Handmade

I made this fairy garden birdbath/ urn planter last night! And the rock word. So excited to start selling some fairy garden accessories soon! I will keep you posted!

I found a great garden center!

I'm sure we all have our favorite go to places for plants. I had a few super favorites in southern Wisconsin; I lived close to some really fantastic places with massive selection. It took me time to find them all. I made a habit of internet searching, bookmarking magazine pages and each spring we'd go explore a new one. I went back to the best.

Now since we moved to Minnesota last year right during May, I had almost no time to garden shop- plus I brought a whole u-haul of plants and garden strucutres. I did get out to one great little place int the twin cities; they had great ideas and inspiration, but I was far too smart to pay their prices. This year I was excited to see if I could find some that rivaled those places I had in WI. This week, I found my first one!

I visited Tonkadale, in Minnetonka, MN. I somehow found it by searching online, and the website seemed promising. I was most impressed with the fairy gardens. The trip came about spontaneously, so I didn't have my good camera with me. I found their prices fair, and even some beyond fair. the selection was awesome! You have to sort of "dig" to find what you're looking for. The plants weren't very clearly organized, but perennials starting at $3.99 a piece, and fairy garden plants at $1.99- well you can hardly beat that! They had a great selection of tropicals, annuals, veggies... beautiful gift shoppy stuff, and even succulents at fair and reasonable prices.

I came home with a green aeonium, nicotiana sylvestris, echinops, a light blue delphinium, and a ruby red helenium, and a handful of fairy garden plants, including a heart vine, creeping fig, and varigated baby tears.

I loved how the perennials were situated among a grove of trees.

I will be back for fairy garden stuff when my budget allows; the selection was unmatched, and the displays were inspiring! I took some pictures of the fairy gardens!

And this three tiered fountain was in the back of the store, by what seemed to be mostly shade plants but also had vines, hardy succulents, and these great arbors.

 I could have spent a LOT more time here, too. My kids and husband were waiting in the car!

Legoland Plants

Remember the Cecille Bruner roses (from my mom and grandma's garden) I brought in for the Easter table? Here they are. So perfect.

 So, while in California we brought my lego-loving boys to Legoland for the first time. None of us had ever been there, so it was a very fun trip for us. While in line for rides we enjoyed the succulent landscaping and lizards (unable to get a good picture). My son loves cacti and succulents and when he grows up he wants to live somewhere he can plant cacti in the ground. He loved this!

 I thought the way legoland incorporated legos into the landscape was super cool. There are trout made entirely of legos swimming through this water!

And a beaver:

 In the huge area dedicated to full reconstruction of towns I found the use of mini plants simply awesome. Look at these mini trees by the eiffel tower. Cool!

 Look at all these trees in "San Francisco!"

Las Vegas:

 Southern California:

 This farm land was awesome!

In the Star Wars area they used these conifers to create a woodland area. My kids loved this part!

What's more magical than a bunch of aeoniums?

 Or a tunnel of vines?

 Hansel and Gretel's story...

 Or my favorite? A castle topped with so many Cecille Bruner roses the scent just knocked my socks off.

Anyone would have to admit, without the plants, all the lego scenes wouldn't have been nearly as realistic, or cool. So very cool! I hope you enjoyed it!

The Amazing Gardens at Cambria Pines Lodge

My very favorite part of our recent vacation to California was our time back at Cambria Pines Lodge in Cambria, Ca. In December of 2002 this lodge was our second stop on our honeymoon, but I due to cold and rainy weather, and my being sick, I hardly had time to visit the gardens then. This time around, I was in the garden before my husband was finished checking us in.

This is the front porch of the main building on the property.

Here we are in front of our modest room. The duplex cabin-style rooms have fireplaces, and even in August's summer heat the night's cooled off into the upper 40's, so we had a fire. To get this shot I used the camera timer and propped it up on a porch chair. Behind the rail of the small porch area we had a giant lavendar bush practically climbing into the window of our room.

The best part of the gardens on the property, for me, was the miniature houses. I liked these so much I actually started my own at home. Cambria nursery, around the corner from the lodge, sells the components they use for these houses. I also noticed, on the nurseries website, they have a class where you can make one these coming up in early October this year.

This one was my favorite!




Another area of the garden had this beautiful Agave. I was captivated, and later brought home a similar one from my aunt's garden.

Aloe? Agave? I'm not that good at the arid climate plants, but no matter what it is, I like it!
These interesting colorful flowers were growing haphazardly around a hedge of arborvitae.


A beautiful living sculpture, don't you think?

My husband's favorite part was the secret garden:

One of the many alluring paths in the secret garden.


This fountain was inside the secret garden.



A perennial heaven, still inside the secret garden.


I don't know what these are, but I'm in love.


We found a nice bench for resting inside the secret garden, although I could barely sit down b/c of all the sights and smells around me. This area did feel relaxing, and secluded, and a bit magical.


After leaving the secret garden I turned a corner and found the rose garden!





This one was massive.

Outside of the rose garden the colorful borders had me mesmorized. I should add, if you eat at the restaurant at the lodge, you can actually sit out in an area of the garden. This mossy rock here was a trickling fountain.

I could not be happier.

Can you believe the color here? Surreal, and beautiful!

Cerinthe:

A nice colorful groundcover? Gazania?

More borders.

Mix of hollyhocks, cosmos, and rose of sharon.

Another spectacular part of the garden was this bedroom scene, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

The mirror is a fountain. Yes, this place was that cool!

After romping about town, wine tasting, sitting on the beach, and shopping (more to come on that, b/c the shopping in this town is fabulous), we went back to the lodge and took a walk with the wine we bought that day. The rooms came with wine glasses, and bottle openers. :)

Sipping wine in the secret garden:

My view from the bench:


How lovely is this?

Back to my favorite again:

I bought my mom some of these chocolate cosmos at the nursery:

One more walk through the rose garden.


This is the front porch of the main building. I loved the mix of bacopa and hardy geranium.

Look at the salvia, nemesia, and more...

On the path back to our room we found this bottle brush tree. I had these by my house when I was a kid, and I hadn't seen one up close in such a long time.

And the sunset from outside our room:

Hope you enjoyed my trip to the Cambria Pines Lodge gardens. More to come on my visit to the town of Cambria, and our trip back through Solvang on our way home.

Happy Gardening!