Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the cooler weather, spending time out in the garden and planning for the upcoming holidays. even with all of that going on, I still find my self thinking back to the fun we had on our vacation to the east coast.
I have talked about our trip to North Carolina and Williamsburg, VA and now I would love to share with you our about our time in Washington DC. If you are just looking for plant or gardening content, then feel free to stop here……but I do have a couple of photos of plants that we saw there 😉
So Washington DC is the third major destination of our trip. We had spent a little time before our trip, educating our kids about our government and how it works. *I confess that I showed them old “Schoolhouse Rock” episodes….did you know that they can be found on DVD? I learned a lot about history when these played in between Saturday morning cartoons when I was growing up.
Our first visit was to the Ford Theater where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. We were able to see exactly where he was sitting and the presentation by the park rangers was very interesting.
The kids really enjoyed this as did my husband who had never been to Washington DC before. I remember visiting the Ford Theater when I was 12 and it was interesting to me even then.
Our next destination was one of my favorites….the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Great White Sharks really do have big teeth 😉
Next on our journey was to be a tour of the Capitol. As we walking from the Smithsonian to the Capitol, I saw a pretty flowering shrub.
I have no idea what it is, (my expertise is fairly regional to the western United States), but it was very pretty.
I was looking forward to our tour of the Capitol. We had scheduled a tour with our congressional representative and were to meet at his office ahead of time.
I think Kai and Gracie are saluting before we went inside 😉
The intern who was to lead us on our tour let the kids sit in our representative’s desk, which was pretty neat…
Kai looks awfully comfortable in his seat 😉
We were ready for our tour of the capitol – the representative’s offices are located in different buildings….not the capitol itself. The Capitol is connected to the office buildings by underground tunnels, which is the way we were able to travel.
Not the best picture, but it was cool to be traveling underground.
Up inside of the dome, there is actually a small walkway the surrounds the painting at the top. Only only congress men and women are allowed to go up there. I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting the Capitol was….there was much past history to see as well as current history in the making and artwork everywhere. We also got to go inside of the House Chamber which was pretty cool (we weren’t to take pictures though).
I was surprised to learn that each state had two statues inside of the Capitol representative of a famous/historical person from their state. Now, this is where my California upbringing became evident….I had no idea who the Arizona statues represented…I’d never heard of them before (neither had my husband who was raised in AZ).
But, I did know who the California statues represented. The first was Ronald Reagan whom everyone knows. But I was really excited to see the second statue….
As native Californians, Father Junipero Serra was a historical figure that all children grow up learning about. He was the founder of the California missions.
The large paintings and a statue of Abraham Lincoln (Illinois’ statue) was a favorite of the kids.
As we got ready to leave, we noticed the beautiful view from the window of the Capitol that showed the Washington Monument down the Mall.
Our day was almost at an end and our feet were really hurting, but we paused to take a picture as we left the Capitol.
It was so interesting to see how our government works and the kids learned a lot.
We did see the Supreme Court building in the distance and made sure to take a photo of the kids in front so that they can say that they had “seen” it.
Now for those of you who are waiting patiently to see some pictures of plants, here are two that we encountered on our walk back to our hotel. Sadly, we did not have time to tour the Botanic Gardens.
Yes, Lantana does not only grow here, but flourishes.
I can’t remember what these flowers were, but they were beautiful.
Well, we had done quite a bit in our first full day in DC, but our second day promised to be just as full.
Our second day in DC began in the National Archives where we viewed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
You cannot take photos of these famous documents since flash photography fades the writing. The Declaration was already to faded, it was hard to read. But, it was VERY cool to see it. I kept telling the kids that this was the document that was the basis for the movie “National Treasure”, which they love.
Our next destination was so interesting and we had to schedule a tour via our congressman’s office. It was totally worth it.
Yep, we got to see the White House. Actually, we went inside and saw quite a few of the rooms on the first floor. Again, you are not allowed to bring anything inside besides your wallet and cell phone (turned off), so we have no pictures. But it was so interesting to see these beautiful rooms, which I had only seen on television and in history books. The gardens the we could see had Mexican Bush Sage, which was just beautiful.
Once outside, we were allowed to use our cell phone to take a picture, just to prove we were there 🙂
Our last planned visit of the day was to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Actually, my husband and son went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum and us girls went to the American History Museum.
I do love American culture and there were a few exhibits that I was looking forward to seeing.
Julia Child’s kitchen.
I loved the display of dresses from the first ladies.
I think Gracie’s favorite was seeing Kermit the Frog….
We saw so much more…..Dorothy’s ruby slippers, Abraham Lincoln’s Hat and…
We actually took this photo to show Kai later. He is a total Star Wars fan and I think he was a little jealous that his sisters got to see C3P0.
Well, at the end of two full days in DC, we had seen quite a bit. But, there was so much more to see which gives us a reason to return someday.
Our evening was spent eating a surprisingly great dinner via room service at our hotel. Our feet were too sore to contemplate going out to dinner 😉
The next morning we were due to drive up to Amish Country up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. We were due to stay at a working farm Bed & Breakfast. I could hardly wait.
A Sea of Green in my Vegetable Garden
Vegetable GardeningOne of the many things that I love about living in the desert southwest, is the ability to grow vegetables 12 months of the year. Now I have mentioned before that I grew vegetables during college as part of required classwork out in a field owned by the school. I have instructed clients how to grow vegetables and have planted vegetable garden for others. But I had never grown vegetables in my own garden. I had not experienced the excitement and wonder of checking the garden each day to see my plants growing bit by bit, see the flowers form and leaves grow and culminate in vegetables ready for harvesting. I did not know how much better vegetables taste when they are from your own garden.
And so, I had not experienced any of this…..sad isn’t it?
Well, early last spring we decided to plant a vegetable garden. The kids were so excited, but I must admit that I was even more so. My husband, always supportive of my gardening endeavors, was not quite as excited as I was, but was more then willing to do a lot of the grunt work.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, any woman whose husband shovels manure for his wife, is blessed!
I won’t go into more detail about our spring/summer garden because I have written about it before and I don’t want to bore those of you who have already read it 😉 But for those of you who have not seen it, you can read about our early adventures in the vegetable garden here.
Once September came, I was eager to plant winter vegetables. Visions of broccoli, carrots, lettuce and cauliflower filled my head. Before we planted our seeds, we added additional bagged compost and aged steer manure -both available at our local big box store.
Then it was time for planting. Now a common problem for many gardeners, including me, is that my eyes are bigger then my gardening space. So, I had to cut my list of desired vegetables to the following: broccoli, spinach, carrots, romaine lettuce, garlic, basil and bunching onions.
My daughter Ruthie and I planted the seeds and then eagerly waited to see tiny green leaves break through the surface. They did within a few days and then the unexpected happened….birds got to them. So we began again and spread bird netting on the top, which thankfully worked.
My tiny vegetable plants were growing beautifully, but they faced another hurdle. I was leaving for two weeks on vacation and my 18 year old daughter was staying at home and therefore responsible to take care of my garden, including watering my vegetables. Now those of you who are gardeners understand my trepidation. House-sitters are not always super reliable when it comes to caring for your garden. Couple that with the fact that my daughter has not shown any inclination towards gardening….at least not yet. Between college, church and her job, she has little spare time. I was worried that she my not take her watering responsibilities seriously. I might have mentioned to her ahead of time that you can always tell if a vegetable garden has been watered correctly by the taste of the lettuce. If the leaves are bitter, then there were periods of dryness. I think that maybe made the difference, because when we returned from our vacation, my garden was absolutely thriving.
I was so thankful for how wonderfully my daughter cared for my garden. The one thing in the garden that really surprised me was how tall my tomato plants had grown….they were over 4 ft. tall.
I had planted Marigolds throughout the garden to help ward off any undesirable bugs and so far they are working – doesn’t my lettuce look beautiful?. I also planted some Nasturtiums for the same reason as well. I am fast becoming a firm believer in companion planting.
I love carrots and will thin them soon once they grow a little larger.
I do not like cooked spinach. But I love putting baby spinach leaves in my salads. It is hard to not to grab some and eat them when I am out in the garden…..I just know that I will succumb to temptation soon 🙂
My broccoli is coming up too. They may be too close, but I will wait and see for sure before I pull any out.
My basil is growing in front of my tomato plants. Whenever I look at the two together, it makes me want to go and make marinara sauce.
In front of my lettuce is bunching onions (scallions) and the taller one is garlic. Did you know that you plant garlic from garlic cloves? You can even plant cloves or garlic you buy at the grocery store. My kids thought that was so cool.
As hard as I try to have straight, neat rows of vegetables, I always fail. But, that is really not the point is it? Vegetables respond to fertile soil, sun and water….not whether or not they are perfectly straight 🙂
It may seem like the rows are too close together….I did follow the instructions of the seed packets, but I can always pull something out if it gets too close. I would rather fit all I can in my vegetable garden then have large bare spots which contribute nothing to my table.
**I am somewhat proud to say that everything in my vegetable garden, with the exception of the tomatoes, marigolds and the garlic, were all grown from seed.** I personally have nothing against buying transplants at the nursery and growing them, but your options of picking out certain varieties of vegetables is limited and it does cost more. I recommend growing vegetables from seed and if some do not, then by all means….buy the transplants 🙂
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Today, we are celebrating my daughter Gracie’s 9th birthday. She wanted to have her party at our local pizza restaurant where she and her friends can enjoy all of the games. I love the fact that I don’t have to have a sparkling clean house (I seldom do), I don’t have to prepare the food or clean-up afterward. I did make the cake, which is something I do love to do.
Happy 9th Birthday Gracie!
Adventures in Amish Country and a Farmhouse Visit
AZ Plant LadyWell as promised, this is the last installment of our trip to the east coast last month. For those of you who have not been following our adventures, breathlessly awaiting this post 😉 So far , we had traveled to Atlanta – to Asheville, NC – to Williamsburg, VA – to Washington DC – to Lancaster, PA.
My mother had been to Amish country before and really enjoyed her time there, so we were excited to experience it. The Amish lifestyle is fascinating and you can find out more about their beliefs and lifestyle here if you like.
The countryside was so beautiful and the roadsides were flanked by countless farms. It was fairly easy to tell which farms were Amish by looking at the clothes hanging out on the laundry line.
Our first adventure in Amish country consisted of taking a buggy ride. As many of you probably know, the Amish do not use cars, tractors or electricity. But, they do have horse driven buggies.
Our driver’s name was Rueben and I enjoyed talking to him as he drove us around. By the way, there is a reason that Rueben is not in this picture…..the Amish do not like to have their picture taken.
As fun as the buggy ride was, I was looking forward to stopping by some of the stores which feature many Amish made goods.
I think one of the things that I like about fall are mums and pumpkins. How about you?
Many of the stores had pumpkins for sale as well as gourds. I saw two different types of gourds that I had never seen before…..
There are actually gourds that grow in the shape of apples and swans. I have to get seeds and try growing them myself.
It was easy to tell that we were right in the middle of farm country. Many of the gift shops had produce for sale as well.
Can you think of a better place to put broccoli? I can’t wait for my broccoli plants to grow 🙂
There was a huge farmer’s market that we ventured into where we not only saw beautiful produce…..
There was also an iconic treat for sale as well….
Oh, I absolutely loved the Whoopie Pies. I love to bake and I would love to learn how to make these….they were just so delicious. The girls bought Amish dolls at the Farmer’s Market. An interesting fact about Amish dolls, is that they do not have faces.
It was time for us to head to our Bed & Breakfast. The kids were particularly looking forward to staying there because our B&B was actually a working farm.
This is a view of the farmhouse at Airy Hill Farm.
The barn was located behind the trees. We met the wonderful owners, Mark and Hazel and the kids couldn’t wait to meet the animals.
Airy Hill Farms used to be a part of a larger farm. The owners sold most of the land and kept 20 acres for themselves and their sheep, alpacas, horse and chickens.
The original hog farm.
Mark took the kids down the drive to meet the miniature horse and take her for a walk.
They met the Alpacas and learned how to feed them.
The sheep were only interested in the kids when they thought that they had food.
We had a wonderful dinner nearby in Lititz and were then welcomed back at our B&B with hot tea and coffee. We spent a wonderful night in very comfortable rooms.
The next morning the kids were up early and went to help Mark feed the animals and help search for eggs in the barn.
Kai was determined to look everywhere for eggs….
He actually found some.
I think the kids were kind of disappointed that we were not going to spend the entire day at the farm. We decided to explore some of the other Amish towns nearby.
YES, that is actually the name of the town. I’m thinking of making this our Christmas card. What do you think? Actually, I am too chicken to send this out as our Christmas card 😉 Another fun town we visited was called ‘Bird in Hand’.
We visited the local library and noticed the special parking area….
This is for horses and buggies. The signs ask that you clean up after your horse.
We saw quite a bit of activity on the farms. I was interested in seeing how the Amish farmers work without tractors or any power equipment.
I was only able to get one photo of an Amish farmer and I took it from far away, so as not to make him uncomfortable.
I realize that it may seem strange to write so much about Amish country and not have pictures of the Amish people to share with you, but it is important to respect their wishes and privacy. We did see many Amish people. The children are just darling in their little bonnets and hats.
A lot of the kids ride scooters, which have the body of a scooter, but with large tires like a bicycle. I saw a teenage Amish boy who was racing down the road very fast on his scooter. I was struck by the similarities to your average teenage boy who likes to drive fast in a car.
After a little more shopping, we went back to our Farmhouse B&B and the kids were free to spend the afternoon playing.
We had a fabulous time and highly recommend Airy Hill Farms to anyone who is planning a trip to Amish country in Pennsylvania.
We woke up the next morning, said goodbye to the animals and headed on our way to Philadelphia for the day and then on to New York City – the final destination of our wonderful vacation 🙂
Thank you so much for letting me share our travel adventures with you 🙂
Greetings From Amish Country…
Downsizing Is A Good Thing – But Not Always….
AZ Plant LadyWell anyone who knows me well, would definitely have a hard time believing that I actually wrote a title like this one.
For those of you who may not know me personally….I will let you in on a secret – I love getting a good deal and living simply. My mother (Pastor Farmer) is very good at this as was her mother, so I guess it is in my DNA. I love shopping sales and coming home with items that normally would have cost much more.
When I quit my full-time job as a landscape designer, we had to make some cuts to our household budget which was a challenge that I actually enjoyed, especially at the grocery store. My daughter Ruthie is always asking me how much I saved each week at our local grocery store. I think she is on her way to becoming a saver as well.
I am also a huge proponent on saving money in the garden as well and it is really not difficult to do while still having a beautiful garden. Now you would expect that the best way to save $ in the garden is by downsizing and you would be partly right. You can definitely save money by downsizing, but it does not always save you money.
I am going to share with you a great way to add beauty to your garden, decrease your maintenance and save money. It is really so simple that I hope you are inspired to try this in your own garden.
Okay, are you ready? All you need to do is to purchase shrubs that will grow to a large size. You may be asking, is that all? YES!
Many shrubs will grow to a large size, which takes up space in the garden. The more space covered equals fewer plants needed. Large shrubs also are great at covering up bare walls, hiding pool equipment / air-conditioning units while adding beauty, particularly if you select a flowering shrub.
Add beauty to your garden
My Arizona Yellow Bells (Tecoma stans stans) shrub easily grows to 7 ft tall and wide. Mine covers approximately 30 sq. ft. of area in my garden while providing beautiful flowers 9 months out of the year. It also helps to cover up my bare wall.
Want more examples?
Add beauty to your garden
This is a ‘Torch Glow’ Bougainvillea that I placed along my father-in-law’s back garden wall. Paired with two others, their unique branching habit along with their bright colors really provided a great focal point.
Now people either love or hate Oleanders (Nerium oleander). For the average garden, I do NOT recommend planting the large varieties. But, the dwarf forms of Oleanders do grow to a good size and can reach heights of 6 ft. Since Oleanders are so easy to grow, many people have them in their gardens.
Add beauty to your garden
So, if you would like to include some in your garden, I recommend trying a red flowered variety since most Dwarf Oleanders seen in landscapes are the pink and salmon colors. (Be aware that all parts of Oleanders are poisonous).
When you talk to newcomers to the desert southwest, they often ask about the beautiful large shrubs with orange/red flowers are planted along the freeways.
Red Bird-of-Paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) is beautiful in the summer landscape and as you can see, hides a bare wall very well. Maintenance in my zone 8b area is very simple – just prune back to 1 ft. in January and they will soon grow back to 6 ft. high in the summer months. **Another helpful tip to help prolong bloom – prune back lightly (by 1/4) in August to extend the bloom period throughout October and early November.
I just love the unique flowers of Baja Fairy Duster (Calliandra californica), so do hummingbirds. I love both the beauty and low maintenance of these shrubs. Please do not prune them into ‘balls’…..they are so beautiful in their natural form 🙂
If you prefer more green then flowers, then the following shrubs may be more to your taste….
Hopbush (Dodonaea viscosa)
You could easily put 5 small shrubs along with 3 groundcovers in this area….where just 2 Photinia (Photinia fraseri) fit very well in the area above.
Many of you may be surprised to find out that many of the shrubs you already have in your own garden can grow quite a bit larger then you let them. The solution to the problem is quite easy…..stop over pruning them and let them grow. The alternative is to plant multiple shrubs in a given space and as they grow, you are forced to keep pruning them back to keep them from crowding each other.
Well how about buying a single 1-gallon shrub (you don’t need to spend extra for a 5-gallon) and give it space to grow? You will be rewarded with more $ in your pocket, a large beautiful shrub and fewer plants to prune and maintain.
Yes, your new 1-gallon Texas Sage (Leucophyllum frutescens) will look scrawny – but not for long….
Other suggestions for shrubs that will grow large:
Littleleaf Cordia (Cordia parvifolia)
Orange Jubilee (Tecoma x ‘Orange Jubilee’)
Pink Beauty (Eremophila laanii)Feathery Cassia (Senna artemisioides)
Chaparral Sage (Salvia clevelandii)
You may be wondering where my next post on our trip to the east coast will come. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if they were becoming somewhat boring – especially for those who read my blog for gardening topics. So, I thought that I had better write a gardening post. I promise that I will write more about our trip – our visit to Amish country was just fabulous.
Have a great week everyone!
Yellow Bells and Little Hands….
Sore Feet Equal Two GREAT Days of Discovery
az plant lady familyFall is my favorite time of year. I love the cooler weather, spending time out in the garden and planning for the upcoming holidays. even with all of that going on, I still find my self thinking back to the fun we had on our vacation to the east coast.
I have talked about our trip to North Carolina and Williamsburg, VA and now I would love to share with you our about our time in Washington DC. If you are just looking for plant or gardening content, then feel free to stop here……but I do have a couple of photos of plants that we saw there 😉
So Washington DC is the third major destination of our trip. We had spent a little time before our trip, educating our kids about our government and how it works. *I confess that I showed them old “Schoolhouse Rock” episodes….did you know that they can be found on DVD? I learned a lot about history when these played in between Saturday morning cartoons when I was growing up.
Our first visit was to the Ford Theater where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. We were able to see exactly where he was sitting and the presentation by the park rangers was very interesting.
The kids really enjoyed this as did my husband who had never been to Washington DC before. I remember visiting the Ford Theater when I was 12 and it was interesting to me even then.
Our next destination was one of my favorites….the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Great White Sharks really do have big teeth 😉
Next on our journey was to be a tour of the Capitol. As we walking from the Smithsonian to the Capitol, I saw a pretty flowering shrub.
I have no idea what it is, (my expertise is fairly regional to the western United States), but it was very pretty.
I was looking forward to our tour of the Capitol. We had scheduled a tour with our congressional representative and were to meet at his office ahead of time.
I think Kai and Gracie are saluting before we went inside 😉
The intern who was to lead us on our tour let the kids sit in our representative’s desk, which was pretty neat…
Kai looks awfully comfortable in his seat 😉
We were ready for our tour of the capitol – the representative’s offices are located in different buildings….not the capitol itself. The Capitol is connected to the office buildings by underground tunnels, which is the way we were able to travel.
Not the best picture, but it was cool to be traveling underground.
Up inside of the dome, there is actually a small walkway the surrounds the painting at the top. Only only congress men and women are allowed to go up there. I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting the Capitol was….there was much past history to see as well as current history in the making and artwork everywhere. We also got to go inside of the House Chamber which was pretty cool (we weren’t to take pictures though).
I was surprised to learn that each state had two statues inside of the Capitol representative of a famous/historical person from their state. Now, this is where my California upbringing became evident….I had no idea who the Arizona statues represented…I’d never heard of them before (neither had my husband who was raised in AZ).
But, I did know who the California statues represented. The first was Ronald Reagan whom everyone knows. But I was really excited to see the second statue….
As native Californians, Father Junipero Serra was a historical figure that all children grow up learning about. He was the founder of the California missions.
The large paintings and a statue of Abraham Lincoln (Illinois’ statue) was a favorite of the kids.
As we got ready to leave, we noticed the beautiful view from the window of the Capitol that showed the Washington Monument down the Mall.
Our day was almost at an end and our feet were really hurting, but we paused to take a picture as we left the Capitol.
It was so interesting to see how our government works and the kids learned a lot.
We did see the Supreme Court building in the distance and made sure to take a photo of the kids in front so that they can say that they had “seen” it.
Now for those of you who are waiting patiently to see some pictures of plants, here are two that we encountered on our walk back to our hotel. Sadly, we did not have time to tour the Botanic Gardens.
Yes, Lantana does not only grow here, but flourishes.
I can’t remember what these flowers were, but they were beautiful.
Well, we had done quite a bit in our first full day in DC, but our second day promised to be just as full.
Our second day in DC began in the National Archives where we viewed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
You cannot take photos of these famous documents since flash photography fades the writing. The Declaration was already to faded, it was hard to read. But, it was VERY cool to see it. I kept telling the kids that this was the document that was the basis for the movie “National Treasure”, which they love.
Our next destination was so interesting and we had to schedule a tour via our congressman’s office. It was totally worth it.
Yep, we got to see the White House. Actually, we went inside and saw quite a few of the rooms on the first floor. Again, you are not allowed to bring anything inside besides your wallet and cell phone (turned off), so we have no pictures. But it was so interesting to see these beautiful rooms, which I had only seen on television and in history books. The gardens the we could see had Mexican Bush Sage, which was just beautiful.
Once outside, we were allowed to use our cell phone to take a picture, just to prove we were there 🙂
Our last planned visit of the day was to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Actually, my husband and son went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum and us girls went to the American History Museum.
I do love American culture and there were a few exhibits that I was looking forward to seeing.
Julia Child’s kitchen.
I loved the display of dresses from the first ladies.
I think Gracie’s favorite was seeing Kermit the Frog….
We saw so much more…..Dorothy’s ruby slippers, Abraham Lincoln’s Hat and…
We actually took this photo to show Kai later. He is a total Star Wars fan and I think he was a little jealous that his sisters got to see C3P0.
Well, at the end of two full days in DC, we had seen quite a bit. But, there was so much more to see which gives us a reason to return someday.
Our evening was spent eating a surprisingly great dinner via room service at our hotel. Our feet were too sore to contemplate going out to dinner 😉
The next morning we were due to drive up to Amish Country up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. We were due to stay at a working farm Bed & Breakfast. I could hardly wait.
Adventures in Williamsburg and a Colonial Garden
AZ Plant LadyWell, we have been home and it is still taking a little while to get settled. This also extends to my blogging….I am running a little behind.
I have enjoyed putting together posts about our recent trip to the east coast and one of my favorite destinations was the colonial town of Williamsburg, Virginia.
Colonial town of Williamsburg, Virginia.
I had visited Williamsburg when I was 12 years old and couldn’t wait to experience it again as an adult and through my children’s eyes. The weather was perfect and I could hardly wait to see my kids experience a living history or our country.
Before we even made it into the town, the kids and I visited the fabulous gift shop to get some ideas of what type of souvenirs we would want to purchase on our way out. Gracie and Kai loved the hats.
It makes me happy to see how well the kids get along with each other. Kai was walking with his arm around Gracie.
The kids were eager to get started and our first stop was to a special orientation that they had especially for kids.
The boys had to line up across from the girls and learn how to bow….
The girls had to learn how to curtsy….my curtsy was a little rusty 😉
One destination that I was very excited to see was the colonial garden and nursery.
My mother, Pastor Farmer, also loves to garden and my husband knew we would be exploring the colonial gardens for a while 😉
Bell jars to protect plants from the cold and a reproduction of an old bird feeder were on display.
I was happy to find some plants that I recognized at the entrance…..Bush Lantana.
Plants such as Beauty Berry above are not familiar to my southwestern eyes, but I did recognize it because I had seen it in my fellow bloggers gardens in more temperate areas.
It was so cool to see the gardener in colonial garb. They had a myriad of different vegetables, herbs and flowers growing, using old fashioned methods.
Now there were some plastic markers used for the vegetables and I did see some California varieties of broccoli being grown, so I’d see this garden was a blend of both the old and the new.
As my mother and I got ready to drag ourselves away from the gardens, we discovered two surprises that my mother hastened to point out to the kids….
Two caterpillars that will turn into beautiful Swallowtail butterflies.
We went on to the local church and the kids got to sit in George Washington’s reserved pew. He attended the church back when he was a General, before he became president.
I think the best part of the day for the kids was getting to ring the old church bell…
Ruthie and Kai loved to stop and pet the horses. But I think that Kai’s favorite part was seeing all of the guns stored in the town’s magazine.
We stopped by the courthouse and then had fun showing the kids where people were punished once they were sentenced….
Afterwards, the kids had a new respect for ‘time out’ 😉
Colonial town of Williamsburg, Virginia.
We had a fabulous day and took one last picture before we loaded up into the minivan on our way to Washington DC.
Now we were off to Washington DC……a great place to visit, but I literally walked my feet off there ….more later 🙂
I appreciate you letting me share my trip with you!
Az Plant Lady’s Southern Adventures
az plant lady familyWell, I have almost recovered from our roadtrip to the east coast. The clothes have all been washed, my huge pile of mail is now gone and I am no longer waking up at 5 o’clock in the morning.
Our trip began by flying into Atlanta and renting a minivan before heading up to western North Carolina in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
I had never been to the South before and I was eager to explore. We started our journey in Murphy and drove to Asheville.
As we were driving through the Applachian Mountains, I was captivated by the gorgeous scenery. I also enjoyed seeing old, abandoned buildings being overtaken by trees and native vegetation. My head kept turning this way and that trying to take it all in, which was difficult because I was the one driving at this point 😉
The kids hanging out with their Grandma (Pastor Farmer) at the lake at Montreat, NC.
Normally when my husband and I are in the same vehicle, he is the one driving, but because my husband was already in North Carolina when we rented our minivan at the airport, he was not on the rental car contract. Normally, my husband is always the driver when we are together. He does not like to be the passenger. Are any of your husbands like that?
Now, that is not a reflection on my driving my husband says….I grew up in California and learned how to drive the freeways of Los Angeles and in the California mountains. I must admit that my husband was a great navigator while I drove as our roles were completely reversed. Thankfully for my husband’s sake, we were able to add him as a driver to our rental car once we reached Greensboro, NC.
Our stay in Asheville was wonderful. The highlight was our trip to the local farmer’s market. There were many items that were common to most farmer’s markets….
Local farmer’s market
But, I was drawn to the unique items available…..
The mountain cabbage was huge, as were the tomatoes….
Last summer, I learned how make jam from my mother. My pantry is still stocked full of peach and plum jam from the trees of Double S Farms. I was anxious to see what type of preserves that the farmer’s market would offer….
What I was not expecting was the unique and somewhat strange canned products that I would find.
Have any of you heard of scuppernong juice?
The names of some of the preserves were quite creative.
I told my son that I did not think that they used real toes in this jam;-)
We are working on getting my son to stop using his ‘fake’ smile when posing for photos 😉
Okay, peanuts are extremely popular in the South. They are offered everywhere. Now, I had never heard of boiled peanuts before, so we tried some….
Now, I hope that I do not offend anyone when I say that we really did not care for the boiled peanuts. They must be an acquired taste…
I loved these salad bowls. What a great idea for growing salad greens, especially if you do not have a lot of space.
Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha) looks beautiful, even in a drab container.
I love the colors of fall vegetables, don’t you?
We had no idea what these scary looking pottery bottles were and asked the potter who made them. He told us that back in prohibition times that the locals would hide their liquor inside of these bottles from the authorities. Nowadays, he said that they use them to hide their liquor, not from the authorities, but from children. The scarier the container, the more kids will stay away from them.
We met a local musician at the farmer’s market, selling his CD’s and playing his coffee can fiddle. Yes….I did say a coffe can fiddle. It really sounded good.
I was curious to see if fried foods were really as popular in the South as people say. Well, I would definitely answer yes to that one. You can almost find anything fried, including pies.
We had a fabulous time at the farmer’s market and got ready for the next leg of our journey which would take us on to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and then to Williamsburg, Virginia.
But, before we end our visit, I would like to share with you two of my favorite labeled products that we found at the market….
We bought a jar of this BBQ sauce for my in-laws. Doesn’t it make you crave BBQ ribs?
That’s right, they had moonshine jelly, made from white wine. I wish we had bought a jar 😉
Well after our farmer’s market adventure, we got back on the road and onto our next destination….
Signs of Fall in the Desert?
desertI have heard people lament that they miss the obvious changes that the seasons bring in cooler climates, once they move to the desert. A fall without yellow and red foliage doesn’t feel the same.
Autumn color in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina
Visions of large, green trees whose leaves are beginning to turn into beautiful colors occupy their thoughts….
Fall foliage begins to make it’s appearance in Williamsburg, VA.
I like fall color as much as the next person, but as a native of Southern California, I have never experienced a whole lot of autumn colored foliage. So for me, the coming of fall is indicated by drier and cooler weather, which I wholeheartedly welcome.
Some of you may not have noticed, but I have been gone for about 2 weeks on a vacation along the east coast. My mother (Pastor Farmer), my husband, the kids and I flew from Phoenix to Atlanta, GA, where we rented a minivan and drove through western North Carolina, through Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, Pennsylvania and ended up in New York.
We had a phenomenal time, which I will post about later. One thing I will mention is the beautiful autumn color that we were fortunate to see on our travels.
Montreat, North Carolina
We enjoyed gathering some leaves for fall decorations back home. I was able to get some from the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, some in Pennsylvania, a couple of leaves from trees at the White House (the Secret Service didn’t get me in trouble for that), and a few leaves from Central Park in New York City.
Now many new people who move to the desert southwest love our mild winters, but oftentimes lament the lack of fall color in the trees in our area. Well, for those of you who are homesick for some fall color in your desert garden, do not despair…
There is a wonderful tree that produces beautiful orange-red color in the winter. The Chinese Pistache (Pistacia chinensis) tree stands out in the winter landscape because of it’s gorgeous color.
Autumn Colored Foliage
Aren’t they beautiful?
Throughout most of the year, this Chinese native serve as beautiful shade trees. They reach sizes of approximately 30 ft. high and will shed their leaves in the winter.
This front garden is a great example of a beautiful Chinese Pistache tree.
It is NOT a good example of how to prune your shrubs 😉
They are hardy to temperatures in the teens in the winter months. Male trees are said to be more attractive then the female trees.
So, if you are a new resident of the desert, or maybe a longtime resident and would like to add a little autumn color to your landscape, here is a tree to try.
Who wouldn’t love color like this in the fall?
**I am currently getting over jet lag and going through my photos from our vacation. I can’t wait to share some of them with you 🙂
Is It Fall Yet?
Monthly Garden Bouquet – October
AZ Plant LadyThe leaves are beginning to turn and air is finally becoming cool and crisp. I always look forward to fall as it is my favorite time of year, full of holidays.
My entry for this month’s Monthly Garden Bouquet (MGB) consists of a simple, but beautiful bouquet of some of my favorite flowers.
Now, as I ventured out into my garden to cut the blooms, the rain that had been falling had stopped. But wouldn’t you know it…..after I made the trek to my side garden, the heavens opened up and I was caught in a torrential downpour.
I didn’t want to be a ‘sissy’ and decided to cut the blooms as quickly as I could and then run inside. Well you guessed it….I was completely soaked when I came inside. But, I was successful and had a bunch of blooms from my single plant.
After drying my hair, I placed the blooms in my vase….
I realize that I could have put maybe one or two more flowers, but I was NOT going out to venture out into the rain again because first, my hair was finally dry and second, there was lightning and I am paranoid about getting struck by lightning.
I got out my trusty SLR camera and started clicking away. When I went to download them onto my computer….my camera started to have issues and my photos were lost. So I had to resort to my small Sony Cybershot camera. Under the circumstances, I think it did a pretty good job.
The beautiful flowers of the Red Bird-of-Paradise also known as Royal Poinciana (Caesalpinia pulcherrima), do not need any other types of flowers or fillers. They are so striking on their own.
Newcomers to our area often comment on the beautiful shrubs and their bright summer flowers. I have two by my kitchen window and I love viewing their blooms close up and the hummingbirds who come to drink their nectar.
If you would like to participate in this month’s Monthly Garden Bouquet (and I hope you do), here are the guidelines.
1. MGB begins on the 21st of each month and runs until the end of each month. Bouquets can be submitted during this time (or even later 🙂
2. Create your own garden bouquet as fancy or simple as you like. **You can also create an autumn bouquet with fall colored foliage.**
3. I would appreciate it if you would provide a link back to my post inside of your MGB post, but it is not required 🙂
4. Add your link to Mr. Linky below and that’s it!
Have a great week!
Spring’s First Monthly Garden Bouquet…
Create A Children’s Garden in a Plastic Pool
az plant lady familyI’m sure most of you know how much fun it can be to garden with your kids. I remember my dad building each of us a raised planter where we could grow vegetables and flowers. Today, my kids and I went to the store to buy flowers for their new garden. You will NEVER guess what they are planting their flowers in 😉
Our first stop was our local nursery. Each child was allowed to pick out 2 six-packs of flowers. The kids decided to each pick a different type of flower and then share them with each other. My youngest daughter selected geraniums and blue petunias.
My older daughter selected stock, (beautiful and fragrant despite its ordinary name) and white alyssum.
My son decided on dianthus and snapdragons.
We finished making our selections and then got ready to go home and start planting. The only question the kids had was – where were they going to plant their flowers? Well…..
How about their old kiddie pool? You know, the ones that cost less then $10 and your kids have fun playing in during the summer. When summer is over, most people either throw it out or store it somewhere out of the way. Well, you can use it as a planter for either flowers or shallow-rooted vegetables or herbs.
First, move the pool where you want the garden to be as it will be too heavy once you fill it with potting mix. Then make multiple holes on the bottom for drainage. Then fill with a mixture of planting mix and compost. Sprinkle some slow-release fertilizer and now begin planting!
My youngest daughter planted the first plant, a peach-colored geranium.
My teenage daughter is overseeing our planting while texting on her phone.
We finished! The kids are so excited to see their flowers grow. The garden will be a riot of different colors and has no sense of design, which is as it should be for a children’s flower garden.
Old kiddie pool
This will be our “before” picture. We planted geraniums, stock, snapdragons, petunias, dianthus and alyssum.
If you would like to try this at home and you want the garden to become a somewhat more permanent part of the landscape, you can add a brick border or plant shrubs and perennials around the outside of the pool.
**Some of you may have noticed that my three youngest children do not look like me, (my two oldest daughters do). We adopted our youngest children from China. I call them my “Three Chinese Miracles”.
A Children’s Flower Garden in a Kiddie Swimming Pool
October Craziness….Cactus, Spiders, Stormy Weather and a Mixed-up Bird
Hummingbird GardeningFrom the title of this post, you might surmise that I am somewhat distracted because I have a lot on my mind. Well, I am quite busy at the moment getting ready for our upcoming trip along the east coast, which is why I am a bit behind on posting….
I do love this month and it’s cooler temperatures, pumpkins and the beginnings of holiday decorations. In fact, the other day I was on my way home for a consultation for a friend of mine when I drove by the ‘cactus house’ in our neighborhood. I call it the ‘cactus house’ because they have a lot of cactus in their front garden. Now don’t get me wrong, I do like cactus, but not as the main plant type in a garden.
Okay back to what I saw in the front garden of the ‘cactus house’. In the center of the garden there is a beautiful Organ Pipe cactus. Well, the cactus is not what caught my attention….it’s what was crawling on it…..
Holiday Decorations
Can you see it?
Yes….that is a scary spider crawling up the cactus. Believe it or not, cacti are often used for holiday decorating. Wait until you see what people do for Christmas here in the desert.
My second topic has to do with the weather….
Last week, we had a huge storm blow through. We are used to strong storms during the summer monsoon months, but generally not in the beginning of October. There were tornadoes in the northern part of our state while people in our area received a lot of rain and hail.
I always have trouble capturing rain with my camera. But the rain and wind was impressive. We had about 2″ total that day, with four different thunderstorms hitting us.
Okay, now for my last topic…..
Like many of you, I have a hummingbird feeder that hangs outside of my window. My kids gave it to me for Mother’s Day. I love seeing these tiny birds fly up and take a sip and then leave again.
Whenever I am in the kitchen, I am usually on the lookout for any activity outside of my kitchen window. Well, the other day I saw movement and my hummingbird feeder was moving and turning. I was sure I had a little visitor and so I grabbed my camera….
I couldn’t see my visitor clearly, and so I waited for the feeder to turn my way….
At this point, I began to see more of my visitor…..
Well, she is definitely not a hummingbird. This little sparrow was absolutely determined to get some nectar out of my feeder.
Despite her efforts, she was not able to figure out how to get any food out of those tiny holes.
I should probably fill my regular bird feeder with birdseed 😉
A Few of my Favorite Things……Hummingbirds