Garden Trip - Stops 2 & 3

The next stop was Wellfield Botanic Gardens in Elkhart

This garden was the original site that supplied drinking water for the community in the 1800's.

Now it supplies drinking water to fish, swans, geese, ducks, turtles and other wildlife.

The city is turning it into a beautiful garden for visitors.

It's open to the public and from what I can tell, it's free.

It doesn't take very long to walk through. About a half an hour.

And the paths are easy to walk and well laid out.

Yup, another quilt garden at Wellfield Botanic Gardens.

The next stop was Linton's Enchanted Gardens, and I have to tell you this was the most disappointing part of the trip. Not because of Linton's, but because they only gave us 20 minutes at this place! Are you kidding me?

Linton's is HUGE. I could have spent most of the day there. What you are looking at in these pics is a tiny portion of the gift shop! 20 minutes?

It took 20 minutes to get off the bus and stand in line for the restroom!

It's definitely worth a trip back up there just to go to Linton's.

This was taken from the bus as we drove by. It's part of the Enchanted garden. I didn't even get to go to greenhouse or the Enchanted garden.

The map for Linton's has 39 points of interest. I'll go back someday.

If you can only check out one website that I give you, check out this one. I am so ticked! They even had a petting zoo and I didn't know it!

Check it out at www.lintons.com

and check out Wellfield Botanic Gardens at

www.wellfieldgardens.org

Cindy Bee

Garden Trip - the First Stop

A couple of weeks ago my Dad, my Sister and I went on a day bus trip to some garden places in Northern Indiana. The first stop was an antique store and an old fashioned dime store.
If you look out the back door of the antique store, you see this quaint little garden surrounded by buildings.

I think old bricks make the best back drop for gardens. (Don't forget about my brick moving party btw) I love the way they used old tiles and chimney pots as planters and bird feeder stands. And the water feature in the middle is an added bonus in a garden.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures. We couldn't go in this garden, we were looking at it through a door.

Comfy benches to SIT ON add a nice touch.

Notice in the right hand corner, they used large pots, turned them upside down, and sat the smaller pots on top of the larger ones. It gives height to the garden, you can see the smaller plants behind the larger ones, and it give the illusion of the plant being bigger than what it is. (Do I sound like a garden tour guide? I made that all up by myself!)
Then we went to a candy store. They called it a Dime Store,

but they specialized in giant jelly beans,

and old-fashioned candies.

If you are around my age, 52, you'll remember these candies as kids.

Funny how things change so gradually that you don't even realize they're gone

until you see them in an old-fashioned candy store. I had to buy some of this gum.

I used to chew it all the time as a kid. Then use the pouch for something else when I was done with the gum. That's probably when my fiber (yarn, material) addiction actually started!

This part of the country is known as Amish Country and one of the garden tours they are known for is their quilt garden tour.

The dime store had a jelly bean quilt hanging on the wall.

We were not on the actual quilt garden tour, but since we were on a garden trip, we did get to see a few of the quilt gardens. I took this picture through the bus window because it looks more like a quilt when you are up higher looking down on it. The plants will fill out in another month and I'm sure it will look beautiful. There are 18 quilt gardens in the area.

For more info check out


http://www.quiltgardens.com/



and for the Wakarusa Dime store
http://www.jumbojellybeans.com/

or e-mail at
holly@jumbojellybeans.com
1-877-715-9821

And just fyi...this place is going to be sold at auction, in case you were looking for a new house. It used to be their farmers market barn.

I hope you enjoyed the first stop on our tour.

Cindy Bee

One More Thing...Happy Father's Day

The other thing I learned during Coffee Therapy the other day...

was that it took Pa Ingalls years to build his house for his family. Years. He never really completed it. According to RJ, Carrie slept on a make-shift bed downstairs and never did have a real bed or bedroom. And guess what? It's going to take years for us to build our house! What a surprise! We probably won't even move in for several months. I found that out tonight. My Shug told me. You know what? Whatev.....I'm tired of trying to put deadlines on the whole house thing. So guess what again? We get 'er done when we get 'er done. I feel better about it. It's freeing somehow. Screw self-inflicted deadlines!

And here's the other thing. I call my Dad, "Pa." I have for years. When I call him on the phone I say, "Pa?" I know it's him, but I say it anyway...I say, "Pa? Whadup?"

And guess what my Pa's first name is? Yup...Charles. I am not kidding.

The other day Pa, and my Sister and I went on a bus trip. An all day bus trip to gardens in Northern Indiana. I think I'll share a few of those pics with you. in my next few posts. But in the meantime.... this is a pic of my Pa...Charles

Happy Father's Day Pa.

Cindy Bee