Good Morning America's Best Block in America

I just need to take a minute and toot my neighborhood's horn...

I am so excited - Good Morning America chose the winning block for their Best Block in America from the very neighborhood I live in!!!

My neighbors are an active, tight-knit group of people with a great sense of community and after the contest was brought to everyone's attention by Gina Seaton (hats off, neighbor!), many essay entries were submitted touting the reasons why this neighborhood is such a great place to live.

You can check out the article from last Tuesday's Daily Herald, here.

Tune in to Good Morning America this coming Thursday, July 1st, for a live view of a lively group of the great people who make up our very special community!

Janesville Rotary Botanical Gardens

I'm back in the garden again!!!

I have been on a bit of a garden hiatus since early April and missing the garden and all the parts of my gardening life, including this blog, desperately. 

Last week I had two events gently nudge me back to my senses (because to not be surrouded by all that is garden, for me, is insane!); a visit to the Janeville Rotary Gardens with my Garden Club (organized by our Field Trip Planner - thanks, Mom!), and an opportunity to do more design plans for a client's garden I'd very much enjoyed working on in the past.

So let me share a few photos from the Rotary Gardens...for information on the Gardens, please click here.

Love these pale pink and apricot hollyhocks with the mellow brick walls...so English, in the English Garden

More hollyhocks, this time with deep blue delphiniums and Orienpet lilies - I was loving this combination and will be repeating it in my own garden!

Another corner of the English Garden is home to this fun tuteur or obelisk with birdhouse topper.  And I couldn't take my eyes off of the mauve delphiniums paired with bright yellow achillea ('Coronation Gold', perhaps?) and blue Echium vulgare aka Viper's Bugloss- how 'bout that for an uncommon plant in the Midwest?!

Another view, here with the Echium and one of the many decorated flowers that will be auctioned off for charity after spending the summer in the gardens.

A Beatrix Potter moment

Beautiful waterlilies in the Italian Garden's Koi Pond

I love this design element in the Hosta Hollow

After looking all over for the tag for this woody plant I asked our tour guide, Art, for an id.  He said this is Acer campestre 'Carnival' and was recently highlighted on the site's blog, here. 

Love the horizontals and verticals in this garden...planted with ornamental edibles!

A relaxing view of the Japanese Bridge

This large expanse of lawn is bordered by a walkway with raised beds.  What a great design for a larger property!

Here is the shady side of the lawn pictured above, couldn't you spend some time relaxing here?!

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting and was very impressed by these gardens!  I hope you enjoyed my photo tour, please check out the site's blog - as we were winding up our tour last Tuesday our guide, Art Hilker, was asked to do a podcast tour of the entry garden by the blog's author and Director of Horticulture, Mark Dwyer!