A Fairy in the Garden

I have always loved whimsy.

I have always loved fanciful.... not fancy, per se, but fanciful enough to make every chipped-cup tea party seem like Buckingham Palace and every walk in the park to be a tread lightly on another planet.

I love that an overturned flowerpot becomes a fairy haven or a toad's shady home.  And because there isn't a lot of time, I've had to learn to develop gardens that need minimal work.... Using clever spacing, perennials and thick mulch has helped keep me from constant weeding... Oh, and hiring my friend Christina to come and do the spring spruce up because her freshman year at college folded in March.... and she's been home, working remotely with professors ever since. So I did cheat a little! :)

But she is totally worth it.

I love getting dirty. It doesn't bother me a bit. I love gardening, creating water ponds, funny stone sidewalks, cozy corners. And that love transfers itself into a wonderful backdrop for our September and October fall extravaganza or Pumpkinpalooza, whatever you want to call it!

But it all starts now, in the spring (that has finally arrived on 5/20/2020, and I'm not going to say what I thought about that, I'll just "huff" really loud!) :) The front mulch on this side of the sidewalk looks like a simple yard trim but it's really the base beneath one of our Orange Pumpkin displays each September as $3 and $4 pumpkins are stocked on pallets over the mulch. And in the far back left of this picture you can see the monster-sized wood rounds Dave cut.... how pretty will they be in someone's garden? Gorgeous!

And our fair Amanda has created little swinging bridges and staircases to aid and abet the fairies in their quest for cozy living.... With cozy homes provided by the efforts of palliated woodpeckers, who often have been known to give fairies a ride.

And there is always Lampost Lane if you're looking for a quiet well-lit street for a lovers' stroll....


Or stop by the Stars Hollow Hotel for your choice of rooms overlooking the gardens! :)

Now we need a sign: Fairies Welcome Here! :)

There are 255 tomatoes planted.... we'll see how they do... and yesterday a hundred bell peppers and classic eggplant joined that area where I can hand water mums, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and summer squashes..... It feels so good to be out there working, but I won't pretend there isn't some bone-achin' goin' on, LOL!

This is Dan and Zach..... we need some heavy lifters around here, too!

So that's what's going on here.... We're throwing together sandwiches a lot of the time, and the guys installed some new donkey fencing yesterday to give the donkeys more space.... and those donkeys are going to eat themselves silly....

It feels good to be springing ahead... to have something to do and get out of the house.

And to have folks stopping by and coming to work on this, that and the other thing!

That's it from WNY right now!

Ruth Logan Herne is busily writing and working in Western New York and so glad to hear birds singing, frogs croaking and peeping and to have this chance to live this thing called life! Visit her website ruthloganherne.com friend her on facebook, or email Ruthy at loganherne@gmail.com!

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, a Fairy Village, and Heirloom Tomatoes

Missy inspired me with her post last week from the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

When we were in Maine in early July, we took a day trip to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay Harbor.


The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is very different from what Missy showed and from what I'm used to in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. For starters, it's only been open for ten years. (Compare that to the for BBG which just celebrated the 100th anniversary of its Children's Garden.)

The CMBG is also a total grassroots organization. A group of local people got together in 1991 and decided Maine should have a botanical garden. They spent 16 years planning, fundraising, and building before opening in 2007. When we were there, they were under construction again as a huge expansion is in the works because it's been so successful.

The most noticeable difference, in my opinion, was in the types of plants. This is a garden devoted to the flora and fauna native to the area. You'll see from my photos that it's much more rustic.


There is a formal garden at the entrance, and a meditation garden near the water. You can take boat rides, or get a tour. We did it on foot.

Meditation Garden

They also had a section that completely enchanted me. It's called the Fairy House Village and children come and build their own fairy houses out of the natural materials. I took a ton of photos.

So, I've been on deadline and not cooking anything interesting. But the heirloom tomatoes have begun to appear at the farmer's market. There have been a lot of meals involving cheese, tomatoes and zucchini.

Simple but so good.