The last state of our road trip was perhaps, the best – Kentucky.
My southern ancestry is from Kentucky and I was excited to explore this state.
Of course, no visit to Kentucky is complete without a visit to a very famous celebrity known for his famous ‘original’ chicken recipe.
We visited the cafe where it all began…
Sander’s Cafe is on the National Register of Historic Places. This is where he opened his first restaurant and shared his wonderful fried chicken.
There is a small museum attached to a working KFC restaurant. Above, is the kitchen display at the museum.
After a lunch consisting of Kentucky Fried Chicken and mashed potatoes, we were on our way to the Kentucky Artisan Center, which featured crafts made by the people of this great state.
Then we were off to Lexington, “The Horse Capitol of the World”.
It was quite accidental that we timed our visit a few days before the Kentucky Derby.
But, we decided to explore the horse culture. So, we took a tour of horse farms and a race track.
On one of our first stops, we saw this 2-day old filly and her mother.
She was very curious about us and came right over to the fence. This little horse has no name and is known by her mother’s name ‘Orange Crush’ until she is about 2 years old, when she will get her own name.
We visited Keeneland, which is the world’s largest horse auction house and is also a race track.
We were fortunate to see some horses running.
We saw the row of jockeys.
This is where I would need to go. You only need a minimum of $2 to place a bet.
This is the winner’s circle, where I posed for this photo with my mom.
Now, we were off to see more horse farms.
We were able to feed the young foals and their mothers on one farm while talking to one of the trainers.
This farm has two horses running in the Kentucky Derby this weekend.
Do you know what we fed the horses?
Peppermint candies!
These young foals loved them.
I did learn some things that I didn’t know before. This little brown foal, will eventually turn gray like its mama.
This was my favorite horse, who was a yearling.
This 2-year old was just insured for $850,000 because this horse shows so much potential as a race horse.
Also on the farm, was another valuable animal. Her name is ‘Nana’. She is a companion for the racing thoroughbreds on the farm.
Nana helps to calm the skittish horses and travels with them.
The horse tour was so much fun and I highly recommend it.
After the tour, we headed from Lexington to Bardstown, which was recently voted one of the best small towns in America.
As we walked down the street, I was surprised to see a small saguaro cactus in front of a store front.
Evidently, there is someone in this small town that grows them in his greenhouse.
We stayed a bed & breakfast that used to be the county jail.
The rooms were very nice and we enjoyed a nice breakfast out in the courtyard.
The interesting part about this was that the gallows used to stand here.
After breakfast, we toured the actual jail cells.
This cell had some very hard bunks and a display of weapons that the inmates had made in the jail.
As we walked down the hall looking into the cells, I was scared to death by an occupant in one of the cells…
Okay, I admit that it was a somewhat fake looking inmate, but at first I thought he was real.
After leaving Bardstown, we decided to partake in another Kentucky tradition – bourbon.
Bourbon is made in Kentucky because of the large amount of limestone and how it flavors the water.
You can tour different bourbon distilleries on the ‘Bourbon Trail’.
We decided to tour Maker’s Mark bourbon distillery because of its close location to Bardstown.
We took the tour and learned about how bourbon is made.
Toward the end of the tour, we participated in a tasting.
Now, I rarely drink and I have never tasted bourbon or whiskey. But, I decided to have a taste.
And, after the tasting – I decided that it will probably be my last 😉
After our tour, it was time to start heading to the airport in Louisville for our trip home.
On our way, we decided to stop by a UPS store to mail home some of our souvenirs because we didn’t have room in our suitcases.
Well, I thought that our road trip adventure was over, but I was wrong.
You see, I had asked our GPS to guide us to the closest UPS Store and as we were driving down the road and all of a sudden we were standing at the gates of Fort Knox and showing our ID to the soldier on duty.
We were allowed to go through and went to the UPS Store.
On our way out, we passed this street sign…
At the airport, we were greeted by roses…
A Dixieland band…
And nicely dressed girls, wearing hats, giving out bourbon balls…
With only two days to go until the Kentucky Derby, Louisville was pulling out all the stops to welcome people.
As I waited for our airplane to arrive, I was surprised to see countless passengers arrive with their hat boxes in hand.
Over 50% of the people we saw, were carrying hat boxes. As many of you may already know, wearing fancy hats is a Derby tradition.
We did meet some people who had arrived from Michigan and St. Croix just to see the Derby in person.
While I will be watching the Kentucky Derby on television, I was happy to be able to experience a little bit of it.
Please come back for a visit for my last road trip post.
A Beautiful Flower and a Failed Vegetable
Vegetable GardeningWhite Onions
Isn’t this flower beautiful?
You may be surprised that a vegetable produced this flower.
This is the flower from a onion plant.
You would expect that the onion plant that produced this flower would be equally impressive, like the one in the picture above.
But sadly, the onion that created the flower in the top photo looked more like this when I pulled it out…
White Onions
Kind of disappointing, isn’t it?
This was the first time that I tried growing regular onions in the garden. I have had a lot of success with green onions, but evidently, my white onions need some help.
While there are only about two onions worth eating, I can chop the greens of my ‘reject’ onions and use them in the same way one would use green onions (scallions). They have a mild, oniony flavor.
Every time that I try some thing new in the garden, I learn something.
I have learned since then that many of my fellow area gardeners, have had similar disappointments when growing bulb onions.
However, there is one variety that many have told me they have had some good results growing. It is called ‘Texas Sweet’.
So, next fall, I will be growing ‘Texas Sweet’ onions.
In the meantime, I will keep my remaining onions in the ground and enjoy their beautiful flowers.
**Check back soon for a fabulous giveaway that I will be doing where you can win a great TroyBilt tool that has many uses. I have been having so much fun with mine.
*********************
I haven’t mentioned how my daughter, Rachele, has been doing while in basic training for the Navy.
It has been much harder than she expected. She has had some injuries to deal with and a cold that has been present much of her time in basic training.
She has been homesick, but as her time in basic training has progressed, we sense her toughness and determination to get through.
On the home front, the first few weeks were very hard because we missed her so much. But, as time passed, we have adjusted to her absence although we miss her terribly.
What has been so hard is the fact that our main way of communicating with her is by letter. She only gets to send us one letter a week.
Phone calls are sporadic and you never know when they will come. It has been 3 weeks since we last talked to her on the phone.
I cannot wait for her to graduate from basic training and will be flying out to Chicago soon to see her become a sailor. We will have one day with her before she flies out to her ‘school’ where she will learn her specialty.
Please keep her in your prayers as she is going through her last tests that she must pass.
Thank you!
Vegetable Garden Transition
Vegetable GardeningAbout this time of the year, I am busy helping my vegetable gardens transition into summer.
That means pulling any remaining leaf lettuce. Yes, it hurts to know that I now have to buy lettuce until next fall when I can grow it again.
Even though not all of my lettuce had bolted, none of it was edible. Once the temperatures get up to 90 degrees, the lettuce turns bitter.
vegetable garden transition
For the past 4 months, I have been harvesting a few carrots every few nights to include in salads or soups.
Now that it is getting hotter and some of the carrots are beginning to flower, it was time to harvest the rest of the remaining carrots.
I didn’t use the carrots that had flowered, since they had become woody inside.
vegetable garden transition
You know, one of the things that I like about gardening is how unpredictable it can be. The two carrots, above, were growing just 1 ft. away from each other.
The garlic was already harvested and I concentrated on pulling out cool-season annuals that were serving as companion plants.
I love my crocs!
These nasturtiums were still blooming, so I will leave them until they begin to fade.
vegetable garden transition
A quick check of my warm-season vegetables showed that my zucchini plant has its first fruit (yes, zucchini is technically a ‘fruit’).
You really have to check carefully for zucchini because they can be hard to spot.
I will have to get my mother’s famous zucchini bread recipe.
Tomatoes are hanging from the vine and will soon be turning red.
In my side garden, I have two new peach trees growing.
This one has 18 peaches on it.
I planted this peach tree in January. Now, normally, you would want to ‘thin’ fruit so that there is only one fruit every 6 inches – this creates larger fruit. But, I was so happy to see so much fruit on my new tree, that I just left them.
Since I won’t have enough to make peach jam, this year, I will use them to make peach vinegar.
I don’t just have peaches growing in my side garden…
My blackberry bush has ripe blackberries!
Originally, I hadn’t planned on growing blackberries in my garden, but my mother had an extra blackberry plant that she gave me last year, so I planted one.
I decided to go ahead and add more this year and planted 5 more bushes.
I only have the original blackberry bush covered in fruit because blackberries form on 1-year old growth.
My family wants me to use some of our blackberries to serve over ice cream.
I was thinking of using them for making blackberry vinegar, which I’ll use to make salad dressing.
What do you think? Ice cream topping or fruit-flavored vinegar?
A Tiny Investment And a Huge Harvest
AZ Plant Lady, Vegetable GardeningI love getting a great deal, don’t you?
Back in October, I spent $2.40 for eight heads of garlic, from my local grocery store.
I planted them and 7 months later, it was time to harvest them.
As I stepped into the side vegetable garden, I took a good look at my garlic. It was a lot bigger then in previous years.
I started pulling and realized that it was a lot harder to pull out then last year.
It was the biggest garlic that I had ever seen in my garden and I was thrilled.
Until I realized that I had planted twice as much garlic as last year and still had to pull out all of the remaining garlic.
A couple of hours later, I hauled in my garlic harvest…
All this for an initial investment of $2.40!
I had so much garlic that I couldn’t carry it in one load.
harvest garlic
The larger heads were almost 4 inches wide. However, the garlic that I grew in containers was quite a bit smaller – more like the size you find in the grocery store, which was fine with me.
Now all I have to do is to let my garlic ‘cure’ for a month in a dark, dry spot. That usually means that I put them on top of my large freezer in the laundry room.
Garlic will last about 8 months if kept in a dark, dry spot out of the heat. I don’t think we will be able to use all our garlic. Thankfully, I have plenty of people to share it with.
For more info on how to grow and ‘cure’ garlic, you can check out my earlier post “Got Garlic?”.
Home Again…
Road TripWell, I made it home after visiting five states in 8 days.
One of the things that I enjoy most about my annual road trips is discovering the people, places, history, food and gardens of the different regions of the United States.
Annual road trips
My road trip, this year, took me to parts of the South.
I walked through the streets of Charleston, South Carolina and seeing historical places where events of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War played out.
I peeked over ornate gates to see hidden gardens in this beautiful city.
This native Southern Californian who grew up along the Pacific coast, dipped my toes in the Atlantic Ocean on Tybee Island.
I enjoyed visiting many of the 22 historical squares of Savannah, Georgia where many of the buildings survived the Civil War.
I found that Spanish moss really does hang from the trees down South, although it isn’t Spanish or a moss.
(It is actually a bromeliad and related to the pineapple).
An unplanned visit to the University of South Carolina yielded discoveries of beautiful gardens, including this herb/vegetable garden.
Smaller highways led us to small towns with tiny police stations.
Driving through North Carolina proved that spring has indeed sprung with the vision of flowering dogwoods everywhere.
Small roadside markets in Tennessee tempted us with their wares including boiled peanuts, toe jam and frog jam on our way toward the Smoky Mountains.
The gardens of the University of Tennessee had much to delight this horticulturist, including their kitchen garden.
A visit to Kentucky horse country led to the unforgettable experience of feeding thoroughbreds peppermint candies (with their trainer’s permission, of course).
Discovering the world of horse racing was very exciting even though I wasn’t betting.
I spent the night in a jail. Seriously, it was a bed & breakfast that was located inside the old county jail in Bardstown, KY.
I did sleep in a regular bedroom and not this jail cell 😉
The last day of our Southern journey took me to a bourbon distillery where I tasted my first and last bourbon.
On our way to the airport in Louisville, we took an unexpected detour to Fort Knox as our GPS guided us there in our search of a UPS store to mail home our souvenirs.
The South is a wonderful place to visit and I made a few other discoveries while I was there:
– Southerners are the friendliest people. Strangers wave to you on the side of the road as you pass. When they ask you how you are doing, they really want to know.
– Their regional dishes have names like ‘Kentucky Burgoo’ and ‘The Big Brown’. But, the servers are happy to explain to you what they are.
– Sweet tea is very sweet.
– The food is fabulous and fried chicken is served just about everywhere (after all, Col. Sanders created his ‘Original’ fried chicken recipe in Kentucky).
For those of you who followed along with me on my journey, thank you!
Kentucky: Thoroughbreds, Bourbon and Hats
Road TripThe last state of our road trip was perhaps, the best – Kentucky.
My southern ancestry is from Kentucky and I was excited to explore this state.
Of course, no visit to Kentucky is complete without a visit to a very famous celebrity known for his famous ‘original’ chicken recipe.
We visited the cafe where it all began…
Sander’s Cafe is on the National Register of Historic Places. This is where he opened his first restaurant and shared his wonderful fried chicken.
There is a small museum attached to a working KFC restaurant. Above, is the kitchen display at the museum.
After a lunch consisting of Kentucky Fried Chicken and mashed potatoes, we were on our way to the Kentucky Artisan Center, which featured crafts made by the people of this great state.
Then we were off to Lexington, “The Horse Capitol of the World”.
It was quite accidental that we timed our visit a few days before the Kentucky Derby.
But, we decided to explore the horse culture. So, we took a tour of horse farms and a race track.
On one of our first stops, we saw this 2-day old filly and her mother.
She was very curious about us and came right over to the fence. This little horse has no name and is known by her mother’s name ‘Orange Crush’ until she is about 2 years old, when she will get her own name.
We visited Keeneland, which is the world’s largest horse auction house and is also a race track.
We were fortunate to see some horses running.
We saw the row of jockeys.
This is where I would need to go. You only need a minimum of $2 to place a bet.
This is the winner’s circle, where I posed for this photo with my mom.
Now, we were off to see more horse farms.
We were able to feed the young foals and their mothers on one farm while talking to one of the trainers.
This farm has two horses running in the Kentucky Derby this weekend.
Do you know what we fed the horses?
Peppermint candies!
These young foals loved them.
I did learn some things that I didn’t know before. This little brown foal, will eventually turn gray like its mama.
This was my favorite horse, who was a yearling.
This 2-year old was just insured for $850,000 because this horse shows so much potential as a race horse.
Also on the farm, was another valuable animal. Her name is ‘Nana’. She is a companion for the racing thoroughbreds on the farm.
Nana helps to calm the skittish horses and travels with them.
The horse tour was so much fun and I highly recommend it.
After the tour, we headed from Lexington to Bardstown, which was recently voted one of the best small towns in America.
As we walked down the street, I was surprised to see a small saguaro cactus in front of a store front.
Evidently, there is someone in this small town that grows them in his greenhouse.
We stayed a bed & breakfast that used to be the county jail.
The rooms were very nice and we enjoyed a nice breakfast out in the courtyard.
The interesting part about this was that the gallows used to stand here.
After breakfast, we toured the actual jail cells.
This cell had some very hard bunks and a display of weapons that the inmates had made in the jail.
As we walked down the hall looking into the cells, I was scared to death by an occupant in one of the cells…
Okay, I admit that it was a somewhat fake looking inmate, but at first I thought he was real.
After leaving Bardstown, we decided to partake in another Kentucky tradition – bourbon.
Bourbon is made in Kentucky because of the large amount of limestone and how it flavors the water.
You can tour different bourbon distilleries on the ‘Bourbon Trail’.
We decided to tour Maker’s Mark bourbon distillery because of its close location to Bardstown.
We took the tour and learned about how bourbon is made.
Toward the end of the tour, we participated in a tasting.
Now, I rarely drink and I have never tasted bourbon or whiskey. But, I decided to have a taste.
And, after the tasting – I decided that it will probably be my last 😉
After our tour, it was time to start heading to the airport in Louisville for our trip home.
On our way, we decided to stop by a UPS store to mail home some of our souvenirs because we didn’t have room in our suitcases.
Well, I thought that our road trip adventure was over, but I was wrong.
You see, I had asked our GPS to guide us to the closest UPS Store and as we were driving down the road and all of a sudden we were standing at the gates of Fort Knox and showing our ID to the soldier on duty.
We were allowed to go through and went to the UPS Store.
On our way out, we passed this street sign…
At the airport, we were greeted by roses…
A Dixieland band…
And nicely dressed girls, wearing hats, giving out bourbon balls…
With only two days to go until the Kentucky Derby, Louisville was pulling out all the stops to welcome people.
As I waited for our airplane to arrive, I was surprised to see countless passengers arrive with their hat boxes in hand.
Over 50% of the people we saw, were carrying hat boxes. As many of you may already know, wearing fancy hats is a Derby tradition.
We did meet some people who had arrived from Michigan and St. Croix just to see the Derby in person.
While I will be watching the Kentucky Derby on television, I was happy to be able to experience a little bit of it.
Please come back for a visit for my last road trip post.
A Rusted Pick-Up, Trash Can Containers and a Kitchen Garden
Containers, Garden TravelsOne of my favorite stops on our road trip this year was visiting the gardens at the University of Tennessee.
Earlier in our trip, I visited the gardens of the University of South Carolina, so I was looking forward to seeing more campus gardens.
Even though, I had heard great things about the gardens at UT, I was surprised at how much there was to see.
The kitchen gardens were the first area we came up to.
The kitchen garden was bordered by trash cans filled with flowering annuals and tulips.
Roses and a clematis vine greeted us at the entrance of the kitchen garden.
I wish I could grow clematis vines in Arizona. I tried once – it did grow, but wouldn’t flower. Definitely NOT a ‘fuss-free’ plant for a desert garden.
The fence was made up of tree stakes, sawed in half and painted lavender. The area inside was filled with vegetables, herbs and other plants. The garden was a also a test garden for many yet to be released plant varieties.
Here is a strawberry with red flowers, called ‘Toscana’.
Garlic planted among leaf lettuce look so attractive, don’t you think?
Did you know that garlic keeps bad bugs away from the lettuce? It’s true!
Here is a great example of ‘square-foot gardening‘.
Flowering chives were just a few of the herbs that bordered the outer area of the garden.
The flowers are so pretty, that I think I’ll let some of my chives go to flower this year.
The artichoke plants were huge – my mother posed beside it so you could see how big it was.
Some of the beds were full of what many would call weeds. But this crop of ‘hairy vetch’ is actually a cover crop, which is planted in between seasons because it adds nitrogen to the soil.
Have you heard of the newest trend of vertical gardening? I love this display.
Of course, a kitchen garden should have a compost pile.
Do you see the plastic tube in the middle? That is perforated all the way down, in order to get air to all layers of the compost pile, which helps with decomposition.
Outside of the kitchen garden was an old, rusty truck that had potatoes growing in its bed.
This was a great example of what I like to call ‘functional garden art’.
Here is a cute praying mantis figure.
I did see some familiar plants that are equally at home in the desert southwest like this prickly pear and verbena (Glandularia pulchella), below.
After leaving the kitchen gardens, I walked through the larger part of the university gardens.
One of the things that I enjoy about traveling, is discovering new plants that don’t grow where I live.
Viewing this garden, I was often surprised to find quite a few plants that I also grow, even though my garden was about 1,800 miles away from here.
As I walked through the larger garden, there were beautiful shade plants, like these hosta.
Brightly colored azaleas dotted the landscape.
Isn’t this ‘Encore’ azalea beautiful?
Lily of-the-Valley was blooming. I love their small, delicate flowers.
I love the lime-green color of this hosta, don’t you?
This honeysuckle smelled heavenly!
It was so pretty, too.
We also found a huge wisteria vine, which also had a wonderful fragrance.
The dogwood trees were blooming.
Did you know that the outer white petals aren’t the actual flower? They are called ‘brachts’. The real flower is in the center and isn’t too showy.
Willowleaf ‘Blue Star’ was in full bloom.
Throughout the lawn areas were softly mounded planting beds, which I liked because they added height and interest to this large expanse of lawn.
From a distance, I could see a red-flowering plant. I walked closer to see what it was…
I was surprised to find that it was Red Clover (Trifolium rubens). It was very pretty, but you need to be careful when using it as a groundcover, because like other clovers; it can be invasive.
As we got ready to leave the garden, we walked through the shade garden, which had places to sit and eat.
The UT Gardens have so many different events for the public. I only wished that I lived closer 🙂
I encourage you to take some time and visit the gardens at your local university. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you find there.
Our trip is nearing its end, but I am looking forward to visiting Kentucky.
****************
“Thank you” to my friend, Dave Townsend (from Tennessee) who sent me to this wonderful garden.
I encourage you to visit Dave’s blog, Growing the Home Garden, which is a hugely popular blog – once you visit, you’ll see why.
Garden on a Hill and a Forest of Trees
Garden TravelsWe have left South Carolina for one of my favorite parts of North Carolina – Asheville.
I had visited Asheville 2 1/2 years ago and was so excited to return.
Each time we go on a road trip, we stay in regular hotels – (Hampton Inn is our favorite).
However, we usually pick one special place to stay for one night of our trip.
My mother knew where she wanted us to stay – The Grove Park Inn. She had visited the inn years ago with my dad, but they had never stayed there. Sadly, my dad died before they got the chance to visit again.
The inn is over 100 years old and just beautiful. As you walk through the inn, rocking chairs are scattered along the property, inviting you to sit down and take some time to relax and enjoy the view.
When we arrived, we were water-logged from seeing a lot of rain. It was chilly and I took advantage of a warm seat in front of the fireplace.
The fireplace was huge…
Over 30 ft. tall.
We had a delicious dinner overlooking the gardens from the balcony.
In the morning, we were happy to see a bright, sunny day.
But, before we left, I had to see the gardens.
The hotel sits atop a steep slope, so access to the gardens is via a LOT of stairs.
The creeping phlox and the flowering dogwood were just lovely.
After we left the hotel, we headed to the Historic Biltmore Village, which is filled with small shops housed in what was formerly a planned community built in the 1890’s at the entrance to the Biltmore Estate.
Later, we headed downtown for shopping the unique shops filled with the work of the local crafts people.
Just before we left Asheville, we hopped onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, is over 400 miles long and runs through the Appalachian mountains in Virginia and North Carolina.
One place that you must visit in Asheville is the Folk Art Center, which features crafts made from artisans who live in the Southeastern Appalachians. Another wonderful reason to visit is that they feature a local artisan who creates his/her craft in front of you and answers questions.
Now, it was time to get back on the road and head for Knoxville, TN.
On our way, we drove through some small towns and visited some roadside stands.
Seriously, ‘boiled peanuts’ are a big deal in the South.
Jars of cider, honey and preserves filled the shelves.
I bet you didn’t know there was such a thing as ‘kudzu’ and ‘moon shine’ jelly, did you?
Fresh pork rinds were available. I must confess that I have never tried them before.
We stopped by this roadside stand in order to buy ‘toe’ and ‘frog’ jam.
Toe jam is made from tangerine, orange and elderberry. Frog jam is made of a combination of fig, raspberry, orange and ginger. I bought a jar of each.
Along the road, we journeyed through the Cherokee Indian Reservation.
Then we took the road through the Smoky Mountain Parkway. It is so picturesque.
The road was windy and fun to drive.
We arrived to our hotel in Knoxville and then headed out for dinner. On our way, we passed a restaurant whose billboard advertised ‘chicken livers and gizzards’ for dinner.
We went to the local Italian restaurant instead 😉
Come back tomorrow for our next day of adventures.
A Small Island
AZ Plant LadyIf you have been following my road trip, I wanted to show you a side trip that we made on our first full day:
We visited a small island off the coast of Georgia called Tybee Island.
Located just outside of Savannah, Georgia – Tybee Island is a barrier island and faces the Atlantic Ocean.
The walkway to the beach was flanked by dense growth. I even saw some Lantana growing wild. It is considered invasive in many humid climates.
As we walked out onto the beach, I couldn’t wait to get my feet into the water.
The beach was beautiful.
I love visiting the beach. I grew up on the Southern California coast and spent many a summer trying to get my fair skin to tan. (It didn’t work and now I am religious on putting sunscreen on).
It always surprises me how much warmer the Atlantic is then the Pacific ocean.
Up the beach was a wooden swing. I have never seen one at a beach before, but I thought – how perfect! If my husband had been there with me, I would have sat with him and watched the tide come in.
I like how these footprints in the sand lead through the grasses, don’t you?
Growing up on the West coast, I am used to seeing the sun set over the ocean.
However, I have never seen the sun rise over an ocean before, like many East coast residents do.
Near the beach, was a large concrete building, which was a ‘severe weather safe site’.
I could only imagine the hurricane and tropical storms that this island has had to weather over the years.
This post, shows how high the storm surges are for the different levels of hurricanes.
It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?
There is great shopping, dining and places to stay on Tybee Island along with beautiful beaches. I only wished that we had had more time to visit…
***************
Our road trip has been going very well, besides a solid day and a half of rain. I’ll post more about our adventures in North Carolina and Tennessee soon!
Home Again…
Unexpected Gardens
AZ Plant LadyThe past couple of days on the road have been both eventful AND uneventful.
Yesterday morning found us in Columbia, SC. We set on our way to find a folk art festival that was scheduled near the campus of University of South Carolina (USC), but couldn’t find it.
What we did find, driving through the campus, was a community garden, a rose garden and beautiful perennial beds along the roadside.
We parked near the university book store in the only spot we could find – we had only 30 minutes to explore or else we could get a ticket.
These perennial beds were filled with vegetables like artichoke and swiss chard, which look great as ornamentals alongside the pansies, dianthus and lamb’s ears.
Pink and coral poppies were in full bloom.
The red poppies in my garden at home were just beginning to fade before I left.
The campus of USC also has historical significance during the Civil War, where the parade grounds and barracks were located.
As we continued our walk, I kept seeing more things that got me excited.
As we turned the corner, we found ourselves in a small rose garden.
Isn’t this Peace rose, pretty? It was raining lightly as you can see.
This climbing rose used a nearby tree as a support.
I have grown many different kinds of roses, but never climbing roses. Maybe I should try?
Being from a dry climate, I am fascinated in observing the differences in gardens of wetter climates.
Okay, I know that those of you who live in more humid climates may be rolling your eyes at this point when you look at the photo, above.
But, I thought these ferns looked just beautiful growing out from the brick wall.
I am also always interested in seeing familiar plants, adapted to dry climates, being represented in other areas, like the Yucca, below.
We came upon the largest agave that I have seen, which is saying something because I see a LOT of agave.
I was having a great time and looking at my watch, realized that we had to start heading back to our car so we wouldn’t get a ticket.
But then, we came upon this community garden.
I was in heaven!
These raised beds were filled with delicious vegetables.
Next to the raised beds, was a garden with herbs, including these flowering broccoli.
The separate beds were divided, not with boxwood hedges, but rosemary. I really liked how it looked.
At the back wall of the herb garden, stood a ‘tipsy-topsy’ planter.
There was a different herb in each pot – chives, cilantro, basil, oregano and rosemary.
As the clock was ticking and we didn’t have any time to spare, we walked by this beautiful bed of flowers, containing one of my favorite plants – Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii).
USC has a beautiful campus and I was so happy to have to found such an unexpected garden ‘jewel’.
After leaving USC, we decided to visit the Confederate Museum in Columbia.
You see, my mother and I love to learn about history and that entails visiting museums and historical sights.
I am both a product of both the North and the South in regards to my ancestry.
It was time to leave Columbia for our next destination.
*The community garden was so wonderful that I will need to feature it in an upcoming post.
**Tipsy-topsy pots are very popular right now and aren’t hard to make. I found a tutorial that you can click on here.
Road Trip: Day 2, Savannah, GA
Road TripOne of the 22 historic squares in Savannah, Georgia.
Welcome to Day 2 of our road trip.
Our first stop was Charleston, SC – which is a beautiful city.
Today, we visited Savannah, Georgia. I had heard so many wonderful things about this historical city and couldn’t wait to explore it on our own.
We decided to take a tour because it would be hard to sufficiently explore the historic district by foot in the one day we had.
Many of the tours are on trolleys with multiple stops so that you can get off and on.
The homes were just lovely with many of them built in the 1700’s.
Each historic square, is a park that is surrounded by homes.
Many of the churches have steeples.
The Savannah River is located by the historic district and you can eat some fabulous food and see the boats go by.
According to the sign, this is a ‘real’ barber shop as opposed to a ‘fake’ one I suppose 😉
The arborist in me loves trees and there were so many old, live oaks.
We took some time to do a bit of shopping as well, stopping by Byrds Famous Cookies, which are a Savannah staple. These bite-sized cookies come in many different flavors.
Of course, we sampled some of the flavors at the ‘cookie bar’. My favorites were peach and red velvet.
Do you know whose restaurant this is?
(It’s Paula Deen’s restaurant – we made reservations a week ago and ate a delicious, yet fattening lunch 😉
After a wonderful day in Savannah, we drove to a plantation, just outside the city.
This is Wormsloe Plantation, which was built in 1736.
You can see the Spanish moss hanging from the trees.
The entrance was just what I imagined the entry to a plantation would look like.
The drive was lined with 400 live oak trees.
After we parked, we walked a short distance to the ruins of the plantation house…
A path behind the house led to a marsh.
Another pathway led to a colonial village recreation.
There were guides in period costume, who explained how life was back in the early 1700’s.
After leaving the plantation, we spent time visiting a small island called Tybee Island, which I wrote a separate blog post about.
We are having a great time so far.
I have learned that a pineapple represents hospitality, so at many hotels, you will see a pineapple symbol.
Also, the sweet tea is really sweet.
Thank you for joining me for our road trip. Six days more days to go…and here is what we did the next day.