  I was happy that my husband wasn’t upset at my lateness.  It’s probably because he knows me so well that he adds 10 minutes to the time that I say I will be back 😉

On our way to the car, I noticed a doorway in the side of a wall / staircase.

Now I’m not sure what this doorway was exactly.  But my kids knew what to do with it….

Go inside and explore!

That is until they realized how dark it was inside…..

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Thank you so much for coming along with me on our day trip to Jerome.  I have been wanting to share my visit with you for some time.

If you get a chance, check out this link to find out more about this fun ghost town.  

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."