Celebrating Public Gardens

The greatest gift of the garden

is the restoration of the senses.

by Hanna Rion

Today is National Public Gardens Day. It is an effort to raise awareness of the importance of wide open green spaces in the US. This day encourages us to seek out quiet beautiful getaways that give us a place to decompress from our daily living and spark ideas for garden planting. Many public gardens have advertised free vouchers or reduced admission fares that can be found in the newspaper or on the Internet. Since I am spending some time in northern Minnesota the search is rather bleak to spot a blooming garden due to the late arrival of Spring. So I went on a 5 mile walk in search of Spring as well as by car. This is what I can report

1. no visible snow

2. ice is off the lake and several loons safely returned from the South

3. teeny and I mean tiny buds are starting to appear on the trees

4. the deer have NOT discovered my rhubarb coming up (at least not yet)

5. the local bank in honor of this day were giving away a free flower to plant in your garden

6. the sun has been out for 3 and I mean 3 days in a row

I am posting a few photos taken the last 4 days. The ones with daffodils blooming were taken before I drove up north.

Hope you can take some time to explore your region in the next few looking for signs of Spring.

In my garden there is a large place for sentiment.

My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams.

The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers

and the dreams are as beautiful.

by Abram L. Urban

to view a larger image click on the photo