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A Few Days in Philly

July 30th, 2019

Last week, Mr Chiots had to be in Philadelphia for work. Since he was headed there anyways, I decided to tag along and visit gardens. The greater Philadelphia area has tons of gardens to visit. I’ve been lucky to visit a few in the past, but there are so many there are always some on the list that I don’t have time to get to. This past week I was able to visit 3 different gardens each day for three days. The final day we spent at Longwood Gardens, a favorite that I try to visit every few years. (more on the gardens I visited later this week)


I actually purchased a membership to Longwood, it’s cheaper in the long run, especially if you plan on visiting more than once in a year. Since we wanted to see the fountain show, it was well worth it. We were able to make the fountain show on Saturday night, which had a Disney theme. One of the great benefits of hitting a show in the evening, is that you are able to see the night flowering water lillies.



The following day, we headed back to the gardens in the morning and spent most of the day walking around and enjoying a leisurly lunch in the restaurant on site. Longwood is always a feast for the eyes, it doesn’t matter when you go (though I’ve never been in the winter, hopefully this year). The long flower borders are stunning in spring with the tulips and equally stunning in high summer filled with a riot of flowers that graduate from dark purple on one end to white on the other.















There are always new plants to see and old favorites to savor. I’m always inspired with their plant combinations, color selection, and new plants to discover!

Do you have a favorite public garden to visit?

Verta Kloster

December 29th, 2016

As you can imagine, I’m still going through photos from our trip to Sweden. We didn’t plan a ton of activities while we were there, we enjoy winging it while we are on vacation. Stopping when we see something interesting, as was the case when we read about Vreta Kloster. Part of the foundations here are around a thousand years old – WOW! Vreta Abbey was a house of Benedictine nuns until 1162. It burnt down and was rebuilt hundreds of years ago, but as it aged some of it fell into disrepair. Some of the ruins have been repaired and preserved as is. Some of them have been turned into pergolas with walkways. It’s quite stunning!
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It was quite a gem of a place to discover on our drive from Stocklholm to Jönköping. The perfect stop to get out and stretch our legs while enjoying a piece of history. It’s always amazing to see things that are so much older than we can find here in this country.

Do you like to plan out your entire vacation or wing it and find things along the way?

Colorblock Gardens at Djurgården in Stockholm

December 12th, 2016

After spending the morning at Rosendals Trädgård (post 1 and post 2 about this lovely space), we decided to walk back to the old part of Stockholm and wander through the Djurgården, which we had heard was lovely. Indeed it was. Swedish parks and public spaces are lovely, they know how to plan things for maximum beauty and peace. We especially loved these color block gardens in one of the larger public park areas.
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If I remember correctly, there were four very large borders, each filled with plants/flowers in one color. The white and purple ones were my favorites, as my tastes in flowers definitely lean that direction.
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Generally, borders like this are a bit too much for my garden tastes, but these were perfect. The mix of flowers and plants were perfect, each bringing a certain texture to the garden. We certainly enjoyed wandering around noting each variety and what it brought to the mix.

What colors are your favorites in the garden? Do you tend towards hot colors like red, orange, and yellow? Or do you lean towards the more muted purples and whites?

Rosendals Trädgård – day 2

December 8th, 2016

I’m back today with more photos from Rosendals Trädgård in Stockholm. What I loved about this garden was the wonderful variety of edible space, open space, cutting garden, and enclosed garden spaces. They provide such a wonderful inspiration for a garden made of rooms. The huge edible garden space was quite impressive, it provides much of the vegetables needed in their cafe. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch while there, which was super convenient! All public gardens should have wonderful little cafes!
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So what do you think of this lovely garden? Any favorite things?

I’m Back, with A Lovely Garden

December 7th, 2016

I had great intentions of blogging while I was back in Ohio celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas with family, but things just got busy and I didn’t get around to it. I’m back in Maine for the week, then I travel back to Ohio for another week (if you’re wondering why so much travel, you probably missed this post). I’m still going through photos from our trip to Sweden, reliving all the wonderful gardens we visited. Which is perfect timing because we have a fresh blanket of snow covering the ground outside my winder.
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One of the lovely gardens we visited was Rosendals Trädgård in Stockholm. I won’t bore you with text since I took lots of photos and they show the beauty much better than I could write it.
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Check back tomorrow for more photos of this wonderful garden!

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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