Hershey Children's Garden

The Hershey Children's garden, located in Hershey, Pennsylvania, is a great place for kids.  Hershey kiss misters greet you with a fine spray of water as you enter.  The garden features a tree house, a butterfly house, a caterpillar tunnel, and a Native American garden.

The garden is open daily from April 15 to late October.  It is also open on select dates in November and December.  Tickets are between $7.00 and $10.00. 

Giverney Water Garden

If you ever have the chance to be in Giverney, France, be sure to visit the famous gardens of artist, Claude Monet.  They are absolutely beautiful! 

Monet moved to Givery in 1883.  He began several gardens on his property, surrounding his home.   In 1893, Monet bought a piece of land next to his property.  He dug the first pond on that land. This pond became the famous Japanese water garden.  Later, it was enlarged to its present size.

The famous Japanese bridge is made of beech wood, and is covered with wisterias.  There are other bridges in the garden as well.  Weeping willows give a very restful feeling and gorgeous nympheas bloom all summer long. It is no wonder that Monet used this garden as the subject of his paintings!

The gardens are open from April 1 - November 1, from 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM.  Tickets are 8 euros.

The Alameda Garden

The Alameda Garden, in Gibraltar, was founded in 1816 by the governor of Gibraltar as a place of recreation for its residents.  The name "Alameda," is Spanish for "tree lined boulevard."  It covers an area of fifteen acres and displays a collection of plants from Mediterranean climates around the world.

 The park was once used as a graveyard, so if you visit, take the time to find and read the markers.

The garden is open from 8 AM until dusk.  Admission is free.

Keukenhof Gardens

If you love tulips and spring flowers, visit the Keukenhof Gardens near Amsterdam.  The gardens cover over seventy acres and are planted with nearly seven million spring flowers.

The gardens were the idea of the 1949 Mayor of Lisse.  He wanted to create an open-air flower exhibition to showcase Dutch bulb-growers' latest hybrids.  It is now the world's largest and most photographed flower garden.

If you want to see it, the best time to go is in April.  The gardens are located between the towns of Hillingom and Lisse.  The exhibition runs from the end of March to May.

Winter Jasmine

Since a lot of you are experiencing winter now, you might be missing the splash of color that flowers add. Winter jasmine are flowering vines that can fill the void in late winter or early spring.  Their one-inch diameter yellow blooms appear before the leaves emerge.  Winter jasmine can be gown in planting zones  6-10.  When unsupported, they reach four feet in height and about seven feet in width.  This makes them perfect for wooden arbors.  Winter jasmine can also be used as ground cover.  It works really well for landscaping slopes. Be sure to prune your winter jasmine in late spring after they have bloomed.

Preserving Your Christmas Poinsettias

Poinsettias are some of the prettiest flowers of the season.  If you're like me, you want to keep these beauties going for longer than a couple of months.  How do you preserve them so you can enjoy more than one season?  Here's what I do:  First, place the plant in a dry place.  I find that my garage works well.  Keep the soil damp, but cut back on the amount of water you give it.  In March, prune the poinsettia to about six inches above the ground and repot in a larger container.  Two inches wider in diameter usually works well.  When this is done, set the plant indoors, where it can receive full sun.  When the poinsettia starts to grow, fertilize it.  Your poinsettia will be blooming again in no time.

Creating a Winter Container Garden

You may think that winter is a time to put away your containers and forget about gardening.  That's not true.  Even though the weather might be cold outside, you can still create some eye-catching container gardens.

First, start with a container that won't crack in the cold weather.  Fiberglass, metal, concrete, or even hollow logs work well.  Don't use ceramics, terracota, or thin plastic. (The containers in the picture would not work for really cold temperatures, but in Georgia, where I live, they're fine.)

Choose plants and flowers that work well in colder weather.  Some ideas for flowers include winter pansies, violas, hellebores, and my favorites, cabbage and flowering kale.  The neat thing about the cabbage and kale is that the color intesifies, the colder it gets.  If you look at the purple cabbage above, you see what I mean.

For greenery, use annual grasses, new zealand flax, variegated yucca, dwarf deciduous hollies, and trailing ivy. You can also use evergreens.  Then, for a pretty effect, decorate with pinecones.

Water your container garden only when the soil is dry. 



I'd like to wish all of you a very Happy New Year!